Cutting Thin Aluminium Sheet

Clamp or hold a straightedge or square along the cutting marks and score a line with the tip of a sharp utility knife blade.

Cutting thin aluminium sheet.

If possible choose a saw blade that creates narrow kerfs the notch or slot made by the saw. How to cut fold sheet aluminium. Using a softer piece of material such as wood as a backer will allow the chisel to push through the metal and prevent wear on the chisel s tip. And you can use the same technique anytime you need a straight cut on aluminum or other light gauge sheet metal even steel.

Select a fine toothed blade and don t cut aluminum with a wall thickness of more than 1 4 inch 0 64 cm. Align the snips with the line you want to cut with the upper blade of the tin snips touching the sheet metal. To cut the sheets of metal rathe. Place the metal on a hard surface to score it and on long pieces do the bending with the score place along a sharp edge of a bench and if necessary clamp the fixed piece with a long piece of flat wood to prevent buckling the metal while bending it back and forth.

Clamp the aluminum down. Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. Use a wood cutting saw with carbide tipped blades to cut most aluminum. Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel.

Note that i don t mean to literally slow down your feeds and speeds but your overall material removal rates will be less than what can be achieved with a purpose built cnc mill. Cutting aluminum sheet metal with a hammer and chisel is relatively straight forward line up the edge of the chisel along the line you wish to cut and strike the chisel with a hammer. Set the piece of aluminum on a table or over sawhorses and position it so the cutting area has open space underneath it. How to cut thin aluminum.

The price you ll pay for success is slowing things down. Before cutting put on a pair of safety goggles and work gloves to prevent injuries. A cnc router can cut aluminum but it isn t the ideal tool for hogging out big aerospace parts like wing spars.