I have cut a lot of aluminum up to 5/8" thick with 40 tooth circular saw
blades on standard circular saws. They work perfect for a while but then
eventually the carbide tips break off and the steel that held the tip ends
up bending.
"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
I'm seeing some conflicting information on the right blade to use for
cutting aluminum.....mayvbe you can help.
I know carbide would be best but this is a small quantity of .050 (5052)
aluminum that I need to cut on my table saw with a 10" blade, so I'd
prefer
just getting a steel blade for one time? use.
However, I'm seeing conflicting info like.....
**72 tooth with a wax stick is best.
**Never use a wax stick because clogging is the last thing you
want.......use WD40 instead.
**I've seen "aluminum" cutting blades with as few as 72 teeth and as
many as
150 teeth. (For example, Mcmaster carr's blade is 150 tooth).
Anyone actually done this on a table saw and can reccomend EXACTLY what
I
need?
I'm not sure I can tell you exactly what you need, but I've
cut lots of plate, up to 1", on a 3HP Unisaw. Also plenty
of 80-20 and Item framing on a chop saw. I use a Freud non-
ferrous blade. This is the one, I think...
http://www.toolmarts.com/lu89m009.html
For thin material a blade with more teeth would likely be
better. There are more choices here...
http://www.toolmarts.com/nonferrous.html
I've always used stick wax with excellent results and no
problems with clogging. The page above warns against wax,
but that's the first time I've seen that. It may be the
safety weenies worrying about applying wax to a spinning
blade. You might want to try both wax and liquid.
The ATB blades seem to push the work around more than a
typical woodworking combo blade, so I clamp the stock to a
sliding board in the table saw. It's much safer and the
cuts are more acccurate with a better finish.
Ned Simmons
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