Cutting Cast Aluminium

[rapapa]

I want to cut some round housing into 5cm wide slices and want to know if I need a special blade or will an ordinary metal drop saw blade do the job? I assume its aluminium because a magnet wont attach. The diameter of the housing is about 15cm and about 4mm thick.
Thanks

http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/a455/raff-o-rama/P1280981.jpg

http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/a455/raff-o-rama/P1280980-1.jpg

[kraits]

a drop saw will do it but it will be messy, depends on what you want. personally i would be looking at a power hacksaw or a band saw, (are power hack saws still around?) . if you think your good, give it a go with a hacksaw, work your way around, might work out ok.

[Bryan]

I want to cut some round housing into 5cm wide slices and want to know if I need a special blade or will an ordinary metal drop saw blade do the job?


Danger Will Robinson. If by drop saw you mean friction saw, I wouldn't cut ally with it. I have been told aluminium can cause friction wheels to catastrophically fail. Explode that is. Can anyone confirm or deny?

[Dave J]

I agree with Bryan about using a friction saw, ans I have heard something like that.
It could also be cut with a jig saw with a fine blade.

Dave

[kraits]

if you use a friction saw just get it up to speed and give the disc a few taps with a peice of flat bar, create a rough cutting edge and it will be fine, courage willow.

[zuffen]

Personally I've cut heaps of alloy with my drop saw.

It doesn't make the prettiest cut but it hasn't exploded in 6 years of use. Either I'm lucky or we have an urban myth here.

Sounds like a job for Mythbusters.

[Dave J]

LOL

Dave

[NCArcher]

I have a negative rake blade on my mitre saw that I use to cut aluminium. Works great. You could rotate the housing against a stop to cut all the way through.

[Jekyll and Hyde]

Not quite a friction saw, but I use 1mm cut off wheels on the angle grinder on aluminium all the time, haven't had any kerplosions? I do always rub a candle on both sides of the disc though, as the wax stops the aluminium building up on the disc, and makes for a much faster cut. This trick also makes aluminium much easier to cut if you're hacksawing a piece off....

[jhovel]

My son in law and I have used a woodworking bandsaw quite a few times to cut aluminium castings. I'm sure it would evenutally to the saw blade no good at all but a few cuts on somethigng that thin won;t bother it at all. I've cut 20mm thick plate on his wood bandsaw.
Please no-one here call me a heretic - or ban me from the forum! PLEASE!

[nadroj]

Holding that big extrusion might be a problem, but for small aluminium stuff my wood cutting compound saw with carbide teeth works great.
I've also occasionally used woodworking bandsaws on aluminium.

Jordan

[Dave J]

My son in law and I have used a woodworking bandsaw quite a few times to cut aluminium castings. I'm sure it would evenutally to the saw blade no good at all but a few cuts on somethigng that thin won;t bother it at all. I've cut 20mm thick plate on his wood bandsaw.
Please no-one here call me a heretic - or ban me from the forum! PLEASE!

LOL
No another good idea.
I remember when I was about 15 and converting a radio control car to petrol with a plane engine. I went down to my grandfathers to have some slots cut in a block of aluminium that I had bought as a head sink. He fitted a metal blade and the time it took just to cut a small bit we gave up.

Looking back now we should have just used a wood blade as you have and it would have gone so much quicker.

I moved out here not long after and met Reg Ingold and he built me a new head and fly wheel to his design on his lathe and mill. Machining was new to me back then, and he turned a piece of aluminium block something I never dreamed of being so good. I still have it in the shed to this day.
Reg's site
Reg Ingold's Home Page (http://www.oldengine.org/members/randmingold/)

Dave

[festy_]

I have cut Aluminium with a friction saw before, and that disc did explode some time later.
Coincidence or not - I don't know, but when one of these discs lets go mid cut it's pretty scary.

If I need to cut thick Al castings, I use Al cutoff wheels in a small grinder. They don't last long (1 disc does about 3m in 3mm Al from memory) but they do a half decent job and are quick enough.

[Hunch]

Frequently do bellhousings with a much larger diameter, thicknesses typically, pretty much the same. To get an accurate cut, method I use at least, slitting saw in the mill, rotary table, then a quick facing operation.

[Stustoys]

I must be feeling picky this morning.
I doubt that that part is cast, looks like extrusion to me.
Not that it really makes much difference.

Stuart

[Dave J]

I agree, it looks similar to the machine light housings you buy from H&F's and the cameras housings I just bought only bigger.

Dave