Club 80-90 Forums

Hi folks. I have a large sheet of aluminium checker plate approx. 3mm thick. I was thinking of cutting some small pieces to make some tread plates for door steps etc. Can anybody advise on the best way to cut the stuff. I tried with a hack saw but it was so slow!!! I did think about a jig saw but I don't think a standard one would be up to the job. Any ideas please?

If your jigsaw has a variable speed, and it's not a piece of no-brand junk, then it should work fine. Get some metal cutting blades, turn the speed down, use oil or some other cutting fluid as lubricant for the cut, and go slow and steady.

It's a bosch so not that cheap and nasty, though I think I can borrow a better one. Thanks for that.

I would have thought something like that should be fine for Alu.

If it's a jigsaw with variable pendulum action then you'll need to set that to zero for metal.

You can get aluminium cutting blades for Jigsaw,
at the risk of stating the obvious, don't use wood blades.

bigbadbob76 wrote:You can get aluminium cutting blades for Jigsaw,
at the risk of stating the obvious, don't use wood blades.

Now 'wood' I?

You can cut ally all day long with a cheap jigsaw as long as you use a suitable blade and lube. Hot knife/butter springs to mind.

Thanks for replies. Watch this space.