Otto Nobedder wrote:I like a plain 'ol circular saw with a 40 tooth carbide blade. A fence helps with straightness.
Steve S
G'day Steve , i like that idea , does it have to be a an ally blade or can it be a wood carbide tipped blade with 40 or more teeth used with some lube . I think i seen something like that on Youtube somewhere ? Cheers
I just use a good quality carbide-tipped blade for cutting plywood/paneling, around 40 tooth is a good cut quality at a good cut speed.
xryan mentions zero-degree rake; The importance of this increases with material thickness. In 1,5mm and under, almost any configuration will do. It is noisy, and you do need good protection from flying chips.
The last blade I dulled doing this lasted at least 80m of cut in thicknesses varying 2,3mm through 12mm.
Heres how I cut aluminum. Draw the cut file, load the material, nest as many parts as I need, push the start button...then go do something else while the parts cut.
I have done the circular saw route, with a 'sharp' fine tooth plywood blade. I put the blade on backwards, it chips off material rather than cutting, works for me, , , ,
The main difference of an aluminum cutting blade is that it has a ZERO or Negative rake to keep chips from building up in it. I have also used my Makita 6 1/2" cordless circular saw to cut aluminum using a narrow kerf carbide wood blade. It spins much slower than a plug in saw so it doesn't melt the aluminum but just cuts it.
Aluminium cutting with a saw calls for a negative rake tooth. Wood blades have a positive rake. This is done to keep the blade from grabbing the work piece. A positive rake blade can be used but it is not as safe as a negative rake.
What about a throttles shear? We used to use those in the Airforce (a while back for me) but they did a good job of cutting straight and contoured cuts. Not as fast as a saw but you'll only get straight cuts with a circular saw.