Cutting Aircraft Aluminum with a Hackzall

I tried all sorts of tools to cut the thicker aluminum stock while I was building my airplane. I used a band saw with a regular wood blade for most of it, finishing the rough edges with a big disk sander and then deburring with a six-inch Scotch-Brite wheel on a bench grinder. That worked really well except it was kind of time consuming to go through all three steps.

I used a pneumatic hand shear. That worked well except it tended to leave a scar in the surface of the metal about 1/4 inch in from the edge.

I used a throatless lever shear. That worked well except it would bend the metal that was under the cutting blade, which made it hard to use the pieces on both sides of the cut.

I used a metal cut-off wheel on a Dremel. That worked well but the wheels don’t last long and is a very slow process to cut the entire length of a long piece. Then I would need to use a file to even out the wiggles because I could not perfectly control the Dremel.

I just tried something new and it turned out really well.

I used a battery powered hackzall with a fine tooth metal blade. The fine tooth blade kept it from grabbing the aluminum stock. The Milwaukee hackzall has a variable speed trigger so it was easy to get started and easy to control.

Here is a photo of a piece of 0.040 inch 6061 aluminum angle that I cut for the cooling baffles in my airplane. Click to see it larger and take a look at how smooth the cut is, even before deburring.

I will definitely use this tool again. All the speed of the band saw without the need for the sander. And it’s portable, too!