Sir Newton. Great work you are doing. I completely agree with all you are doing to cut AL. I had to buy those overly expensive cap strips because I did not discover the circular saw cuts early on. I did help a friend cut his from sheet material. Quite easy. You may want to consider making yourself a cutting guide for your saw similar to a track. Back a few year again I posted about what I did and a link to a video for making it. Here is the body of the message.
I have cut a bunch of aluminum with a circular saw. All you need is a good carbide non-Ferris blade and a long enough straight edge. I use a festool tracksaw but a regular circular saw will work well. A while back i cut all the cap strips needed for two patrols in under an hour. . Very little cleanup needed on the pieces. Bob says this is how he does it himself. Here is what you need.
first you need a saw setup. Making a track saw is easy. Here is a video from this old house that shows one way.
https://youtu.be/rbTvzViDZmo
then you need the circular saw, the proper blade and a table.
For the table, make a table long enough that you can hold the full sheet of aluminum. I used a couple of pieces of OSB on top of saw horses with 12’ 2x4 under for support. The osb will be used hold the AL sheet and also allow the saw to cut about 1/16†into the osb so the cut is clean on the AL and will also prevent the saw from catching on the AL.
Place the AL on the table so that where the cut is will be over the OSB. You want to make sure you cut into the OSB. Now mark the AL and setup the track and clamp down. Set the saw depth so that it cuts through the AL and only about 1/16 or so into th OSB. You do not want to cut all the way through the osb. If you have the ability to hook a shop vac to th circular saw, it makes less flying AL chips. No simply saw through it. For me I cut through the entire 12’ length in under 30 seconds. Cuts like I was cutting through hardboard. Make sure you are wearing eye protection. I just ran a vixen file done the edge once to take off an stress risers,
I use the same method to cut all wing skins also.
If you use the OSB subsurface, track for the saw and proper blade, you will be surprised with how easy and clean cutting this method works. There is actually less cleanup with the saw cut than with a shear. I have cut a bunch of aluminum with a circular saw. All you need is a good carbide non-Ferris blade and a long enough straight edge. I use a festool tracksaw but a regular circular saw will work well. A while back i cut all the cap strips needed for two patrols in under an hour. . Very little cleanup needed on the pieces. Bob says this is how he does it himself. Here is what you need.
first you need a saw setup. Making a track saw is easy. Here is a video from this old house that shows one way.
https://youtu.be/rbTvzViDZmo
then you need the circular saw, the proper blade and a table.
For the table, make a table long enough that you can hold the full sheet of aluminum. I used a couple of pieces of OSB on top of saw horses with 12’ 2x4 under for support. The osb will be used hold the AL sheet and also allow the saw to cut about 1/16†into the osb so the cut is clean on the AL and will also prevent the saw from catching on the AL.
Place the AL on the table so that where the cut is will be over the OSB. You want to make sure you cut into the OSB. Now mark the AL and setup the track and clamp down. Set the saw depth so that it cuts through the AL and only about 1/16 or so into th OSB. You do not want to cut all the way through the osb. If you have the ability to hook a shop vac to th circular saw, it makes less flying AL chips. No simply saw through it. For me I cut through the entire 12’ length in under 30 seconds. Cuts like I was cutting through hardboard. Make sure you are wearing eye protection. I just ran a vixen file done the edge once to take off an stress risers,
I use the same method to cut all wing skins also.
If you use the OSB subsurface, track for the saw and proper blade, you will be surprised with how easy and clean cutting this method works. There is actually less cleanup with the saw cut than with a shear.
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I have six fails for various reasons over flanging & cracking, 1 flanging backwards, not deburring properly causing cracking! However I am feeling very good about getting some ailerons built. That 8"wide flange beam that the parts are sitting on is going to be a homemade 120" brake. Then we can look after our own braking locally and cost-effectively. It can be done! Have an awesome day 💯
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