I have a nice sheet aly I bought for my project. It is 2.5~mm chequer plate that needs to be cut into 7 pieces (straight across the sheet, no curves needed), and I tried to cut it with a metal blade in a jigsaw – I only got ¾ of the way through cutting the first piece (2nd photo)
The problem is the blade became blunted, either due to aluminium wearing it out, or the aluminium melting and blocking it. This probably due to the speed on the jigsaw being set too high, so would it be possible to cut the aluminium using a jigsaw, and if so what would be the best way to go about it? I know about cutting wood and plastic with a jigsaw, I am not experienced at all with cutting metal.
One thought I had would be to try getting some new blades (e.g. 1 2). However I am not sure what would be best specification of blade to look for. The jigsaw is a Makita 4350FCT.
Best Answer
They do make blades designed for non-ferrous metal, and may make a difference over a standard bi-metal/multipurpose blade. These may be special order v. a home depot find.
I suggest going almost painfully slow to maximize cutting, over deforming the material/dulling the blade.
However, the two best ways I know to cut this material are a power 'nibbler' that cuts semi-circular bits out with a repeating punch style cutter, or on a power shear.