Tips for working with aluminum

I'm a fan of flap wheels for deburring/grinding metals. I favor 3M Cubitron and Pferd discs because they last so long and are consistent throughout their lifetime.

About 3 months ago I needed something in a hurry so I purchased a handful of the CGW brand. They worked well but didn't seem to last as long as they should.

I recently purchased some more Pferd wheels and decided to compare the 2 brands.  This surprised me. [eek]

A CGW for steel, A CGW for stainless & a Pferd for stainless.

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Another item I noticed immediately is that there are at least twice as many filaments in the support structure on the Pferd wheel. I don't know if that's necessary but it does make me feel better and it again helps to explain some of the price difference between the wheels of $3.75 vs $5.00.

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Just ran across these 2 new thin kerf CMT metal blades for the TSC 55 K. One for non-ferrous materials and the other for Stainless, now that last item is completely new for the 55 series saws. Previously it was only the 75 series that were available with steel cutting blades.

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And here are a couple of regular kerf CMT metal blades for the 55 series saws. One for thin steel and one for thick steel.

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And finally, here's the CMT PCD Diamond blade for cementitious materials that's been around for years. I have the 4 tooth version on an HKC and it works well. The newer 10 tooth version would be interesting to try out.

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The AL blade is interesting, I've had my little DW battery chop saw pretty much dedicated to AL all year. Been cutting a lot of 8020. Cheap blade from Amazon has been working great.

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It's good to see blades coming out for the TSC K, I'm still using the stock one including trimming a little 1/4" 6061.

RMW
 

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Anything special about drilling aluminum extrusions?

I'm trying to put an LR32 hole pattern in a piece of T-track, but the Festool bits aren't biting.  They just scribe little bullseyes on the surface. 

Switching to the pointed LR32 bit and pre-drilling a pilot hole solves that problem, but the holes are now a really loose fit for shelf pins. 
 
tsmi243 said:
1. Anything special about drilling aluminum extrusions?

2. I'm trying to put an LR32 hole pattern in a piece of T-track, but the Festool bits aren't biting.  They just scribe little bullseyes on the surface. 

3. Switching to the pointed LR32 bit and pre-drilling a pilot hole solves that problem, but the holes are now a really loose fit for shelf pins.
Click to expand...

Will this be a long series of 5 mm holes or just a few?

1. You'll definitely want to use a lubricant with the drill bit, it can be a solid or liquid lubricant, I prefer isopropyl alcohol when drilling aluminum but be advised that IPA is flammable so take the necessary precautions. The lubricant will significantly reduce the wear on the drill bit but more importantly it will maintain a uniform hole diameter.

2. The bit you're describing has 2 sharp spurs on the outer edges so they will mark the hole diameter but they will not punch through the aluminum because of the design of the front cutting edge.

3. I'd use the pointed LR32 bit just to mark the center of each hole. I'd then follow up with selecting the proper sized bit needed to fit the pins, that's the experimental work.  [smile]  Drill bits will usually drill oversized holes unless the drill bit itself is physically undersized. So it's not unusual to have that 5 mm drill bit produce a 5.1 mm hole or larger.

Here's a webpage from Travers that offers various sized metric drill bits. These are powdered metal while also being TiN & TiCN coated so they're very very spendy. Small metric drill bits are usually available in .1 mm sizes and if you stick with the TiN coating, that again will help maintain a uniform hole diameter.
https://www.travers.com/product/nac...-jobber-length-drills-498912?categoryIds=1778

The larger tooling houses usually stock all the various sizes. Another option I use is MSC Direct.
https://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn...r-Length-Drill-Bits?mscNew=true&navid=2106186
 
[member=51752]tsmi243[/member] are you trying to use a router bit to drill holes in the aluminum t-track?

Maybe you should go to 1/4” pins and use a real 1/4” drill bit in a 1/4” collet?
 
Cheese said:
3. I'd use the pointed LR32 bit just to mark the center of each hole. I'd then follow up with selecting the proper sized bit
Click to expand...

May have to do it that way.  I was hoping to one-shot this with the LR32, but I'm guessing a 4.9mm router bit isn't going to be easy to find!  Thanks for the suggestion, I got a 4.8 and a 4.9 coming this week.

Michael Kellough said:
[member=51752]tsmi243[/member] are you trying to use a router bit to drill holes in the aluminum t-track?

Maybe you should go to 1/4” pins and use a real 1/4” drill bit in a 1/4” collet?
Click to expand...

Yep, drilling the aluminum with the router. 

For pins, I could use anything in any size.  I just have lots of 5mm shelf pins handy, and the 5mm bit is already in the router.  So that was the first attempt.

I was surprised that the bits won't touch the aluminum.  I've had great results doing edge routing before.  I'm not sure why drilling would be any different.  I was wondering if the anodizing was the reason.  I'll try sanding some off, and see if they bite then.

 
Cheese said:
Just ran across these 2 new thin kerf CMT metal blades for the TSC 55 K. One for non-ferrous materials and the other for Stainless, now that last item is completely new for the 55 series saws. Previously it was only the 75 series that were available with steel cutting blades.
Click to expand...

What do you recommend for a blade to cut aluminum for a Kapex?

Bob
 
rmhinden said:
What do you recommend for a blade to cut aluminum for a Kapex?
Click to expand...

I purchased the Kapex aluminum blade when it was still being offered by Festool. Don't know what happened in corporate circles  but at some point in time, Festool corporate/marketing obviously had a melt down when they suddenly decided to discontinue the aluminum blade along with the spark arrestor. Which makes no sense at all, as if you just move a few years forward, and they now offer an aluminum blade for hand saws...riddle me this, what is more dangerous, a hand guided saw or a fixed pivot chop saw?

The original Festool item is P/N 495386 if you're fortunate enough to find one.  Another FOG member RST uses the Amana line of saw blades from Toolstoday.
 
Cheese said:
The original Festool item is P/N 495386 if you're fortunate enough to find one.  Another FOG member RST uses the Amana line of saw blades from Toolstoday.
Click to expand...

[member=44099]Cheese[/member]    Thanks!

I looked up Festool 495386 and it came up with "Saw Blade LAMINATE/HPL HW 260X2,5X30 TF64".

I then looked around the Festool site (should have done that earlier) and found what looks like a Kapex blade for cutting Aluminum.  Part number 494607.  See:

Saw blade ALUMINIUM/PLASTICS HW 260x2,4x30 TF68

I assume that is the right one.

Looks like I can get it from Amazon UK for about $106 plus tax. 

Bob

 
Cheese said:
rmhinden said:
What do you recommend for a blade to cut aluminum for a Kapex?
Click to expand...

Another FOG member RST uses the Amana line of saw blades from Toolstoday.
Click to expand...

I've had good luck with Oshlun for both AL & Steel. Their non-ferrous Kapex blade is available on Big A.

RMW
 
rmhinden said:
I looked up Festool 495386 and it came up with "Saw Blade LAMINATE/HPL HW 260X2,5X30 TF64".

I then looked around the Festool site (should have done that earlier) and found what looks like a Kapex blade for cutting Aluminum.  Part number 494607.  See:

Saw blade ALUMINIUM/PLASTICS HW 260x2,4x30 TF68

I assume that is the right one.

Looks like I can get it from Amazon UK for about $106 plus tax. 

Bob
Click to expand...

Sorry Bob I gave you the wrong number...it should have been 495385.

But this whole thing does bring up an interesting point as Festool in 2016 decided to obsolete their metal cutting blades for not only the Kapex, but also the TS 55. That's the reason I purchased this 495385 blade back in late 2016. Here's the blade...

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At the time, this 495385 blade along with 3 other blades were newly released and on the front of the package it refers to the blade it replaced the 494607. Here's the front of the package.

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Here's the rear of the package.

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So the way this story reads is that the 494607 was replaced by the 495385 to then be replaced by the 494607.  [eek]

Weird, as both blades appear to have exactly the same specs dimensionally in addition to grind geometries. At any rate, it seems like you're good to go.  [thumbs up]  The Amazon price also seems cheap because I paid Amazon $150 for the 495385 blade back in 2016.

 

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LR32 followup-  It's not the aluminum, it's the bit.  The pointy one.  I switched back to MDF, and the flat tip bit works fine, but the pointy one drills oversize. 

Soooo back to the drill press, I guess.  I think spotting the holes with the LR32 is the best I'm gonna get. 
 
Like Richard I’ve had good luck with Oshlun blades for steel and aluminum. They make a wide variety of sizes and arbor sizes as well.

They are generally available on Amazon.

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] im very fond of my spiral taps for bottoming tapping. It was always a hassle to extract swarf from the hole after using a regular bottoming tap. These keep the chips coming out the top.  [big grin]

Ron
 
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