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Hello,Thanks for looking into this thread. http://img52.imageshack.us/i/img2145u.jpg/ I've been practicing tig welding on my own for a while and I've been cutting off the machined edges of a 4x8 sheet of .125 aluminum to do so. However, the other side of the aluminum is never perfectly straight no matter what I do or how I do it.I've been trying to find a close by shear for use but through craigslist ads and local inquiry I've yet to be successful. I imagine that the circular saw I have is a piece of junk. I purchased it at goodwill for 15 dollars, it makes some strange sounds. Is anyone able to follow a perfectly straight line with a circular saw?I've tried to straighten things out a bit with an angle grinder but I doubt I am very good at it, is this the best option? Try to cut as straight as possible and just grind the rest away? Or maybe someone knows of a tool or setup to cut straight on metal? TIG welding doesn't forgive much for gaps.I can imagine that something that is used to keep the saw straight and a new saw or perhaps some other method of cutting 4x8 sheets that is similar to a circular saw would do the job. I have no freakin idea. I am at my wits end with cutting metal straight, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.P.S. If you live in the twin cities (st. paul, MN) area and you'd be willing to give me fabrication lessons please send me a PM, I am willing to pay an hourly wage for this. I could use some lessons in TIG welding I am sure.Miller 330 a/bp water cooledI believe in gun control, I hold my gun with two hands. If you want to know why, click here.Buy American or bye America.
Reply:If you want to cut straight with a circular saw, just clamp a straight-edge to the workpiece, and slide the saw against it. If your straight-edge is too thin, try a level (although many levels today are so flimzy that they will bend if you clamp to them).Same procedure for plasma cutting.Just be sure your clamps are facing the side away from your saw so you don't bump into them. They make special circular saw guides for this purpose, but the ones that clamp onto a sheet of plywood work by grabbing the edges, and will bow the aluminum sheet.A sheetrocker's square is 4 feet long, so you can get nice square lines across a whole sheet, BUT because it sticks out on both ends, you will end up cutting your square if you use it as a cutting guide.
Reply:Make a straight line guide for the saw.A piece of 5/8 or 3/4 inch plywood makes an excellent guide. Just rip a few inches off the edge (leave it wide enough for the saw to pass with a clamp in place), then turn it around (to get the factory edge towards the middle of the sheet - you don't have to cut a straight line), and screw it to the sheet. Then, just run the saw down the guide, to cut it free from the rest of the sheet. From then on, you have a straight guide, and the beauty of it is there is no measuring over a certain number of inches from the cut to clamp the guide. Line the cut mark dead even with the guide, clamp, and go. Always clamp the guide over the keeper piece, as if you manage to stray off course, it can only go into the drop, and can never start to cut into the keeper piece. I've got a few of these in a number of lengths, and for differing blade widths. Quite handy, will cut a very straight line, and speed things up when you have a lot of cuts to make.Who is John Galt?
Reply:That's a very smart idea, bassboy1. I'm surprised I've never seen one of those before.Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:The piece you see photographed was done freehand, but my previous cuts were done with a piece of angle aluminum to act as a guide. Although, I think I like your idea bassboy. I wonder how you made that edge straight, did you use a table saw?Something I adopted from a video I saw online was, instead of using a series of table saws to keep things up in the air, it would be easier to just get 4-6 2x4s that are 6 feet long each or so. Squatting might not be the most comfortable position, I feel that working with large pieces of aluminum that way is. I really like placing a 2x4 on each side of the cut, that way there is no drop or drooping while cutting and cuts edge is square.Miller 330 a/bp water cooledI believe in gun control, I hold my gun with two hands. If you want to know why, click here.Buy American or bye America.
Reply:I have what bassboy has for cutting down plywood sheets. Mine's a bit thinner. I bought an alum. straight edge and screwed it to 1/2" plywood, just far enough back of the edge so the first cut with the circular saw up against the straight edge, trims back the base 1/2" plywood. Then this edge is what you line up your marks with on the sheet you're cutting,as this is right where the blade rides. Got a 4'er and an 8'er. Can make them using just about anything for the base or the straight edge. Plexiglass, 1/4 press board are both good choices. Leave enough on the non cutting side so you have room to clamp it down and not have the clamps in the way of the saw motor.You could also bolt your circular saw to a piece of plywood, upside down, and make a fence to screw down for a straight edge. It's sort of a DIY table saw. But the cutting boards are much easier. Good luck.Last edited by bert the welder; 08-16-2010 at 08:11 PM.200amp Air Liquide MIG, Hypertherm Plasma, Harris torches, Optrel helmet, Makita angle grinders, Pre-China Delta chop saw and belt sander, Miller leathers, shop made jigs etc, North- welders backpack.
Reply:Pinjas The straight edge I made similar to bassboys, I used the factory edge of the plywood as the guide edge. I had a ton of cuts to do on full size sheets at a job and I needed nice straight edges on all the cuts. Make one cut in the plywood about 3-4" from the edge as straight as you can. ( I used the factory edge of a 2nd sheet as my guide.) Flip the small 3-4" piece up on top of the rest of the sheet and glue and screw to the main sheet. Make sure the factory edge is facing the main area not the edge. Then cut thru the main sheet using the factory edge as your guide. This automatically sets the edge of the sheet to the width of the saw base. The only thing to remember is that the part you want to keep is under the saw. If you set the plywood on the scrap side and the edge of the ply lines up with your line, you'll be short the thickness of a saw blade when done. You have no idea how hard this concept was to get across to my laborer, and how many pieces he cut just 3/32" short! I know Denny (yorkiepap) here has shown using his table saw to cut alum in the past. You must be VERY careful about kickback if you choose to do that..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Although, I think I like your idea bassboy. I wonder how you made that edge straight, did you use a table saw?
Reply:I've been using a bought two-piece aluminum edge guide (~104 inches long) for 12 years.I've used it to cut up 50+ 4 x 8 foot sheets of laminated particle board to make a passle of shelving cupboards for my basement storage.It's a standard wood-working tool available at the larger hardware stores.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Originally Posted by pinjasHello,Thanks for looking into this thread. http://img52.imageshack.us/i/img2145u.jpg/ I've been practicing tig welding on my own for a while and I've been cutting off the machined edges of a 4x8 sheet of .125 aluminum to do so. However, the other side of the aluminum is never perfectly straight no matter what I do or how I do it.I've been trying to find a close by shear for use but through craigslist ads and local inquiry I've yet to be successful. I imagine that the circular saw I have is a piece of junk. I purchased it at goodwill for 15 dollars, it makes some strange sounds. Is anyone able to follow a perfectly straight line with a circular saw?I've tried to straighten things out a bit with an angle grinder but I doubt I am very good at it, is this the best option? Try to cut as straight as possible and just grind the rest away? Or maybe someone knows of a tool or setup to cut straight on metal? TIG welding doesn't forgive much for gaps.I can imagine that something that is used to keep the saw straight and a new saw or perhaps some other method of cutting 4x8 sheets that is similar to a circular saw would do the job. I have no freakin idea. I am at my wits end with cutting metal straight, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.P.S. If you live in the twin cities (st. paul, MN) area and you'd be willing to give me fabrication lessons please send me a PM, I am willing to pay an hourly wage for this. I could use some lessons in TIG welding I am sure.
Reply:I just saw that you already use a straight edge. Are you going underneath the straight edge. Or is your aluminum dropping down away from the straight edge. I have had that problem when ripping ten foot sheets the long way. We had nothing that long to support the aluminum and it dipped in the center away from the guide, and the saw table went underneath it. What a sound. Ha-ha. Sincerely, William McCormick
Reply:Hey guys,I use a table saw as DSW indicated for all my aluminum sheet cuts. I've never had a problem with kickback as I simply maintain a slight pressure against the fence & use a slow steady push. I shoot a length of WD-40 along the cut line to eliminate alum. buildup on the blade teeth & makes for a much smoother cut. I can do 4' X 4' by myself, & anything over that size, I get assistance. The edge is a nice clean, straight cut. I use an 80T, thin kerf aluminum blade from Cripes Distributing. Here's the link:http://www.cripedistributing.com/irw...99-p-5015.htmlDennyComplete Welding/Machine/Fab. ShopMobile UnitFinally retired*Moderator*"A man's word is his honor...without honor there is nothing.""Words are like bullets.... Once they leave your muzzle, you cannot get them back."
Reply:RickV: that top pic is the one I have screwed down , to the base piece, as the guide rail. Mr. Bill: the schmuck in the video is demonstrating exactly why the cutting board method is used. No recalculating needed. Mark your length, clamp to it and cut. 200amp Air Liquide MIG, Hypertherm Plasma, Harris torches, Optrel helmet, Makita angle grinders, Pre-China Delta chop saw and belt sander, Miller leathers, shop made jigs etc, North- welders backpack.
Reply:Originally Posted by bert the welderRickV: that top pic is the one I have screwed down , to the base piece, as the guide rail. Mr. Bill: the schmuck in the video is demonstrating exactly why the cutting board method is used. No recalculating needed. Mark your length, clamp to it and cut.
Reply:Originally Posted by William McCormick JrWell I don't know about you, but normally I don't have any where to lay a ten foot sheet of metal four or five feet wide and then setup the bread board. And I don't have ten foot plywood or longer to cut a ten foot piece of metal. I am usually out in the driveway. I cannot mount the cutting board as you called it solidly and still support a four or five by ten sheet of metal without it dipping, bending and pulling. There is no way to clamp the breadboard. Usually if I have to take a sliver off a long sheet, I place an aluminum angle under the sheet, just back of the cut, on the two horses holding the sheet. Then I put another angle iron over the top, back from the cut to act as a guide for the saw. That bread board can only cut small pieces. I usually cut large pieces or pieces on an angle. Because I have a small shear and a table saw. But ten foot pieces are a problem to get into the basement and cut on the table saw. And cutting even eight foot pieces on an angle on a table saw is ridiculous.
Reply:Originally Posted by bert the welderWell since the days of water wheel powered saws have come and gone, we now have table saws with TILTING BLADES
Reply:Originally Posted by bert the welderOK....he's talking about 4x8 sheets. Most folks don't have 5x10 sheet just kicking around unless they need them for something special. If you need a "sliver" 10 feet long, that's why they sell flat bar stock. Cutting metal sheet on a table saw isn't any different then cutting wood sheet. Just different blade. As apposed to not very good with a tape measure?????? With a cutting board it takes no seconds. There's only one measurement needed!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well since the days of water wheel powered saws have come and gone, we now have table saws with TILTING BLADES
Reply:Nice drawing. Exactly what I was picturing. You've made a sliding carriage fixture with an angled side opposite the fence, to create a tapered piece.This works well for long pieces, where the miter gauge wouldn't work well.
Reply:Originally Posted by rlitmanI think he was refering to taper. A tapering piece can be cut on a tablesaw with a sliding carriage.
Reply:Originally Posted by rlitmanNice drawing. Exactly what I was picturing. You've made a sliding carriage fixture with an angled side opposite the fence, to create a tapered piece.This works well for long pieces, where the miter gauge wouldn't work well. |
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发表于 2021-8-31 22:37:59