Cutting Raupanel

Carbide blade

24 tooth per inch will suffice, and should be available. You will need a deburring tool.



Gordy

Cutting Raupanel:

Jeff,

I just looked up what Raupanel is.

Plywood panels with aluminum transfer plates? If so, I personally would feel quite comfortable cutting it with a good hand circular saw ("Skil Saw"). I would use the finest, most teeth carbide blade I could get and it can be an El Cheapo. I don't know the width of the panels but there are ways to make a "jig" that will make it easier to cut. If it is not all that wide, like 12" to 16", you can buy a "saw protractor" that has a long blade. The blade is adjustable and has marks on it to set angles. It is just an adjustable framing speed square. You can also get very long plastic speed squares. Like maybe with a 24" blade. You just set the square on the mark and cut away, using the protractor as a guide. Like the wood butchers do.

If the pieces are very wide, I use a third world table saw/cut off saw, that consists of a piece of 1/4" or 3/8" plywood with a fence consisting of a piece of wood, screwed on to the plywood, leaving enough to the right so that after you have screwed the fence on, you saw it off with the saw you will always be using. This fence or I have heard them referred to as "Shooter Boards", is used to run the saw against. It will give you a perfect cut every time. If you need to take a scoch off because it is too long or you need to adjust for an angle, it cuts easily with no pain. I've used these boards for years. The boards are never more than 14" wide and as long as you want to make them. I have a 54" one  and a 96" one. You can also buy a Festool set up for a lot of $$$. My El Cheapo works just as well and can be made out of scrap lumber. For my serious ones, I use a piece of aluminum stock for the fence.

Try that. It will work. And when you support the work with boards under, you will never get a break off at the end. And you don't need a chalk box to make a line nor do you need to follow a line.

Blades:

Was the blade a carbide blade?

The panels couldn't be very thick because aluminum is pricy by weight.

I still think that a 7 1/4" circular saw with a decent 40 tooth blade will give you cuts all day long. The vinyl siding is so thin that it will chip out. I use a carbide blade in my saw and have cut aluminum downspouts with out any problems. I've cut copper tube on angles with my slide saw. I've cut corian and other things with nary a problem. A cut off saw blade will probably plug up with aluminum stock.

Also, I have a Bosch saber type saw. They sell a carbide saw blade that I use on Stainless steel. I also use it on coated threaded rod. It is so hard that it will dull a regular top quality Bosch blade. The problem with aluminum is that it easily clogs the space between teeth. Try the circular blade before you go nuts with something that may not work. I use my saw for cutting wood and then cutting whatever. With no blade dulling or damage.

It works for me.

Oil the Blade?

Back in the seventies when I was making solar panels from aluminum extrusions, I used a radial arm saw with carbide teeth and learned I had to touch the spining blade occasionally with "saw wax" which kept the aluminum from sticking to the teeth and stopping the cutting process. I've heard WD-40 works.

Bill Clinton