cutting aluminium sheet?

[ukracer]

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

Can you link to your thread please...been struggling to find it.

 

[mark williams]

It's just for cutting up a 2x1m sheet. Can do finishing cuts on bench knife but the bench knife does distort one side of the sheet when trying to cut in half. It's doable but would like a easier quicker option before I manage to buy a foot guillotine.

 

[mark williams]

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

That looks like what I need. What are the makITa ones like. There is a company local to me selling them.
What make are the air ones
Straight line cuts are what I want it for mainly.

 

[roofman]

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

yep held against a clamped fence and the torch head a constant angle ive made cuts that look like they have been sliced..and ime no expert too

 

[langy]

Can you link to your thread please...been struggling to find it.

Its in projects, automotive bud http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/...er-build-this-time-a-willys-shop-truck.50295/

 

[langy]

yep held against a clamped fence and the torch head a constant angle ive made cuts that look like they have been sliced..and ime no expert too

Exactly, gotta be quick though

 

[ukracer]

It's just for cutting up a 2x1m sheet. Can do finishing cuts on bench knife but the bench knife does distort one side of the sheet when trying to cut in half. It's doable but would like a easier quicker option before I manage to buy a foot guillotine.

I cut a lot bigger than that on my circular saw bench. .....TCT blade.

If I was going to test it on the cheap. I would get a cheap circular saw off tool station and bolt it to some plywood upside down. Temp fence out of some batoning and see if it does what you need.

Improve on it later if it needs it.

 

[langy]

Hmmm apparently due to a pm message i just received you can't get cuts as good as my picture shows, I didn't realize !!!

 

[ukracer]

Hmmm apparently due to a pm message i just received you can't get cuts as good as my picture shows, I didn't realize !!!

I am guessing if you don't have your skills that might be correct. ....ROTFLMAO

 

[langy]

I am guessing if you don't have your skills that might be correct. ....ROTFLMAO

I reckon after a bit of practise anyone can produce good cuts bud, it's not hard

 

[hotrodder]

That looks like what I need. What are the makITa ones like. There is a company local to me selling them.
What make are the air ones
Straight line cuts are what I want it for mainly.

The Makita is pretty good, my js1660 is on it's second set of brushes and has cut a lot of 2mm ally. I could really do with replacing the spring steel widget that curls the strip up as after doing a load of 0.9mm 304 stainless it doesn't curl the strip as tightly so it occasionally tries to get tangled in it's own waste. I doubt blade life would be great with a steady diet of stainless either. With aluminium they'll last for eons. Blade gap (for different thicknesses) is easy and quick to adjust & they're supplied with 3 feeler gauges for this purpose
It's not even close to the same league as a Trumpf* but then they cost £500 and up!! Won't be an issue for continuous straight cuts but like i said you need to drill a hole and cut to that if you want to cut a square or rectangle etc out of a larger sheet instead of cutting a strip off first
Straightness of cut is down to the user but they can be run along a straightedge although IMO it's still easier to cut straighter with a throatless or regular bench shear when the waste side is actually waste so distorting it doesn't matter

Various brands of air powered slitting shears about from cheapnese tat through to Chicago Pneumatic etc. The only ones i've used are a mates Clarke toys which are fairly pants even with 0.8mm CR4 mild steel

Dunno which numpty told Langy he was telling porkies but FWIW the reason plasma is at the bottom of my list for cutting thin ally sheet has nothing to do with neatness of cut... plasma cut edges have a HAZ and PMZ (partially melted zone) and with ally, especially the heat treatable flavours, intergranular cracking is likely and the corrosion resistance of some flavours is locally messed up unless the HAZ is then mechanically removed. Without a 'proper' inert or mix of inert/reducing assist gas edges are oxidised whereas sheared edges are ready to weld (obviously not an issue with the example Langy posted). Shearing is also less messy and produces zero fume. For exactly the same reasons i'd rather use shears and punches most of the time when working with thin stainless sheet too

* built in chip trimmer, can get tightish radius cutting blades (also not cheap), smaller and lower cutting speed (more controllable), bigger cutting capacity etc

 

[Richard.]

The Makita is pretty good, my js1660 is on it's second set of brushes and has cut a lot of 2mm ally. I could really do with replacing the spring steel widget that curls the strip up as after doing a load of 0.9mm 304 stainless it doesn't curl the strip as tightly so it occasionally tries to get tangled in it's own waste. I doubt blade life would be great with a steady diet of stainless either. With aluminium they'll last for eons. Blade gap (for different thicknesses) is easy and quick to adjust & they're supplied with 3 feeler gauges for this purpose
It's not even close to the same league as a Trumpf* but then they cost £500 and up!! Won't be an issue for continuous straight cuts but like i said you need to drill a hole and cut to that if you want to cut a square or rectangle etc out of a larger sheet instead of cutting a strip off first
Straightness of cut is down to the user but they can be run along a straightedge although IMO it's still easier to cut straighter with a throatless or regular bench shear when the waste side is actually waste so distorting it doesn't matter

Various brands of air powered slitting shears about from cheapnese tat through to Chicago Pneumatic etc. The only ones i've used are a mates Clarke toys which are fairly pants even with 0.8mm CR4 mild steel

Dunno which numpty told Langy he was telling porkies but FWIW the reason plasma is at the bottom of my list for cutting thin ally sheet has nothing to do with neatness of cut... plasma cut edges have a HAZ and PMZ (partially melted zone) and with ally, especially the heat treatable flavours, intergranular cracking is likely and the corrosion resistance of some flavours is locally messed up unless the HAZ is then mechanically removed. Without a 'proper' inert or mix of inert/reducing assist gas edges are oxidised whereas sheared edges are ready to weld (obviously not an issue with the example Langy posted). Shearing is also less messy and produces zero fume. For exactly the same reasons i'd rather use shears and punches most of the time when working with thin stainless sheet too

* built in chip trimmer, can get tightish radius cutting blades (also not cheap), smaller and lower cutting speed (more controllable), bigger cutting capacity etc

It's a great point Hr re welding an edge that has already got a heat effected zone could as you say cause a crack when you introduce a new HAZ from welding. Never crossed my mind that but it makes sense. I guess it's really down to the sole intentions of the cut part as to whether plaz is a good way to go.

 

[striker]

I use a cut40 plasma for curves usually following a hardboard pattern.
For straight cuts and breaking down large sheets I use a makita plunge track saw. This is fantastic. Dead easy and cuts right to the line. I use a makita aluminium blade and slow the speed right down on the speed dial.

 

[ukracer]

I reckon after a bit of practise anyone can produce good cuts bud, it's not hard

I can see why some people struggle though. ...everything is easy if you have an aptitude for it.

I am able to do most things to a reasonable standard. ....even more so since the emergence of youtube.

I used to do whatever I did to better standArd. ..county football, England school boy cricket. England youth angling, world field target captain but as I got older I started to realise there was not enough time to keep that up. So I just try my best now without overkill but I know talent when I see it. and you have talent.

 

[Richard.]

Fishermen eh. Hope you didn't give that up. Ukracer

 

[ukracer]

Fishermen eh. Hope you didn't give that up. Ukracer

Well I did for some 20 years as my son raced radio control cars for 15 years and the field target took a lot of practice etc etc.

Since I have taken it back up its changed so much I just don't have a clue. ....lol playing catch up all the time.

 

[ronan]

Archery field target or air rifle field target ?

 

[Mr shiney]

My plasma gives lovely cuts on aluminium. Work fast and with a good guide and it's like it's been cut with a laser. I am not quite at Langys standard but am practicing!!

 

[Wendelspanswick]

My plasma gives lovely cuts on aluminium. Work fast and with a good guide and it's like it's been cut with a laser. I am not quite at Langys standard but am practicing!!

One of the problems I find with a plasma is thin sheet needs fast speeds and fast speeds and freehand don't go together well when you are trying to accurately follow a line with 0.5mm tolerance.
It's OK for straight lines or intricate shapes with a template but making the template takes time and of course you end up with the rounded right angle corner conundrum when following a male template.

 

[ukracer]

Archery field target or air rifle field target ?

Air rifle.....my lads god parent is Nick Jenkinson of Air Arms NJR fame.