Cutting Aluminum Siding

[sparkplug188]

On my conversion, I made single 20' long bay doors for both sides.  They are hinged at the top by 20' long piano hinges.  How would you cut the aluminum siding to fit around the hinge? I have already done one side with a jig saw.  I scribed two lines down the length of the siding.  I followed the scribe line with the edge of the blade.  It took 6 hours to scribe, cut, and sand the pieces to fit perfectly.  Does anyone know of a better way to get perfectly straight "rip" cuts on aluminum siding?

I considered using a plasma cutter or table saw.. I am concerned the heat will damage the anodized coating.  The plasma cutter with a straight edge sure would be nice.

Edit: I found this video of a plasma cutter cutting anodized aluminum.  Looks like plasma cutting would destroy 1/8" of the coating.

http://youtu.be/COoMMC3OYc0

[Boomer]

Waterjet.

[luvrbus]

A plasma is not the way to I have a 20 ft section to prove the point,mark it have someone in the area water cut it the guy here only charged me 20 bucks to cut 1 in 20 ft long no touch up was needed a neat process very clean Boomer beat me to it  

[Boomer]

Went through  Baxter Springs, Kansas once and there was a big sign saying it was the water jet center of the world.  I guess KMT Mfg. perfected the manufacturing machines there, big operation.  Check their website. Gotta love it, Made in America.

[sparkplug188]

I did some Googling and found a full service machine shop with water jet about 10 minutes away from my house.  They said they can slip my little job in between big jobs some time by the end of next week.  As long as time isn't an issue- $35.  That works for me!  I really didn't want to spend most of a day slowly pushing a jig saw along a scribe line.

[chessie4905]

   That is the way to go...except if you waste that cutting time doing non productive things.

[sparkplug188]

I have been rocking and rolling on this project. This week I cut out, replaced, and painted the floor supports over the drive and tag axles, changed out all the fuel and vent lines, replaced the fuel level sender and pickup tubes, put down the last four sheets of subfloor, insulated the the entire underside of the subfloor with Roxul fireproof insulation, and replaced the starter motor. The mini-split system arrived yesterday and needs to be installed today.  I love working in this 30F-50F weather.  It is perfect- no sweating and never cold.  The only way to get cold is sitting still for too long. 

[chessie4905]

   OK then, you are approved to have the water jet cutting job done.

[sparkplug188]

Haha! I wasn't justifying the cutting job.  Just saying thanks to all of you guys!  If it weren't for you all I wouldn't be nearly as motivated to get stuff done.  Nearly every decision has been influenced by people on this forum.

[bevans6]

While I totally agree with water jet if you have that option, the way I would do it is to tape the cut heavily, clamp a guide on the sheet and use a circular saw with a fine tooth carbide wood cutting blade.  And a face mask and ear protectors.  Cuts aluminium fast, neat and easy, just loud.

Brian

[daddyoften]

Ditto on the saw blade, I cut metal siding all the time that way, I use a metal cutting blade and that works great! :-)

[sparkplug188]

Yeah, I thought about running it through the table saw with a wood cutting blade on it.  That is how I cut 1/4" aluminum tread plate for my tool box work surface.  I was so nervous cutting that aluminum tread plate.  I had images in my head of the aluminum binding or kicking back.  In the end, it turned out okay.

I am sure water jet is the way to go.

[gumpy]

Carbide blade on a circular saw or table saw. Simple and cheap.

[luvrbus]

Jeese,you probably found it out cutting the one piece with the jig saw most of the Eagle siding has been solution heat treated that stuff is hard there nothing soft about it 

[sparkplug188]

Clifford- That explains why I was breaking the teeth off my jigsaw blades. I didn't know the siding was heat treated.