Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Piecuch
How about a metal blade on a table saw? To get the 3/4" slot you may need to rip it twice, but it should be fairly accurate. You can always plug the extrusion with some wood after the first cut to keep it straight and true. Metal blades aren't cheap, but neither are 5' travel horizontal mills...
Bengineer
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I myself would not enven dare to try to make that big of a rip cut with a table saw unless its a saw you have no desire to use again for its proper use of cutting wood. The table saw motors arnt made for the kind of force need to cut aluminum. I tried this before on a dewalt table saw and didnt end very pretty not only is it bad for the machine its dangerous. I was trying to cut a 1/8 sheet of aluminum on a table saw and the piece vibrated uncontrolably and didnt leave a good cut what so ever. By the way the saw was securely mounted to the floor. Personally i would never dare to use my own table saw to rip metal. On top of that most abrasive cutting wheels are about 1/8 at most 3/16" which means you be making a lot more passes than two. Also to rip a 3/4" slot in wood you use a dado blades but there is no such instrument for cutting metal for the table saw.
As for my personal solution to machining this object you two option if you have access to mill you can mill the slot in two passes with 3/4" 2 flute mill bit by flipping the piece around. You should have no trouble doing this on any stage 1 or 2 bridgeports 9" x 41" tables. However if you dont have a nice mill. you have another option. We have a dewalt router about 4hp that we can put mill bits in for doing similar processes. If you go this route you need to create a jig to clamp the work piece and also a guide for the router to follow so it stays on the same cutting path. The mill is a far better option but we have used the router before and it works great much better than a table saw ever would. However you need the correct machine for any process therefore a 3/4 hp router is made for cutting wood not cutting metal.