Fish On
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
- Location
- Foley, Alabama
We're regularly miter cutting these two proprietary extrusions, to make 4 sided frames. Extrusions are roughly 2 1/4" wide as, and 1.5 and 1.875" tall, with all .090" wall thickness. 6063 alloy.
Mitered in this configuration to make 4 side frames, with horizontal flange out. Pieces will vary from about 7" up to about 72".
Currently been using a cheap import 5x6" mitering bandsaw. It works, but it's slow and the saw is starting to frustrate me (it's getting tougher to align everything where it doesn't throw blades or break them - used to not be a problem).
I just went out and did a couple test cuts, and it seems it's taking 26 - 28 seconds to cut the simpler extrusion - that's from turn the saw on until the scrap drops - not counting clamping or anything. Not enough time to do something else, but enough that it seems like cutting these things takes forever. It will cut faster, but I've found that if we speed the feed up, the cut potentially starts to wander, and it messes me up during assembly.
I've always been somewhat afraid to cut these on anything other than a bandsaw, with the thin flanges. I cut plenty of aluminum on a generic woodworking miter saw, but stuff with thin flanges (especially miters), always goes to the bandsaw.
I've briefly thought about a non ferrous cold saw, but have been concerned that the high speed would still be a grabbing concern with the thin flanges. As such, I've been planning on just upgrading to a beefier bandsaw in the somewhat near future. Something that I can put a 3/4 or 1" blade on, and feed at a speed more appropriate to the material being cut, but that's a fair bit of cost and floor space for a tiny aluminum extrusion.
For the sake of being thorough, would a generic ferrous cutting cold saw (Scotchman Bewo or equivalent) be suitable, if set to the 88 or 90 rpm range? I've always heard that it will cut very slow, but we're coming from 28 seconds a cut here. Would the slow speed lessen the likelihood of the flanges catching? I ran across a couple videos this morning of aluminum solids being cut on a ferrous metal cold saw, and the cut speeds seemed remarkably promising.
Mitered in this configuration to make 4 side frames, with horizontal flange out. Pieces will vary from about 7" up to about 72".
Currently been using a cheap import 5x6" mitering bandsaw. It works, but it's slow and the saw is starting to frustrate me (it's getting tougher to align everything where it doesn't throw blades or break them - used to not be a problem).
I just went out and did a couple test cuts, and it seems it's taking 26 - 28 seconds to cut the simpler extrusion - that's from turn the saw on until the scrap drops - not counting clamping or anything. Not enough time to do something else, but enough that it seems like cutting these things takes forever. It will cut faster, but I've found that if we speed the feed up, the cut potentially starts to wander, and it messes me up during assembly.
I've always been somewhat afraid to cut these on anything other than a bandsaw, with the thin flanges. I cut plenty of aluminum on a generic woodworking miter saw, but stuff with thin flanges (especially miters), always goes to the bandsaw.
I've briefly thought about a non ferrous cold saw, but have been concerned that the high speed would still be a grabbing concern with the thin flanges. As such, I've been planning on just upgrading to a beefier bandsaw in the somewhat near future. Something that I can put a 3/4 or 1" blade on, and feed at a speed more appropriate to the material being cut, but that's a fair bit of cost and floor space for a tiny aluminum extrusion.
For the sake of being thorough, would a generic ferrous cutting cold saw (Scotchman Bewo or equivalent) be suitable, if set to the 88 or 90 rpm range? I've always heard that it will cut very slow, but we're coming from 28 seconds a cut here. Would the slow speed lessen the likelihood of the flanges catching? I ran across a couple videos this morning of aluminum solids being cut on a ferrous metal cold saw, and the cut speeds seemed remarkably promising.