Cutting alloy?

[tuff-lux]

Gday im going to cut up some old alloy checker plate of my door inserts . And wanted to know it you can use those thin inox cutting discs on the angle grinder for alloy? they say they can be used on steel and stainless and they are thin so i guess they wont clog up . any help would be great cheers.

[eliteforce32]

mate they will cut alloy but u'll use about 1000 of them... go down to the hardware store and get one that looks like a circular saw blade.. they are made for ally cutting and cut like butter through alloy only.. hope this helps

[Shadow]

They cut it just as well as they cut steel, ya do go through them quicker, but I would say only twice as quick, not 1000 times as quick.

[ssfabricator]

tungsten tipped wheels are the fastest and the thin inox (only use inox on alloy and stainless cos there iron free) will clog up and will be slow u should use a compound with them wax\grease comes soilidified in a cardboard tube bout 75 diam 200 long dunno its proper name heard it called fat, grease, wax hope i helped u should be able to get wax from any abrasives suppliers

[tuff-lux]

Cheers thanks for your help so far. I went down to the hardware shop and started asking questions and the 2 young assistants (early highschool age) were about as useful as a hot chick in a gay bar

[grazza]

I used a jigsaw. The edges were a bit rough but came up good with a light sand.

Keep the jigsaw blade lightly oiled.

And the most important bit - wear earmuffs!

[tuff-lux]

Now why didnt i think of that? cheers mate. I got earmuffs and saftey glasses and a face mask alloy tastes funny and gives you a sore throat, prob leading in to allsimers or something

[big bundy]

used it on the bottem of my quarters, use a flap disc in a grinder to clean up the edge's comes up really good

[AdrianGQ]

normal thin cutting disk will work fine

[awill4x4]

We use the 1mm cutting discs a lot and if you use some styrene wax (surfboard wax will do) it stops the blade from clogging up.
Whatever you do, DO NOT use a tungsten tipped blade or you are likely to lose a couple of fingers. We use one at work specifically for removing alloy welds on a 4" (100mm) grinder and if it grabs you have little chance of holding it in place. We know how to use it and we move in one direction only (left to right) if you go in the other direction it's very likely to grab and try to rip out of your hands and it's no fun trying to dodge a tungsten tipped blade spinning about 4000 rpm.
We affectionately call our tungsten blade either "lethal" or "meat axe" for obvious reasons.
The reason we have one is where I used to work previously the company was made to throw it away by Workcare inspectors as they've seen the results of what these things do.
Regards Andrew.

[just cruizin']

We had one guy at my old work who copped a "nasty" cut from a meat axe, quite a few stitches later he now walks with a limp at his new job.

[slosh]

jigsaw blade, keep a candle handy and run it over the blade every 10 secs or so.

[bazooked]

you can also use masonary cutting discs they work a treat and dont clog up like the normal steel ones.

[ausyota]

As said use a jigsaw.
Or mark up the sheet with all the cuts and take it down to a metal fab shop and get them to guiloteen it.

[tuff-lux]

thanks guys i used the thin cutting discs and yes they do wear quicker. but other than that they were ok. to smooth the edges i got some scotchbrite discs and some flapper wheels and yes i still have all my fingers and can see.

[ZOOK60]

We use the 1mm cutting discs a lot and if you use some styrene wax (surfboard wax will do) it stops the blade from clogging up.
Whatever you do, DO NOT use a tungsten tipped blade or you are likely to lose a couple of fingers. We use one at work specifically for removing alloy welds on a 4" (100mm) grinder and if it grabs you have little chance of holding it in place. We know how to use it and we move in one direction only (left to right) if you go in the other direction it's very likely to grab and try to rip out of your hands and it's no fun trying to dodge a tungsten tipped blade spinning about 4000 rpm.
We affectionately call our tungsten blade either "lethal" or "meat axe" for obvious reasons.
The reason we have one is where I used to work previously the company was made to throw it away by Workcare inspectors as they've seen the results of what these things do.
Regards Andrew.

I would use a jigsaw. dont use a alluminum blade in my industry they are called a "death wheel" or "killer saw' for good reason. I have seen a guy at work cut his hole nose off with one. This is probly why they are banned on job sites in NSW.

[MY92SURF]

Ultrathins will do it, but are NOT recommended by the manafacturer (I work for Flexovit). Flexovit do an ally cutting wheel which uses a mix of Aluminium Oxide grain and Sillicone Carbide grain, and is iron free...

These should be available through Blackwoods, Coventry's, BOC, even Bunnings stock them i think.

The steel centre tungsten tipped blades are great if you like losing limbs... they're friggen dangerous.

[goannaoffroad]

Tungsten tipped blades are for drop saws and other fixed type machines,
NOT hand held grinders that probably have the wrong speed rating for these type of blades anyway . When I cut alloy with a metal blade I lube it with a cake of soap as many fab shops do.