cutting aluminium sheet?

[mark williams]

Need to cut 2mm aluminium sheet. Iv got a bench knife which iv been using which does the job but can leave a bit of distortion. Iv been bidding on small guillotines but not yet won one.
Any other good methods that doesn't distort the sheet? Iv been looking at power saws with ally blade but I'm a bit in the dark. Advice please guys!

 

[BrokenBiker]

i use a 1mm slitting disc in an angle grinder. goes through it like butter and little to no heat build up at all

 

[Richard.]

Plasma?

 

[HMB]

Messy

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Are you cutting straight lines or intricate shapes?
I cut a fair amount of 1.6mm ally sheet. For intricate shapes I tend to rough it out with an air nibbler and finish to the line with either bench shears/hand shears for shallow curves and a jigsaw for tight curves.
For straight cuts I use a 1mm disc and a guide.
I don't bother with the plasma, too messy and not accurate enough.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

If I had the room in the workshop I would invest in a guillotine for the straight cuts and breaking down sheets, maybe in the new workshop.

 

[Richard.]

Messy

Depends on the guy holding the torch and the quality of the cutter itself. Done properly it can be a very tidy cut.

 

[optima21]

I did get a 110mm diameter circular saw for cutting sheet metal for £30 from aldi. I think they dont make them any more though. they cut through 3mm steel sheet easily enough, but they are very noisy

 

[hotrodder]

3 bladed aka slitting shear. Googling Makita JS1660 (replaced by the 1601 IIRC) will get you pics of what they look like (and some vids), they cut a 4ish mm wide strip out leaving zero distortion on either side and are easier to use for straight cuts/breaking down full sheets than two bladed types which can distort the waste side. The penalty for this is that they don't like cutting curves, they will but nowhere near as tight a radius as two bladed types. Nibblers will do even tighter radii but suck at properly straight lines and the little crescents they leave everywhere drive most people insane

3 bladed shears exist as manually operated bench types (Gabro), cordless and corded leccy, air powered and even hand shears. From what i've seen of the cheap machinefart/clarke air powered ones they're barely more useful than a chocolate teapot. The 'daddy' of the leccy ones are made by Trumpf but you don't want to know what they cost. The Trumpf (and maybe Fein?) ones include a trimmer for cutting the waste strip which is a big bonus for interupted cuts... without this the tool gets tangled up in it's own waste if you don't knock a hole first and cut to that for inside corners. In the middle are things like the Makita which are typicially rated for 1.6mm low carbon, 2.5mm ally & 0.8ish stainless/harder carbon steels

A plasma is the very last thing i'd want to use on thin ally sheet personally. I'd rather do it the hard way by hand with tinners snips or even use a jigsaw and some sacrificial ply!! The softer flavours of ally don't machine nicely (gummy, tear, burrs, smear & weld to the tool etc) which is one of the reasons why i wouldn't want to use a circular saw. The main one is they throw chips everywhere. Leccy shears are fast, fairly quiet, don't make a mess and at most the only clean up is a quick run over with a deburring tool

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Just use a jigsaw

 

[langy]

Plasma?

Thats what I use Richard, I get excellent clean cuts but you need to move fast

This is cut with a Cut50 and finished smooth with 80 grit

 

[Richard.]

Thats what I use Richard, I get excellent clean cuts but you need to move fast

This is cut with a Cut50 and finished smooth with 80 grit

That looks lovely Ste.

 

[ronan]

Is that cnc cut langy or freehand ?

 

[pondy]

I had to cut some large sheets of 3mm before, started with a 110mm angle grinder but it died with smoke coming out (don't think it was the sheet, just had a lot of use), only other thing I had was a jigsaw, didn't know what to expect but it did the job fine

 

[langy]

Is that cnc cut langy or freehand ?

Cut by following bits of shaped 3mm ply

 

[langy]

That looks lovely Ste.

Finished pic & seat pic, its all in my thread Rich

 

[Richard.]

Finished pic & seat pic, its all in my thread Rich

Very very tidy Steve.

 

[ronan]

Cut by following bits of shaped 3mm ply

Good thinking batman.

 

[ukracer]

That looks lovely Ste.

If I could do work like that I would wet myself...lol

 

[ukracer]

Need to cut 2mm aluminium sheet. Iv got a bench knife which iv been using which does the job but can leave a bit of distortion. Iv been bidding on small guillotines but not yet won one.
Any other good methods that doesn't distort the sheet? Iv been looking at power saws with ally blade but I'm a bit in the dark. Advice please guys!

How big parts do you need to cut out?