Best Way to Cut Aluminum

[jamil mehdi]

You are going to want a blade with a negative hook angle, 80/20 is pretty tough cutting

This!

The danger of a wood blade is that it can catch the aluminum and send it flying. Most wood blades have a rake angle between 10 and 20 degrees. Blades for cutting aluminum are usually around -3 degrees.

[Dan Gaylin]

An easy safe way to cut thick aluminum that doesn’t require an expensive blade is to use a jigsaw with an aluminum or thick metal blade. Bosch and Lenox make some. Lenox might be the better choice. Needs to be a good, powerful jigsaw. The cut won’t be be super clean but you can easily smooth it out with a file or a sander. I have cut thick aluminum on my bandsaw but it does take a toll on the blade. The jigsaw blades are cheap. As others have mentioned, cutting fluid is important. I prefer using a dedicated product like tap magic, which costs about $4.00 a bottle.

[John Ziebron]

I have cut a fair amount of aluminum on my miter saw over the years. Never used any lubricant. I just use the carbide tipped blade I have installed at the time and I always have a high tooth count blade (like 90) installed. If you have a means of clamping the stock in place that would be safer although I generally don't. I think the real trick is the speed at which you plunge into the stock. Something like that chunk of 80/20 is more dense than say a small piece of angle. For your cut I would recommend a plunge speed at least twice as slow as if you were cutting the same dimension piece of hard maple.