Quote Originally Posted by Frank S View Post
Mostly the aluminum I cut is either trailer floor planking or extrusions. The planking is an extrusion that is about 6 inches wide with small 1-inch tall I beam like protrusions the other extruded pieces are of my own design, Had to pay nearly 20 K for the dies and a minimum first-time order of 5000 linier feet A bandsaw or power hack saw takes forever to cut likewise a saber or Sawzall.
I have a 12-inch Pro-Shop miter saw with a 96 tooth metal cutting carbide blade, it takes about a minute to make a couple dozen cuts, so far have only made a little over 500 cuts with the blade but it still cuts the same as when I installed it. Clean square cuts every time. I have a Black and Decker worm drive circular saw with an 8 1/4inch metal cutting carbide blade, for when I have to rip the planks been using the same blade for a couple years. Have never lost a tooth on either one yet. But my 7 1/4" circular saw that I use for wood will burn through carbide crosscut blades regularly. the longevity of a carbide blade depends on a couple factors #1 the quality of the blade and #2 the amount of heat that builds up during a cut. The miter saw slices through so fast there is hardly any time for heat to build up, For the rip saw I set it so its depth is just slightly more than the thickness of the top of the planks.
If I need to cut aluminum bar stock or tubing on my band saw I spray the blade occasionally with an aerosol wax and have a rotary wire brush mounted after the guide rollers to clean the teeth.
Carbide blades can tolerate soft metals and you can cut aluminum forever without losing a single carbide tooth. But when it comes to cut steel with carbide disc blade, it's something else. Most the stock I cut are steel, and my experience to cut steel with carbide disc blades was not pleasant one and not cheap either.