At the fiberglass boat shop I worked at, one guy would always tape the bottom of the jigsaw and make his cut and there would wind up being a bunch of scratches needing to be buffed out because the tape would pick up some of the cut particles and drag them across the surface. So I usually taped the work surface, did my layout on the tape, and peeled it off after cutting.

After 8 years. Still big thank you🙏

I appreciate the way you explained the available options!

Thank you so much!! It's just simple and direct to the point! After I searched for the Aluminium cutting services with the cnc and other things, they are all very costly just for the cutting price!.. Now I will be able to do it myself at home.....Thank you!!

Jigsaw with metal blade du. I have been thinking about the best way of doing this for 2 months. Thanks for showing me the obvious option for someone that only has Ryobi tools.

Also make sure your blade is not in an orbital motion, rub some paraffin wax on the blade every few inches, and set the entire work piece on a sheet of 2" foam insulation to cut into so you don't have to hang it over the edge of the table. Keep a small wire brush handy to clear any aluminum chips that will stick to the teeth. And wear ear plugs.

You are my Hero! Just started Basic Metalworking/Welding Class at the Morean Art Center...You just ROCK!!!

Great! haha I just got a cutting torch. I was reading on, I think the Miller welding forums, people saying not to use that torch for aluminum. I was going to get a saw from Home Depot that is like, $299. BUT, this way will save me a lot of money. All your videos save me time. Money, well, I see your toys and then I have to buy them. LOL So, hey, at least you save me time.

I cut lots of thin and medium gauge sheet material at work (= wheelchair customization). I agree with Kevin that a jigsaw is a good idea. However, he left out some important details. I recommend using a specific alu cutting blade or wood blade because the standard metal blades quickly get gummed up while the alu specific blades last much longer. It's also a good idea to clamp the sheet down onto a flat surface to avoid vibration. Thin gauge material can start to resonate at certain cutting frequencies if you are using a variable speed jigsaw. The blade can also seize if the sheet sags while you are cutting it because it is incorrectly supported. I do not find that using alu specific lubricant is needed unless you cut very thick material (e.g. 1/2" inch). My preferred tool is a Bosch 18V cordless jigsaw with a Bosch alu blade.

Intuitively I thought the jigsaw would be a great tool for trimming off an aluminum column. Thank you thank you for verifying my first guess! The jigsaw I used for cutting plywood 60 years ago is still the go-to tool in my shop!

Thanks again for the information. Have been taking Mig and Tig at a nearby adult school and your videos help answer questions I have when in my shop trying to fabricate on a budget. Your demonstrations are great too.

Cutting fluid when you're either cutting or drilling this stuff (aluminum lubricant) helps tremendously.

I use a Makita Cordless 5-⅜" Metal Cutting Saw. I've used it to cut ¼in steel plate. You can also buy metal cutting blades for regular skill saws.

16GA and thinner can be cut much faster and cleaner with electric shears. I have Milwaukee. Yes, they cut out a 1/4" swipe of material, but the time saved and accuracy, as well as the ease of use makes it a no-brainer for me. The shears will cut a nice curve too. I had no trouble cutting a 10" radius making a set of aluminum kayak pontoons.

Thanks. I'm a girl cutting a sheet for a camping table. Needed a quick tutorial on how to do it best with what I've got.

Kevin how would you cut in the middle of the aluminum? I would like to cut out a door for a tiny camper. I plan to use the piece i cut out and the rest of the aluminum.

God, people can be so negative today! (See comments below) I really appreciate u making this video and feel less than intelligent for not considering this option. Thank you!

Got me on that one! Don't remember off the top of my head what blade was on there. Thanks for posting..

For awkward heights I have sometimes found it useful to put my saw or small shear on a hydraulic lift table. That way I can position exactly even with the table and move the saw instead of the metal.

Nice video Kevin, I learnt some stuff today so thanks heaps.

A jigsaw with a metal blades cuts like butter through aluminium. Easy to do as Kevin says. Noisy, but easy to do!

I like using: Ammonia, Alcohol, and some blue dish soap. Household ammonia is ammonium hydroxide. This solution contains 5% to 10% Ammonium hydroxide is used as a refrigerant gas because ammonia absorbs heat from its surroundings. Dexron: works wonders when you're using carbide burrs to cut aluminum with a die grinder. You can also cut 1/2 in. Aluminum sheet with a carbide ply saw blade.

Genius !!!! Using a jigsaw to saw. Why didn't I ever try that...

i use a 1mm cutting disc coated in a thin layer of pig lard. cuts clean and super easy

Works great for smaller pieces. When you start ripping a full 4x8 sheet it gets a little harder to hold up the pieces. Will have to set one up someday to play with. Just need a new aluminum piece to work on.......

Thank you so much for the tip it's much easier to cut it

Great idea. You could also use a pneumatic air nibbler.

Good video. I need to cut .032" aluminum sides for a teardrop trailer, and hoped you would suggest a jigsaw, since aviation snips seem to distort the metal. To those complaining about the length of the video, I've seen plenty of vids where people babble for 20 minutes, shake the camera, trip over garbage, and tell you essentially nothing.

I work with aluminum sheet all the time, and using a jigsaw to cut sheet metal will definitely leave scratches, even with the tape on the bottom of the saw, just think where all those metal chips are going as you cut, under the pad. I now use an electric shear to cut my aluminum, but I still get scratches from the tool.

I've been cutting my artwork out w/ a jewelers saw. While that's what I need for some intricate work, THIS would be very helpful in cutting down larger sheets to smaller ones rather than spending 6 hours w/ my little jewelers saw. What kind of blades do you use on the jig? Is there any problem w/ stutter w/ lighter gauges like 18 or 20? THANKS so much for this time saving idea!

You bet!! Shears up to 1/8 inch work great but they get pricey for the bigger units.

"do you wanna know how I'm gonna do it?" It would have been a short video if he had said "No!"

Nice metal shop like that should have a unishear. A jigsaw works great on heavier guage (18 guage and up) metals. Lighter guage will tend to jump around.

Thank You, Kevin. That is very helpful

Thanks guys! That's a tool even I own! Good tip on the duct tape, too!

Thank you Sr. For The Idea,Great Video Some times the old school way is the best...

when i cut sheet ALU with a Jigsaw i set the small blade guide wheel real tight at the back of the blade ,,,, seems to not grab as much ,,,, also i use a little lube , Turps works great ,,

@VisorBlue get one with a good variable speed control, most of the time using a jigsaw to cut metal you don't want to be screaming along at hi RPM's, if your doing long cuts you don't want to have to hold the trigger down half way and get cramps too. Also get one with a quick change blade holder, not the stupid screw grip type. Makita do some very nice ones

I have to cut some 1/16 diamond deck aluminum just straight cuts mostly. To me it seems I could cut it as we do galvanize 18 gauge by sandwiching between plywood then running through the table saw. wish me luck

Thanks my friend ❤️💪🙏

Great video! It's all about getting er done! Thanks for the insight

That was actually super helpful. Thanks!

I watch all of your videos. Thank you.

I never would have thought of that. Great tip!

Clogs the teeth in those bits. I ended up using a circular saw with a wood finish blade. 50 tpi. Worked great.

when you say, "nice and slow", do you mean A. moving the jigsaw through the metal slowly, or B. have the jigsaw blade going up and down nice and slow?

You can cut thin aluminum like that with a one hand router and a cheap 5 buck Ryobi fluted bit.. Perfectly clean, controlled, not risking getting caught up like a jigsaw.. That's how they cut/trim aluminum for trailers at the factory.

If you have one! The guy I made this video for is working out of his basement with the most basic tools.

exactly what I used to punch a nice square cutout for a cat5e jack. Drill bit by 3 steps up till it hits the side of the trace, ad used this to insert and cut the square

That's funny, I've always used a jigsaw to cut aluminium sheet and just today I received a plasma cutter I bought on eBay - mainly to cut aluminium because I find the jigsaw so slow and tiring to use. Am I in for a bad surprise?

Excellent! Thank you!

great idea.... thank

hi mate what sort of blade and at what speed for saw ? jim south australia

Thanks, learned that one in the Navy...

Got any ideas how to cut lots of ventilation slots in 3mm sheet?

You need to state how many teeth per inch your blade is. Aluminum tends to clog jigsaw and band saw blades.

1/4 inch aluminum stock i need to cut in half, lengthwise. In your opinion woud an abrasive wheel or a circular saw bade,made for aluminum w/(teeth)? Might take more than 1 abrasive wheel at $3 each,where circuar blade/teeth $32,but then I'd be done with it. I have no choice but to use a 7.25 skil saw,and HD/owes has blades,but no one there had any experience

Thanks Kevin, that's a great idea. I wish I had thought of that before I use a1/4" piece of uhmw and countersunk some small machine screws to hold it on. Mine looks like overkill now. Great job!

Really!? so, is that a special blade on the saw? by metal blade, do you mean "special blade for cutting metal" ? (obviously I'm new to this). It is good of you to share this info. Thank you.

If all you need is a straight cut use a skill saw with a carbide blade and protective face shield. It cuts easy but chips fly everywhere.

Lots of hearsay on the internet. Some guy said use woodblade since AL gums up metal blades. I did and even sprayed it down with WD40 and it took forever just to cut 1.5 inches on a .125in thick plate. I have 40 to go. Looks like you went through the sheet like butter with metal and just clean it often and maybe place wood under the plate to clean the blade as it cuts. Anyways, thanks for the demo.

How long does the battery last, inches wise....

I was hoping for more facts and less ham. What blade manuf? How many TPI? What speed are you runnin the DeWalt? Are you using it straight up and down or a little oscillations?

Would be ideal but they can be expensive for the larger models..

Hi Kevin. Thanks for the tip. I've got a 1/2" aluminum outboard bracket to cut into. Think it'll still work? I can go real slow. It's not a big notch.

Kevin , I want to cut out frogs and other semi-detailed stuff. Any suggestions?

It varies depending material type and thickness. I've cut just under 4ft ¼in steel for a project at home. for exp. I use it for topping fence posts to height. I've done 20 alum. 2x2 sq. posts on one charge

Very helpful, thank you! And never mind the trolls, spend your time creating! :)

Hi Kevin. What advice can you give regarding distortion when welding panel steel please? Cheers Vaughan

Could I cut a piece of 1" wide, 1/4" thick 6061 aluminum stock this way? Thanks....

Love it! It's like the red green show with the duct tape 😂 Good advice though...am about to use this method for my aluminium.

Good point, thanks for posting...

good idea using duck tape on the bottom of the jigsaw great video Kevin keep them coming... ...

Great idea - am going to try this - thanks!

How thick was the aluminum sheet? 3/16?

You know Kevin,If you mount a jig saw,on lets say a router table type deal.Get a router mounting pad,and install a jig saw in its place you can get pretty good control by guiding your material instead of you saw.Just slow it down going around bends and corners. Guess you notice that I can't go sleep yet/ Paisano

how thick this is? i gotta 1/2 inch thick aluminum plate that i wanna cut... kinda sceptic abut a little jigsaw cutting it, don't belive it can do it

I tried to cut some aluminum (3/16" thick) with my jig saw, using metal blades, but they were completely useless after about 1/2" of cutting. The orbital setting was on zero. I tried both high and low speed settings, but I couldn't get more than 1/2" cut per blade. What blade did you use to cut this arc and how many blades did you use?

More awesome tips as usual!

NICE! A tool I can afford. Any recommendations on metal cutting jigsaws?

thanks for the idea i am making an rc car body out of sheet metal and i need a way to cut it I guess i could use metal shears.

Yep, I had accidently found out you can use a saw on aluminum with no problems

thanks mate

Didn't start cutting until 2:40...

Don't see why not. You may have to cut a little slower but should work just fine.

What kind of blade did you use?

Its more common for guys to have a jigsaw than a router. I've had a jigsaw for years as they come in handy! Never needed a router though.

thanks for the demo. Good to see this done before actually doing it myself. But there sure is a lot of wanker comments (they'll move out of their Pa's basement someday).

nice vid kevin.what about using power shears?

Well bigger is easier but you can do it with any size. Just have to go a little slower and give it a chance to chew.

Wow, you're killing me, 3 minutes to say "Use a jigsaw" yeah, that's pretty funny lol

But a jigsaw is so loud. What if you have neighbors?

@ornametalsmith Great tip! When I need to cut the next set of panels I will give it a try. But first I have to play with the new toy!!

Great job

I'm interested in starting into metal art. Can you use the jigsaw for more detail as well? What would you recommend if not? Any sugestions on starting would be great as well. Thanks so much!

Genius!

Use a carbide tiped circular saw instead. Just make sure you have your aluminum clamped down and spray it down with some wd40.

What if you don't have a jigsaw?

Does this work for something 3/16th inches thick?

What amp Jigsaw would you suggest using for 14 ga aluminum?