Tube Versus Channel

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Siri

Is the circular saw blade really that much faster than a horizontal? That's impressive. I may make the investment.

It IS that much faster cutting aluminum extrusions. I'd used it on solid aluminum, and it's probably about equal on the cutting speed. But even then, you're saving time on post-processing. The circular saw leaves a cut that's much flatter and smoother, with deburring only necessary to remove the occasional thin burr and round off those sharp cut edges. Even past the processing speed, though, is the fact that it's a compound miter saw. If you maintain it and keep your fences square and in-line, you can pretty accurately cut whatever angle you want.

It's also a lot easier to get cuts to the exact length you want on this saw. Cut your part 1/16" longer and measure it. If it's right, stop. Otherwise, with the saw blade down and off, slide the piece over till it touches the flank of the blade. Hold your part, pull the blade up, turn it on and run it down and you've just taken off the tiny distance between the the flank of the saw blade and the outside of the kerf. It's something like 1/32" or less, so with a little extra effort, your nice square cut tube will be within 1/32" of where you want it.

The only downside is that a standard woodworking miter saw will only be good for cutting aluminum and your kerf is definitely larger than on a bandsaw. But it's still only 0.094", so unless you're cutting a heck of a lot of 0.5" pieces or something, you're not going to notice or care.