How to choose the perfect blade for cutting aluminum.

Simple as these saw blades may look, there are quite a lot of things you need to know before rushing and buying the wrong product.

Here we will give you useful tips that are short but sufficient for you to pick out the right circular saw blade for cutting aluminum.

1. Types of blades.

When it comes to saw blades, there are plenty of models. However, you just need to focus on the following two main types of saw blades for cutting aluminum:

• Metal Cutting Blades.

This kind of saw blade features segregative tiny teeth with sturdy slots between them.

That special design helps these blades to slice through metal sheets or pipes efficiently. However, they can only cut metal sheets of up to 11-gauge thickness but not thicker ones.

• Abrasive Blades

Carved from fiberglass, these blades get better durability and higher power.

As such, you can use them to cut through metal tubes, bars, and plates of moderate thickness.

2. Kerf

Kerf can be understood as the blade’s thickness.

As a rule of thumb, thick blades can be sharpened better and combined with robust motors to cut through things more quickly.

On the contrary, a thin kerf is weaker, more flimsy, and suitable for saws with smaller motors.

With that being said and the fact that the blade will inevitably suffer from wear and tear over time, a thicker kerf is better.

Nonetheless, because each saw merely match blades within a certain thickness range, you should only aim for the thickest kerf that your saw can fit.

3. Teeth.

Another critical factor that you cannot overlook is the tooth count of the saw blade since the number of teeth determines the nature of the cut.

While more teeth make smooth cuts, fewer teeth deliver stiffer cuts. As a result, the thicker your aluminum workpieces are, the fewer teeth your saw blade should have, and vice versa.

We can give you a straightforward formula to calculate the suitable tooth count as below:

• If you usually cut aluminum objects that are less than 1/16-inch in thickness, purchase a saw blade that features more than 10 teeth per diameter inch.
• When you cut materials of roughly 1/8-inch thickness, buy a saw blade that features 10 teeth per inch of diameter (e.g., a 12-inch x 120-tooth or 10-inch x 100-tooth blade.)
• Any aluminum piece that is 1/4-inch in thickness, 8 teeth per inch of diameter is ideal.
• Anything made of aluminum that is thicker than 1/4 inches should be cut with blades that have 6 teeth per diameter inch.

4. Gullet.

The gullet is the little area lying between two teeth to remove chips.

The bigger chips your aluminum objects generate when being cut, the deeper gullets your saw blade should have, and vice versa.

5. Hook Angle

Hook angle or “rake”, is the angle of the blade’s teeth with respect to the blade center.

If the tips of the teeth are away from the blade motion, your blade has a negative hook angle. This negative design will reduce the feed rate dramatically.

On the other hand, if the tips of the teeth are is in the direction of the blade motion, you can perform more aggressive cuts.

Conclusion.

We have just summarized the most important knowledge that you need to know when buying a circular saw blade for cutting aluminum.