Cutting a work piece.

[alexccmeister]

Hi guys,

I am new to milling and CNC. Will be starting soon once all my parts arrived. Anyway, I know you need a band saw for cutting down large stock to manageable size to fit on a cnc. But is it possible to use the mill to cut a long piece of stock aluminium so you can get a smaller piece out of the stock piece? I know it can be done, but would this be a normal practice if a bandsaw isn't available?

Thanks.

[SteelCutter]

You do what you gotta do BUT you really should invest on a saw!!!

[alexccmeister]

Thanks for the reply. Sure will definitely do that. I guess its a silly question when I come to think of it.

[in2steam]

Originally Posted by alexccmeister Thanks for the reply. Sure will definitely do that. I guess its a silly question when I come to think of it.

Silly no, impratical yes, think of it this way.

If your band saw broke, its good to know that you could cut your stock in the interim. But keep in mind you wearing down a piece(s) of tooling, I use only sawzall currently at home for steel, Alum and plastics I use a vertical bandsaw.

chris

[dertsap]

a circular or table saw with carbide tip blades works quite well on smaller stock sizes

[alexccmeister]

Thanks. I guess it would be. But to get a band saw, I would have to spend an extra USD500. A bit too much for me at the moment. I will have some 2x4 long pieces of alum that I may need to cut shorter to work on by the mill. Since the mill itself can cut away at the alum, wouldn't it be faster if I vise the long piece down and cut the section along the Y axis only until its sawn tru? Just a thought.

[dertsap]

is this for professional use ,if so buy a bandsaw

if hobby , 2x4 ally stock , skilsaw ,cuts like butter

[alexccmeister]

Ok, Thanks guys for all your input. Will look into getting a cutter specifically for cutting alum stock.

[in2steam]

Originally Posted by alexccmeister Ok, Thanks guys for all your input. Will look into getting a cutter specifically for cutting alum stock.

Any wood cutting tool will work, I should have said I use my mitre saw with combo blade in it, I think I spent around $80 for it, I am sure you can get that in your parts. Just don't cut anything smaller then 1" or will go flying.
I prefer the band saw as it tends not throw things at high speed. I have never tried my table saw or radial arm for alum, I am not sure its the safest idea, but I suppose that depends upon what its being cut.

chris

[alexccmeister]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info.

Alex

[Geof]

You want the least expensive to start with? Get a 7-1/4" blade hand saw and a triple chip blade for cutting non ferrous metal, a couple of door hinges and some pieces of plywood. Hinge a piece of plywood about 2 feet long and eight inches wide at one end to a larger piece. Bolt the saw to the free end of this with the blade protruding through; the slot for the blade has to be wide enough for the blade guard. Screw a strip of wood on the bottom plywood to act as a stop for the piece being cut; make this so the center of the piece is in line with the center of the blade.

Now you have a crude but workable and very cheap chop saw.

[Loading]

At school we didn't have any fancy toys. We had a Haas Mini Mill, and sadly, the side doors do not open on it, so we couldn't fit long stock in it. The solution? Hacksaws. I recommend not going that route.

In all seriousness, find a local shop that does have a bandsaw. There's a few shops around here that'll happily cut stock to length, and they'll do it for pretty cheap. Depending on the size of the material, but for say 1x4 it's around a couple bucks a cut.

For everyones info (at work) we cut pretty much all of our stock on chop saws. All of it's Aluminum, mostly large profiles for large buildings. We do occasionally cut 6061 solid flat bar, in sizes up to 1x6 and it seems to work great.