My parents got me a nice Dewalt 715 compound miter saw and a real aluminum-cutting 12″ 96 carbide tooth sawblade for Christmas. I decided to put this to use cutting the wing attach blocks which are cut from a 1″x1.25″ block of solid aluminum. I figure if the saw will cut this it will cut anything. Also, there is a 3/16″ beveled edge that had been worrying me as I have not previously had much luck with my band saw (I was tempted to do this bevel with the compound miter saw, but could not think of a simple, safe, and accurate way of making the cut).
A lot of builders seem to recommend using a wood-cutting blade on the bandsaw to cut aluminum, but I couldn’t tell if this recommendation is just to save some money or is because a wood-cutting blade is actually desirable. My experience has been wood-cutting and metal-cutting blades are priced similarly at Lowes, but the selection of blades that fit my saw is small. The woodcutting blade I tried had a kerf that is about 10x wider than the actual metal of the blade and seemed to be gouging its way through the metal causing a ton of vibration, leaving a terribly ragged cut, and cutting much slower than I believe a blade with a smaller kerf would have. Unfortunately the kerf width is not labeled on the packaging, so you can only eyeball it. I decided to try a metal cutting blade and haven’t looked back since–the cuts have been fantastic.
Here I have tilted the bandsaw table 45 degrees and set the fence for a 3/16 inch bevel. The desired cut path is drawn in using a black sharpie. The cut went great even though I was initially worried the blade might drift and there would be little I could do to correct for it with the fence in the way.
Here is a part after being cut to size on the miter saw and beveled with the bandsaw.
Before making these exciting cuts I cut a bunch of aluminum angle to size for various parts.
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