In one of my previous lives I wrote installation, operation, and maintenance manuals for industrial metal-cutting bandsaws. As glamorous as that sounds, I left it behind to work for a fledgling Sonex LLC. I was already scratching a Sonex together in my garage, and spending 60 minutes of my 30-minute lunch break at the Sonex hangar, so it made sense (if not dollars) to beg my way into a full-time position.
Those two worlds overlapped the first time I helped at a Sonex builder workshop and watched person after person plop aluminum angle extrusion down on the table of a bandsaw wrong. To me, it was nails on a chalkboard. The wail of a newborn. Four people at a four-way stop and no one moving. And, like, the indiscriminate insertion of “like” in a teen’s every sentence. Well, we control what we can—or so says my therapist—so, with one colorful photo and a lengthy caption that could be reduced to “This, not that,” I illustrate the proper way to cut angle stock on a bandsaw.
Angle stock (eighth-inch thick x 1 inch x 1 inch shown here) should be cut with the material resting on its edges, not on a flat. This presents a uniform material thickness (about 3/16 inch in this example) to the blade. If the angle is cut with the material resting on a flat, the blade “experiences” an eighth-inch thick part (green) and which immediately becomes a 1-inch thick part (red), or vice versa. The sudden change can result in poor cuts.
Gotta love this stuff! I don’t routinely cut aluminum angle, but do cut a lot of steel angle. Nice tip!
Kerry, tell ’em abut blade speed and teeth engaged…
Hi Dan,
I have a feature on bandsaws that I’m wrapping up (for Sport Aviation). I touch on those topics in that extended article.
Kerry, what are your thoughts about using aluminum cutting oil and drilling and cutting metal? Thanks
Hi,
Aluminum doesn’t need cutting oil unless you are in a production setting, but that’s whole ‘nother topic. Waxing the blade with a candle will lubricate a blade for aluminum. When you get into liquids (oils and flood-type cooling systems) you have to make sure your saw is designed to handle them (it’s not going to get into wiring and other places it shouldn’t) and, without a major clean up, it takes your bandsaw out of the multi-material category; wood will absorb the cutting fluid/oils.
Drilling and cutting metal (by “metal” I assume you mean ferrous materials, not aluminum) are whole other topics. In short, ferrous metals are cut/drilled with cutting oils (to lubricate and carry away heat), at much slower tool and/or feed rates than aluminum. Aluminum cuts much like wood (if the blade is sharp), ferrous metals are much harder. I cover bandsaw techniques (with a focus on aluminum) in much greater detail in an upcoming feature in Sport Aviation.