Cutting Aluminum on the Home Shop Table Saw.

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Bill Gruby

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This is a Safety Issue that Admin and the Moderation Team feel needs to be discussed in depth. I was PM'd by L. Barlow and one comment he made stood out. "It is probably more dangerous not to discuss it." With that said I open the floor to comments for and against this practice. This in no way infers that we here at HM are going to change our position on what is safe and what is not. We will never condone the use of a machine for something it was not intended to do. Your safety is our primary concern here.

It will be OK to disagree here as long as it is done in a civil manner. If you post, make sure it is exactly what you wish to say before you post it. A good idea here is to preview your post before you post it. We would especially like to hear from those that do this on a regular basis. I think that should cover what we are looking for, now it is yours to discuss.

Thank you;

Admin and the Moderation Team.
 
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A belt drive table saw can be easily and cheapley moded to do nice work on aluminum plate and sheat metal. Swap the pullys or motor to slow the blade down and use a 64th bimetal blade. But yes a tablesaw weather cutting wood or matel does require more care. Just be safe. And never push with your hands weather cutting wood or meatle.
 
I would never try it myself I don't even like using them to cut wood though. I feel safe using any proper metal cutting tool but the thought of an aluminum plate kicking back makes it seem too much of a risk. I can't imagine aluminum chips are good for the saw either.
 
I do it all the time, a good sharp carbide blade goes thru alum like butter. some care and no haste helps too.
 
I have a question. "If you were cutting .500 Aluminum Plate do you do it in one pass?

"Billy G"
 
If I had any sheet aluminum to cut I'd consider modifying my radial arm saw by adding a leadscrew feed and installing a small diameter bimetal blade. The advantage is that the work can be clamped to the table. The leadscrew drive would be necessary to prevent autofeeding (it would be useful sometimes with wood).
 
IMO this thread is a good idea. Just saying 'DO NOT DO IT, IT IS DANGEROUS'... is like telling a kid to stay off the grass... we know what will happen.
Better IMO to discuss openly the pro's and con's... so the 'adventurous' folks will understand what they are getting into. <grin>

Most table-saws I have seen, were designed to cut wood. A table saw, un-like a lathe or mill, cuts with repeated gouging actions-rather than a smooth slice... This causes vibration, as cutting metal does in a machine tool. So again, beefy metal and a motor sized for the load, determines the ability to make the cut.

Having said this... IMO one 'can' cut aluminum in a table saw... however it is a much more dangerous operation than cutting wood, which is already a dangerous operation due to the blade and table.

Here are a few few safety tips, albeit by no means a thorough list (always read the tool manufacturer instructions before using the tool):
*Remove all jewelry, loose clothing, roll up your sleeves, etc... see next item:
*NEVER get anything close the blade, other than the part to be cut and the 'push shoe' (a scrap used to push the part cut through the table).
*NEVER remove the blade guard. One of the purposes of that guard is to help avoid 'kick back'... which is a situation where the blade snags the work and slings it back at the operator... and with SIGNIFICANT FORCE. Which leads to:
*DO NOT force a cut in a table saw. Whether you are cutting a 2x4, hard woods, or getting adventurous with aluminum, do NOT force the cut. Allow the saw to chew away at the rate it is comfortable.
*ALWAYS have a sharp blade, with enough teeth to do a proper cut. This means 3-4 teeth minimum in contact with the work at any given time. Note this is almost impossible cutting thin aluminum sheet stock in a table saw... so here is a limitation to the effectiveness of expecting to use a table saw to cut aluminum.

I am sure there are lots more safety points I have missed... just thought I would throw out a few to start the discussion going.

In closing... if it were me, I would find another method, rather than a big-box store table saw.
Just my $0.02 worth... :)
 
I have used my workmate (table saw amongst other uses) to cut ally plate from 6mm up to 50 mm.
If the blade has heaps of teeth and is sharp it cuts smooth and fast.
The fine flat chips fly everywhere and I mean every where.
The thickest I tried to cut was a stainless bowl filled with cast ally. I only got halfway through with that one.
Today I used a hand held jig saw to cut 10mm ally plate, again the chips get everywhere.
Plenty of wd40 as lube, not a tidy cut but only took 6 mins to cut an octogon of 130mm dia.
For thinner than 6mm I like using the jig saw clamped in the vice upside down and sliding the material to the blade. Its surprisingly rigid and controlable.
 
i need to say, i followed the suggestion and cut 4 parts using my antique Craftsman horz. vertical bandsaw. i have to say, even a one eyed dude can cut pretty straight if the line is wide enough and dark enough.
thinking about the noise and those dang shavings getting all over the wood shop was only a couple reasons i choose to not use the table saw... i believe it would work great if you had a blade that was for that. . . . i have a steelmax skil type saw that is scarey as heck to used, even with all precautions. . . but its results are really great for thicker things than sheetmetal.
with a many toothed carbide blade, like maybe 100 teeth, on a table saw, running at about half speed with the blade exposure set quite high, would this not be very similar to a "cold cut saw" ? ? ? i would not go thru all the trouble to do that but im curious as to why it would or wouldn;t work. . . however,
caution, caution, caution. always consider the outcome prior to attempting something you have not experienced. . . "the worst thing that could happen if i. . . . . "
i will post some pictures of the project if they turn out ok. . . . . and thanks for the concerns.
davidh, the old guy.
 
I used to be from the 'don't do it' camp. I had been taught from basic shop class on (when they had such things) that you only cut wood on a table saw... then along came affordable plastics and carbide and all that. The naysayers should take a trip on down to the local big box home improvement store. Most of them will stock a saw blade for non-ferrous metal. The manufacturers seem to think that you can spin that blade up and safely cut non-ferrous metal with it. I don't see ads on cable TV by lawyers looking to sue the manufacturer for the damages from the use of such a manifestly dangerous item, so a bit of logic would probably lead us to believe that it can be done safely.

Many years ago when I worked for a large test&measurement corporation, I needed to make a fairly long cut in some 1/4-3/8 aluminum I was making a test fixture bracket out of. I don't remember the exact thickness any more. The band saw in the engineering shop was buggered up, as usual. I took the aluminum next door to the model/machine shop, told one of the machinists what I wanted to do, and asked what they used to cut the stock. He said that he'd do it for me, fired up the table saw and cut it. I was flabbergasted. I asked him if he did that often. He gave me one of those those 'dumb engineer' looks and asked what I thought they had a table saw for? He must have been right about what he was doing. OSHA and WISHA never cited the company for that 'unsafe' practice... and I'm sure that if you were to drag out the archived ISO9002 documentation, that the practice is enshrined there. Certainly the practice is not safe if done haphazardly, but most of our machinery is like that.
 
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