wood bandsaw cutting aluminum?

[James Baker SD]

I need to make some small metal spacers to place over machine bolts (sort of very think washers--about 3/8" thick and they need to be exactly the same size). Can a Laguna woodworking bandsaw cut an aluminum tube that is about 1/2 inch in diameter with maybe a 3/16 inch hole in the center? If so, what blade would be best?

James

[John K Jordan]

James, although I have fairly complete metalworking capability including two metal-cutting bandsaws, I cut aluminum (and brass) occasionally on woodworking machines, from bandsaw to wood lathe to SCMS (works well with a carbide blade). Sometimes it's just more convenient.

Any blade should work but one with more teeth per inch might give you a smoother surface if that is important.

As with cutting anything round, I would be very careful to support the tubing properly. I made some wooden v-blocks for cutting small round things. Maybe rig some kind of clamp?

Any machine shop might do this quickly with a far cleaner cut, feeding the tube through the spindle and parting off one spacer after another. I have no idea how much it would cost.

JKJ

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

I use a table saw and cutoff sled for similar cuts all the time. Much cleaner than a bandsaw.

[Walter Plummer]

Here is an off the shelf option. You didn't say how many you needed or how precise they need to be. http://www.mcmaster.com/#unthreaded-spacers/=11tkai7

[Curt Harms]

I use a table saw and cutoff sled for similar cuts all the time. Much cleaner than a bandsaw.


This would be my vote too. Maybe spring for a non-ferrous metal cutting blade.

[Wade Lippman]

It is easy enough to cut aluminum; I might use a miter saw here.
But be prepared for a horrible mess. Instead of sawdust you get get aluminum shards.

[Dan Friedrichs]

I've cut similar aluminum on the table saw, miter saw, and bandsaw. I actually prefer the bandsaw - less messy. As Wade said, it makes a HUGE mess of aluminum flakes that go everywhere and you'll be vacuuming them up for the rest of your life.

[Brian Elfert]

I tried to use a Ryobi cordless miter saw to cut aluminum once and a number of carbide teeth broke loose. My theory is the battery powered saw just doesn't have enough power for aluminum. I have cut aluminum on my corded miter saw with carbide blade just fine.

The moral of my post is to not use cordless wood cutting tools to cut aluminum in most cases.

[James Baker SD]

I've cut aluminum T-channel on my miter saw and I did clean up flakes for months. As for the spacers, I've found what I need, in 1/16" increments on Amazon. Thanks.

[Brian Henderson]

It is easy enough to cut aluminum; I might use a miter saw here.
But be prepared for a horrible mess. Instead of sawdust you get get aluminum shards.

Not just aluminum shards, but hot aluminum shards. Sawdust doesn't hurt when it hits bare skin, hot metal does.

[John K Jordan]

Not just aluminum shards, but hot aluminum shards. Sawdust doesn't hurt when it hits bare skin, hot metal does.

There is another potential hazard of metal shavings in the shop that I never though of until I experienced. I was turning aluminum and brass on my wood lathe and making some beautiful, long thin strands around the lathe. The cleaned up easily enough.

However, a week or so later as I unplugged a cord in a wall outlet there was a loud flash and bang. A thin hair of brass had landed on top of the plug and waited patiently to fall into the gap during the unplugging and shorted across the 110v plug conductors. Needless to say, when making metal shavings I am more careful now, taping a paper shield over the receptacle!

BTW, some of my metal (and plastic) turning experiments, mostly using Thompson spindle gouges:

335076

JKJ

[Curt Harms]

I've cut similar aluminum on the table saw, miter saw, and bandsaw. I actually prefer the bandsaw - less messy. As Wade said, it makes a HUGE mess of aluminum flakes that go everywhere and you'll be vacuuming them up for the rest of your life.

That's another benefit of using a table saw, it contains the mess pretty well. I vacuum out the table saw then disconnect the dust collection. Use a shop vac to vacuum out the accumulated aluminum bits before reconnecting the dust collection. Free hand routing on the other hand ..... it works (lowest speed) but what a mess :eek:.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Don't have your dust collector running!! Hot aluminum shavings in a bag/barrel of wood shavings just waiting to combust is a BAD combination. DAMHIKT

[Jerome Stanek]

Don't have your dust collector running!! Hot aluminum shavings in a bag/barrel of wood shavings just waiting to combust is a BAD combination. DAMHIKT

Never had that problem as the aluminum never got hot enough the catch anything on fire.

[Steve Peterson]

I tried to use a Ryobi cordless miter saw to cut aluminum once and a number of carbide teeth broke loose. My theory is the battery powered saw just doesn't have enough power for aluminum. I have cut aluminum on my corded miter saw with carbide blade just fine.

The moral of my post is to not use cordless wood cutting tools to cut aluminum in most cases.

Carbide is much harder than aluminum and can easily cut it. However, cordless caw blades are often very thin and have very little brazing to hold the teeth in place. One tooth must have broke loose and the remainder broke when they hit the embedded tooth. A tablesaw blade with full size teeth should be much safer and you can even buy 10" carbide blades made specifically for non-ferrous metals.

Steve

[Kev Williams]

A fix for many of the issues mentioned is simple- oil the blade while cutting aluminum. Any oil will do, even vegetable oil. No hot shards, no pieces to end up in the light sockets, just a small pile of oily aluminum to clean up. And your blade will last a LOT longer.

[Charles Wiggins]

Any band saw should work fine for that, it's just a matter of using the right blade and whether you want to deal with cleaning the shavings out of your saw. You want a blade designed for cutting metal, with small teeth close together, like 14 tpi or more I would only bother with that if I had a large number of cuts to make, and I would use some sort of guide.

For tubing that small I would probably use a tubing cutter for plumbing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0GfldpuMs

Another option would be the good ol' hacksaw. If you need to control the cut, it has to be a perfect 90 degrees or something like that, drill a hole through a scrap of hardwood the diameter of your tubing and use your band saw to cut a kerf through the block at whatever angle you need, but don't cut all the way through. Clamp the block down and feed your tube through and use the kerf to guide the hacksaw blade.

If you need several of the same length, just make the kerf that distance from the end of the block and screw another scrap over the end of the hole so it can swing out of the way and let the cut piece drop out.