How To Cut Aluminum Composite Material

[caribmike]

Weirdly, in all my years making signs, I've never used ACM. I've been thinking about buying a few years to play with.

How do you cut this product down to size?

 

[Boudica]

Very sharp blades, and lot's of swipes. after you cut through the first skin of aluminum and the composite, move to the edge of the table and bend it back and forth until it snaps. You will have a sharp lip on that edge, so get out the Sander.
When you can justify the expense, a keen cut is a game changer. Cuts like buttah.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

 

[Stacey K]

I used a circular saw for years and sanded the edges - mostly for larger cuts like cutting a 4'x8' sheet in half etc. Smaller pieces you can do like above.

 

[Billct2]

We use our panel saw for big pieces and shear the small ones. Hit the edge with a file or round bar if needed

 

[DL Signs]

You can do it manually like Boudica does. We just use a panel saw, but you can use a skill saw (with correct blade), jig saw for shapes. Stomp shear works good, router, cnc if you have one... any will work Just use a sanding block, file, or de-bur tool to clean any rough or sharp edges.
Shops will use any/ all of the above, whatever works best for the volume they do, and what equipment they have.

 

[Boudica]

Dang Tex, that's exactly what I tried to describe. Brilliant!

 

[bob]

You can score and snap smaller pieces but for everything else just treat it like it's wood. Table saws, band saws, circular saws, jig saws, etc. The sharp edges left by whatever method you use are not ragged, they are straight but bent up and down. They are far better dealt with by reshaping rather than abrasives. To reshape an ACM edge run a round[ed] metal bar down the edge at a 30-45 degree angle plus or minus ,depending. I have a small piece of a satisfyingly heavy brass bar I keep just for this purpose. If you do this right you should end up with an edge very close to the factory edge. A distant second choice is a deburring tool. Abrasives are the tool of choice for mouth breathing semi-literates.

 

[gnubler]

Cuts like buttah.

Track saw! Like buttah. I imagine a circular saw would also work fine if you have a guide to run along. I also use a jigsaw for rounded/contoured cuts. Before I got the track saw I was mainly cutting by hand and it was a huge PITA.

Any saw you use is going to make a big mess of black shavings from the plastic core..."rat turds" as someone here once termed it.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Shear

 

[Boudica]

This is what we use now. No mess, no sharp edges.

 

[JBurton]

CNC router, as god intended.

 

[Humble PM]

Gotta say Steeltrak.

Many years ago had a client wanted just under 8x3' on DiBond, bigger than our steeltrak. Clamped down the big purple ruler, made the cuts on front face with a stanley knife, and then, how to bend and snap the off cut...?
Ended up "clamping" the 12' off cut by sandwiching and screwing through the two 1" sheets of MDF of the bench top, and levering the 3' remainder.
Then some muppet put the result through the laminator, forgetting the "big brass rod".

Replacing the rollers on the laminator was not fun.

A very humple print muppet.

 

[caribmike]

Many thanks for this! I didn't realize it was so easy!

 

[caribmike]

You can do it manually like Boudica does. We just use a panel saw, but you can use a skill saw (with correct blade), jig saw for shapes. Stomp shear works good, router, cnc if you have one... any will work Just use a sanding block, file, or de-bur tool to clean any rough or sharp edges.
Shops will use any/ all of the above, whatever works best for the volume they do, and what equipment they have.

Thanks for your advise...what type of blade for a Skil Saw or Table Saw would you recommend?

 

[The Sign Goddess]

Panel Saw, Skill Saw, Jig Saw, Router or Utility Knife with a good blade. Follow any of these with a de-burring tool to take the "edge" off that is created when cutting.

 

[caribmike]

Wow...thanks for this! Great information. I can do this!

 

[AndersHerp]

Shear

I came to say this, since we just got ours this year. My head of fabrication has been asking for one for years!!!

 

[DL Signs]

Thanks for your advise...what type of blade for a Skil Saw or Table Saw would you recommend?

Use a fine blade, no less than 60 tooth carbide tip, works good for other stuff too, we usually use 80 tooth carbide tip.

 

[Johnny Best]

If I have a lot of, lets say 1'x4' panels to cut. Will stack 3 4x8x3mm ACM together and line up using a couple of clamps and use my track saw at the right depth and cut what I need. Then 120 grit paper on a sanding block and run it over the edges to achieve a smooth finish.