Cutting Aluminium

[Iain_U1250]

Just want to make a recommendation to anyone thinking of building a camper and working with aluminium - get yourself a plasma cutter.

I am very impressed by my little e-bay special plasma cutter - when I did the roof sheets I used a thin grinder disc and wax like a lot of people recommended - it worked but was a slow and very noisy process - took about 40 minutes per sheet to cut 2.4m each and then I still had to file off the burrs and despite using a guide, it wasn't the straightest cut.

This morning I just cut out the front cladding sheets with the plasma cutter - about 7m of cutting in total - total time - around 10 minutes - and most of that was in setting up the heavy steel angle I used as a guide.

With the angle grinder - the sheet got to hot to touch, and I had to keep stopping for fear of distortion, with the plasma cutter, there is no heat build up at all - I can touch the edge seconds after cutting it and it is just warm. The smoothness of the finished cut is linked to how smooth you move you hand. For most of it, I don't even have to do anything to the edge, only where I hesitate do I have to file a slight bur off.

By the way, it also cuts steel - no problem with the 8mm plate I've been using.

 

[HenryJ]

I have had very good results using electric shears. You do lose a 1/4" piece as it cuts, but it leaves a very good clean edge.

I have cut probably miles of sheet aluminum with a set like those.

 

[off-roader]

Plasma cutter? :Wow1: Unless you're cutting thick aluminum (1/2"?) you should be fine with simple wood working tools. That's what I've done.

Circular saws, table saws, etc.:ylsmoke:

 

[goodtimes]

Plasma cutter? :Wow1: Unless you're cutting thick aluminum (1/2"?) you should be fine with simple wood working tools. That's what I've done.

Circular saws, table saws, etc.:ylsmoke:

. . . but those aren't nearly as cool as a plasma cutter.

:coffeedrink:

 

[Iain_U1250]

I tried saws, angle grinder etc - pardon the pun - they just don't cut it compared to the plasma cutter. Whilst I'm not saying it not possible to work with them, but a cheap $200 e-bay special plasma cutter is a whole lot better.

Try doing this with a circular saw :sombrero:

 

[nick disjunkt]

I too have a plasma cutter but I rarely use it for aluminium. I find that a decent jig saw with the right blade on produces a neater edge and is actually faster. I don't know whether it just me but I find it difficult to cut perfectly straight lines with the plasma cutter because however careful I am, the arc still wanders enough to ruin the edge.

I have a festool circular saw which a friend tells me is great for cuting ally sheet but I don't have the right blade and they're expensive here.

I only use the plasma cutter for thick steel sheet, it's more convenient than oxyacetalene and doesn't heat everything up so much.

 

[dustboy]

For cutting the .063 sheet for my shell, I cut all of the straight lines on the table saw with a cheap 60 tooth carbide blade. In most cases, aluminum can be cut with wood tools very effectively.

I also used a set of pneumatic shears for the other cuts. I hate cutting with a jigsaw, I try to avoid using it for wood or metal.

 

[nick disjunkt]

I actually hate jigsaws too. For cutting wood I would rather use a router for almost any task you can do with a jisaw. But for cutting ally sheet I was suprised how well the jisaw worked. I got a set of decent bosch blades and it was actually a joy to cut 3mm sheet . I just clamp a piece of box section to the sheet to use as a guide and the jigsaw just runs nice and straight. Ally is obviously much more homogenous than wood so the blade doesn't wander off when it hits density changes like it does in timber.

I have no doubt that my festool plunge saw would do the trick nicely too but with the cost of the blades I'm not really interested in finding out how quickly the ally blunts them.

Are shears what we call niblers here? I borrowed an air nibler off a friend a while back and remember it doing the job nicely. They have limited applications though unless you do a lot of ally shete cutting. The nibler I borrowed really didn't do too well in steel sheet except on thin car bodywork.

 

[ntsqd]

I've also used a Sawzall with a wood blade to cut aluminum. A little paraffin wax is a bonus, but not totally necessary.

 

[off-roader]

Iain,

Do you have a link to this ebay seller? I can certainly see a $200 plasma cutter being used for other things.

 

[dustboy]

Are shears what we call niblers here?

Nope, we have nibblers here too. Nibblers are good for curves as the tool is more of a reciprocating die-and-punch. Shears work like scissors, but there are two parallel cutters so it cuts out a 1/4" wide strip in the middle that curls out of your way.

 

[Iain_U1250]

I found no problem with the plasma getting a great edge - I used a 50x50x5mm length of steel as a guide, and just held the torch against it - as long as I kept a steady pace - the cut was around 1mm wide and very smooth. After each cut I had to clean the contact point, and every so often replace is as it got contaminated with the aluminium - but a set of 100 contact points, tip etc only cost a whole $30.

The "work of art" was just freehand on a scrap piece to show how easy it is to cut aluminium.

I bought this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-BOX-PLASMA-CUTTER-WELDER-/330435146957?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Welding&hash=item4cef7834cd

I too have a plasma cutter but I rarely use it for aluminium. I find that a decent jig saw with the right blade on produces a neater edge and is actually faster. I don't know whether it just me but I find it difficult to cut perfectly straight lines with the plasma cutter because however careful I am, the arc still wanders enough to ruin the edge.

I have a festool circular saw which a friend tells me is great for cuting ally sheet but I don't have the right blade and they're expensive here.

I only use the plasma cutter for thick steel sheet, it's more convenient than oxyacetalene and doesn't heat everything up so much.