Aluminum Door Frames

Q: You have some neat aluminum sliding doors and sliding door hardware in your catalog, but what do I need to cut them to size with ordinary cabinet shop tools?

A: First off this is a great question! Aluminum is a HOT material today, and you are wise to consider using it in your designs. Aluminum, as most non-ferrous metals, is an easy to machine with woodshop tools, but you will need to invest in a dedicated blade for your saw(s) and may need to build a couple simple jigs.

The blade of choice is Freud LU89M carbide tipped blade. The biggest difference between cutting wood and aluminum (or any non-ferrous metal) is that the chips that are formed during cutting tend to weld themselves to the teeth of the blade, thereby causing a rough cut. This blade addresses this problem with a special gullet design, that prevents this build-up.

In the case of the Quik-Door, you will be cutting an aluminum extrusion, which has a decorative profile on the face, and a slotted or grooved profile on the back. This back profile permits the use of special corner brackets and hinges that require no additional machining (No 35mm holes to drill!) The problem is that neither the front or back is a good, flat reference surface for your saw. In this case, you may need to make a simple support for the material, which will hold the piece at the proper angle, front side up. Many shops, including ours, have found a simple platform, made of plywood, with Masonite supports, mounting with double-stick tape does the job just fine.

As with any machining process involving metal, we highly recommend the use of a liquid lubricant. This lubrication of the blade can be as simple as a squirt of WD-40 or other similar type of lubricant after 4 or 5 cuts. We discourage the use of wax sticks because they do not flush chips away from the teeth interfering with cut quality and the life of the blade.

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