"Bob May" wrote in message
...
Saws intended for wood cutting usually have way too high a cutting speed
for
doing metal work reliably. For occasional use with the caveat of it is
dangerous, you can do cutting of aluminum with carbide tools on
woodworking
machines.
If you can slow the blade speed down a lot, the aluminum cutting can be
better done. Unfortunately, the old belt drive saws are pretty much no
more
so it is a bit more difficult to slow down a blade to decent metalworking
speeds.
One of the big problems with the high speed is the impact of the tooth on
the metal which will eventually destroy the braze of the tooth to the disc
and when that fails, you will have all kinds of problems happening
starting
with tht tooth being imbedded in the cut and causing the work to be
rejected
from the saw in a rather rapid fashion if possible.

--
Bob May
Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink
less.
Works evevery time it is tried!



That is pretty much what I was concerned about. Looks like it is back to
plan 1 - buying a Horrible Fright 4x6 and trying to figure out where to put
it.

Thanks for the comments.

Fred

In article ,
says...
Saws intended for wood cutting usually have way too high a cutting speed for
doing metal work reliably. For occasional use with the caveat of it is
dangerous, you can do cutting of aluminum with carbide tools on woodworking
machines.

Industrial non-ferrous circular saws run at from 6000 to
14,000 SFPM. A 10" blade on a 3600 RPM saw is right in the
middle of that range. Here's an example:

http://www.kaltenbachusa.com/skl450.html

I cut aluminum plate up to 1" all the time on my 3HP uni-
saw with a Freud non-ferrous blade. I do clamp the plate to
a sliding board for security and increased accuracy, but
have never had the slightest problem.

Cutting steel on a table saw sounds scary, so I won't
comment on that. But whoda thunk you'd be able to cut steel
plate with a skil saw either?

Ned Simmons