We recently received a comment on one of our early tips by tom articles. This article on aluminum cutting seems to get a lot of traffic. It was one of our original posts and contains helpful information on cutting aluminum in a pinch. The article explains how you can use equipment found in any wood shop to accomplish the job of cutting aluminum. At any rate, after several years we received this letter from Don in Florida. Since we are into entrepreneurship, we thought wed go ahead and post! Thanks for noticing our website Don and best of luck with your business!

Hi Tom,

My name is Don McKinney. Our company is Bob’s Saw Sharpening, Inc. I
read your article on cutting aluminum and liked the warning about the
“kick back” . Many people don not realize that when using the wrong
tool for the job could be very dangerous. The kick back comes from
using saw blades designed to cut wood or an improperly designed aluminum
cutting saw. We manufacture a line of blades for this material that
does NOT kick back or grab. Leaving a bur free cut on most shapes
including plate, pipe, window and store front extrusions, picture frames
and even PVC. It’s called the NO-GRAB. It has more of a milling action
than a cutting one. With a wood blade, the more you feed, the faster it
cuts. Our blades offers a controlled chip. The more you feed, it
doesn’t cut any faster!

If your interested, contact me at 1-800-359-2887
Don McKinney
President
Bob’s Saw Sharpening, Inc.
721 N.W. 7th. Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 33311

It is that time of year again when our attention turns to the outdoors and the curb appeal of our homes. One easy way to give your front porch a quick face lift is to add or replace an outdoor stair rail.
A few things to keep in mind, along with design, have to do with observing city and county codes.
Residential properties generally have to have at least one handrail along a flight of stairs. The height of the handrail should be mounted somewhere between 34″ and 38″ above all of the stair nosing.
The grip-able area of the handrail should measure between 1 1/4″ and 2 1/4″.
If the handrail is to be hung along an existing wall, like the example in the photos, a 1 1/2″ clearance between any projection in the wall and the handrail should be observed. Sometimes this gets a bit tricky if the wall has an uneven surface like stone.

Tom built this handrail to fit a new home. The handrail needed to bolt to a stone faced wall at the top and also bolt to a stone faced concrete planter at the bottom of the stairs. Tom used a lag screw that fit into the metal railing bracket and sunk it through the stone and wall behind. The bottom bracket was fastened using a concrete anchor through the stone into the concrete planter underneath. Tom used 1 1/2″ .109 wall E.W. round tubing bent using a Shop Outfitters Universal Fabricator.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Today Show has been covering the Winter Olympics from Vancouver Canada for the past couple of weeks. They have hosted great athletes, chefs and other guests at the Grouse Mountain location NBC remodeled for the games. I, for one, couldn’t help but notice the dramatic fireplace screen that has flanked Meridith, Matt, Ann and Al.
I have been searching for a photo to post along with this article, but can not seem to find on on the internet. I did, however, find this three minute discussion between Ann Curry and Kristi Yamaguchi. Interestingly enough, Kristi seems to want to cut to some “B roll” as they chit chat about various figure skaters. It seems someone in production checked out early. The entire three minutes is spent watching the two women talk. Good for my purpose. Get a great look at the custom metal fireplace screen that someone must have handcrafted for the television set.
The frame of the fireplace screed looks like it is made out of 3/4″ square tube. The curves in the metal frame could have been shaped on a metal bender and the sharp corners were possibly mitred together. Small pieces of 1/4″ cold rolled round stock have been welded onto the frame to hold various cut metal designs. The metal designs were most likely cut by hand out of pickled and oiled flat stock by a plasma cutter. There are also several sizes of flat stock that have been cut and ground off to form the icicle figures in the metal fireplace screen.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this type of fireplace design pop up in custom homes around the world.

The week between Christmas and New Year tends to be a little slow at Trade Tool Innovations. We usually take advantage of the time off and pop in and out of town as the weather allows.
This past Christmas day we were up in Boulder Colorado preparing for our Christmas dinner and I (Karen) came up with a tip that Tom acutally shared with me in our early days. I suppose when a man knows how to get all the soup out of a can, then it is definitely time to snag him up! Anyway, really, this tip DOES work! It works with any type of canned good that is packed into the can. Think soup and cranberries… stuff like that.
Since we were taking a break from the shop, I thought this might be a great “tip” to post.
No worries though, we’ll have plenty of sparks, smoke, welding, fabricating, fixing, metal bending and cutting, crazy (and not so crazy) shop projects in the new year!
Thanks to “Solar Dave”, http://www.solardave.com, my brother-in-law for his filming and editing expertise. And all his unpaid website consulting over the years… Krissy, you snagged a good one!
Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

Metal Table Frame

After welding in two cross pieces onto the metal table frame, to help support the table, it was time to build the table top. Tom used 12 gauge hot rolled sheet metal for the main table top. A scrap piece of tread bright aluminum was used as a template to radius each corner. Even arches were created by using the template and marking the steel using a silver colored sharpie. Tom then trimmed the steel using a plasma cutter along the sharpie lines. An angle grinder was used to feather in the corners with the straight edges.
In order to create round edges for the metal table, Tom rolled a metal ring out of flat strap using a Shop Outfitters ring roller. Then he cut the ring in quarters and matched up each piece. The straight flat 3/16″ X 1/2″ hot rolled strap edges were measured to fit and then cut using an Edwards Iron Worker. The corner and straight strap metal was then tack welded onto the sheet metal. The edges were then ground down to blend to form a smooth finish.
Tom finished the metal table by adding rounded support straps that were fabricated using a Shop Outfitters ring roller. Square tube was welded on to help hold an umbrella for the metal table.
A vinegar bath was applied to strip off the mill scale from the metal table. Looking back, it would have been better to start with a pickled and oiled stock.
A quick paint job using water based industrial paint for the base and min-wax poly-shade stain with polyurethane for the top, and the large metal table was complete. After a 24 hour drying period we were ready to move the table into the backyard.
Now, there was only one thing left to do. We invited a few friends over to help break in our new metal table.

Cutting Aluminum can be accomplished with normal wood working equipment. The cutting speeds of wood working equipment are a bit fast for cutting aluminum, so cutting lubricants are helpful. The diameter of cutting blades can be decreased in diameter on many wood working machines to decrease the cutting speed. When using a 10″ table saw to rip aluminum plate, a 7 1/4″ blade can be used in place of the 10″ thus decreasing the cutting speed of the blade by 27.5%. A 10″ blade rotates 31.4″ of cutting tips through the aluminum each revolution.  A 7.25″ blade rotates 22.77″ of cutting tips through the aluminum per revolution. A carbide tipped blade can with stand these cutting speeds through aluminum, a high speed steel blade can’t.  The same is true for router bits only use carbide tipped bits and a variable speed router attachment or variable speed router is helpful to decrease the cutting speeds.  I purchased an old  table saw at a yard sale that I use for cutting aluminum and ripping nasty dirty wood. The drive pulley (motor pulley) I decreased in size 2.25″ to 1.25″ which also dramatically decreases the cutting speed, and increases the torque to the blade.

Speed that the aluminum is fed into cutters or the speed that blades are fed into the aluminum is slower than that of wood.   The carbide teeth of wood working cutters, or saws are not designed to take heavy cuts of aluminum like that of wood.  Although to slow of a feed rate will increase temperature of the aluminum and the cutter or teeth.

I have found using old candles that my wife has discarded work well for lubrication of the cutting bit or teeth. As on a table saw the candle is fed into the side of the blade, heat is generated and melted paraffin wax will adhere to the blade and teeth.  I do the same with my Dewalt 12″ wood chop saw.  The wax that has solidified on the blade and teeth will melt during the cutting of the aluminum and help in cooling by less friction, and allow chips of aluminum not stick to the teeth.

Be aware that the aluminum vs. wood  being cut has more tendency to kick back, the blade, to reverse the direction of cut in a violent manner. I have a slot in my drywall from such an encounter, STAY OUT OF THE KICK BACK ZONE of the machinery.

Very thin sections of aluminum can be ripped on a table saw by adhering the sheet of aluminum to a piece of old plywood or particle board, with 3M super 77 adhesive this adhesive is really handy for lots of applications and is readily available at many home improvement stores or lumber yards. Adhesive can be removed from the aluminum using acetone also available at the same locations, which is also excellent degreaser before painting and a great thinner for slow drying oil based paints.  The plywood or particle board (backs up the aluminum) while the cutter is cutting.
When cutting aluminum it is not necessary to have expensive shears band saws or plasma cutters to cut your aluminum stock. Anyone can use wood working equipment and increase profits. Always use a good face shield and protect the body from the hot aluminum chips that are produced when cutting aluminum.

Most of the time soapstone is used to mark steel for cutting and fabricating.  Soapstone is a natural element that can be easily found at hardware and welding supply stores.

A good alternative for marking steel can be found at any local discount store.  The silver metallic  sharpie works wonders on a piece of steel.  Several advantages are discovered when using a silver metallic sharpie.  The ink from the sharpie marks on oily stock.  Soapstone does not adhere to oily steel.  As any person who works regularly with metal knows, most steel has an oily surface. Soapstone is very wide and blunt and requires regular sharpening to produce a fine line.   Soapstone can be frustrating to work with as it breaks easily and the steel worker must stop and sharpen it more often than if he used a sharpie.

One can choose to use a grease pencil.  A grease pencil stands up to heat while cutting, but has several faults like soapstone. 

A grease pencil is hard to sharpen and does not hold a sharp edge.  A grease pencil seems to be more breakable than even soapstone.

Bottom line:  Every fabrication shop should have silver metallic sharpies on supply.  The key is to use a silver metallic sharpie.  Once you use one on your steel, you will find that you can make a quick, permanent, sharp mark to cut and fabricate by!

Photo to left shows soapstone mark on top and sharpie mark on the bottom.  Notice a finer line that hold up to moisture with the sharpie.