Cutting ACM

[Gino]

Hahaaa,,,,,, guess I'm just old fashioned. I've had the same table saw for well over 30 years and have cut all kindsa wood, plastics, pvc's, sheet aluminum and in recent years acm and have never had a problem. Cost was around $600 and today, it costs around 12 or 13 hundred. I think it's a 16 amp, so it pretty much goes through anything up to about 5". And I use the same 80 tooth cross cut for just about everything. The panel saw has either a 36 tooth or 40 tooth blade and it also cuts everything. I have 4 or 5 circular saws which have the various blades for ripping, fine tooth, or other specialty cutting. Just the edge of anything metal takes any burrs off, if needed.

 

[MHester]

I don't know why this doesn't get handed out more often.

Thanks for that! This is a gold mine!!

 

[MFA]

A tiny hand plane works good for removing the burr on a straight edge.

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

Find someone that has a cnc router and work up a relationship to have them cut stuff for you. I had someone like that before I purchased my Esko.

 

[bob]

A tiny hand plane works good for removing the burr on a straight edge.

Infinitely better is either a burr removal tool, available at most hardware stores, or a brass bar run over the rough edge with down pressure at about 30 degrees. If done properly the bar will reform the edge to something just like the factory edge but is slower than the burr removal tool. Leave the plane in a drawer somewhere.

 

[netsol]

Karst41,
i know i am replying to an old thread, but, better late than never.
NOT A GREAT IDEA, slowing that motor down with a vatiac.
full disclosure, i do it all the time, but, it seriously shortens the life of that motor, AND THEY MAKE MOTORS LIKE S**T these days.

 

[Ldireprophil]

If you can afford it, get a cutting/routing table, it will cut your ACM and every other material you have.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Nothing cuts acm better than a stomp shear. NOTHING

 

[Gary1]

Hi there!.

As you can guess I'm a newbie to signage (offset printing background). Is there a relatively cheap accurate way to cut ACM. (I'm looking for a tool or bit of equipment) for some reason I'm getting a lot of small ACM work ( Curb side parking signs, small information signs etc.). Just scoring with a knife and snapping is to slow (and not accurate enough) and I'm allways freaking out that a staff member is going slip and take the end of there finger off. (You should see our health and safety laws here). I do have a large Vertical substrate cutter. (FSC Fletcher Substrate Cutter) but this is not suitable for small cuts. I'm only a small shop and don't want to spend thousands (my ROI would not be good enough). At this stage I'm thinking of getting them all cut out and I'll just keep in store as blanks. (If I can find a local business that can do this for me, not holding my breath).

Your thoughts are appreciated.

thanks Simon

Trac Saw.

 

[Farmboy]

Sorry to kick an old post, but for those with a stomp shear, are you able to fit a full sheet of 6mm omega in it? Do you have clearance at the far end? Thank you.

 

[Joseph44708]

Sorry to kick an old post, but for those with a stomp shear, are you able to fit a full sheet of 6mm omega in it? Do you have clearance at the far end? Thank you.

Yes

 

[JimmyG]

Sorry to kick an old post, but for those with a stomp shear, are you able to fit a full sheet of 6mm omega in it? Do you have clearance at the far end? Thank you.

I have a 42 inch stomp shear. It will cut 2mm polymetal fine but struggles to cut wide pieces of 3mm. 2mm polymetal stopped sourcing from china, and I have not found a new source for 2mm. I wish I could as it has many purposes.
I have to use a router to cut 6mm.

 

[gnubler]

Track saw. Pluses: clean edges, cuts like buttah. Minus: sprays black shavings everywhere and they can get static-y.

 

[somcalmetim]

Table saw is terrible to use, buy yourself a handheld concrete shear or metal shear, it crushes the edges so they arent sharp and doen't make dust and will also so curves.

 

[Norman Clifton]

You can use a knife (Foka in Portuguese) and straight edge. Pain in the rear and do not forget "Nominal"
when packing in a box to ship.

Table Saw, and what you are not being told.
I have a Dewalt portable on a roll out stand 10" blade easy enough right? Wrong

1. You need to buy a Diablo blade for Plastics and Metal I think it has 90 teeth and cost
about $100. Just for the Blade. Do not be foolish and go buy a regular 80 tooth carbide
it aint and I mean to tell you it aint the same blade and will do a poor job.

The Diablo blade that Cost $100 has three edge carbide teeth, and when you match the correct feed rate
the edges are beautiful.

2. Regular tables saws RPM is too fast, and I repeat that feed rate is highly important.
If you Donkey Kong a bunch of cuts and stacked cuts, you going to ruin that $100 Blade.

3. I am strongly considering buying a VariAc off eBay. Basically you plug the saw into the variac
and drop the Voltage to slow down the RPM of the Blade practice with a few scraps.

4. A stiff leather apron, Safety Glasses and 3m Head Phones.

5. Vacuum. If you buy a rigid shop vac you need to go to the plumbing dept to get the rubber step down reducer
Takes like 2.5" and drops to 1.5 or something like that. Then go get a roll of the self adhesive weather stripping.
You desperately need this to seal off the shop vac, the little black chips go everywhere and the foam striping
seals off the vac and increases the vacuum. Im not joking it is a must.

6. All cuts Outside. but you already know this.
Pay your supplier to cut down the sheets is the better option

7 For Everybody.
Go to Lowes. In the Hardware dept they have knife and scissor sharpeners.
There is the Yellow one that has the ceramic X cut on one side and Carbide x cut on the other side
These do a killer job of DeBurring the ACM One fast pass each side. Light and Fast to avoid chatter
with the Carbide side. You can make quick work of that process.

I have made Tens of Thousands of small ACM signs and that's how you get it done.

BTW. Buy this 'fish from Piedmont Plastics or Calsak plastics Cut fee is only $30.
Spec NO Back Cuts and make your sizes to Nominal with is the Width of the Blade

a 6" x 12" sign board will be 5.875" x 11.875" there should be no waste of the ACM
all drops should be useable to a minimum 4"x8" Nominal.
so do keep that in mind. Materials management makes you money.
Scraps in the trash can is money you will never see.

Like that CapitolOne Commercial "Whats in your Wallet"

Whats in Your Trash Can or How Much Money is in your trash can. It can Easily be next years Vacation
PCB Florida or Grand Cayman

Cheers

Hello Joseph - thanks for the great tips - on the VariAc - there are a ton of them on ebay all different specs and price ranges - can you define requirements so i get the closest match to whats needed I have a good skill saw and the correct blade.

 

[signmania]

We use a stomp shear--very clean cuts. Also have a panel saw for long cuts. In a pinch I've reverse mounted a saw blade and had pretty good results. Does leave a mess, and then I take a sanding block (80 grit) to knock down sharp edges.

 

[d fleming]

First two tools I bought after plotter all those years ago were a table and panel saw. Been using them both regularly. You can get away with a tale saw as Gino said, just get a triple chip blade with as many teeth as you can. Usually around 80 teeth or so. To trim burs I remove protective sheet and run the side of a screwdriver along the edge. Even have a piece of sandpaper stapled to a small board cut from wood fence picket just to make it super sexy, lol.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Sorry to kick an old post, but for those with a stomp shear, are you able to fit a full sheet of 6mm omega in it? Do you have clearance at the far end? Thank you.

You can lift up the stomp bar enough to likely get your whole arm in it if you had to. 6MM is no problem

 

[Farmboy]

Saw is out of the question. I'm not dealing with the clean up and chances of getting pieces under lam or vinyl. Also, on occasion I'll have a good order of small squares and need to keep a consistent
cut. Looking a a Dayton 52". My concern is that there may not be enough clearance for 6mm near the low edge of the blade. No one at the company seems to want to get back, even though I'm looking to drop 4 grand.

 

[JBurton]

Saw is out of the question. I'm not dealing with the clean up and chances of getting pieces under lam or vinyl. Also, on occasion I'll have a good order of small squares and need to keep a consistent
cut. Looking a a Dayton 52". My concern is that there may not be enough clearance for 6mm near the low edge of the blade. No one at the company seems to want to get back, even though I'm looking to drop 4 grand.

Find a used Pexto sheet metal shear. Less than 4 grand and much more heavy duty than anything built in the last 20 years. Something like this, but find a 5' one for the odd 5' sheet.

16 Ga. x 4', Used Pexto Foot Shear, Mdl. 152-K, A7200 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 16 Ga. x 4', Used Pexto Foot Shear, Mdl. 152-K, A7200 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

You can also buy them new from tennsmith.