Help aluminum glue, and what to cut it with.

[jaftygas]

hey guys, I'm wondering what is the best glue to use with aluminum,How do I cleanly cut patterns?

Edited October 18, 2017 by jaftygas

[Ace-Garageguy]

Aluminum has some unique properties that can make it difficult to get a strong bond. For this reason, very specific materials and procedures have been developed to bond it in aerospace applications, as well as high-strength automotive applications.

With proper surface preparation, epoxies, cyanoacrylate and urethanes all work well.

Read this:   http://www.permabond.com/materials_bonded/how-to-bond-aluminum/

What thickness of material are you needing to cut?

[jaftygas]

Thanks Bill. I'll give super glue another try. As far as cutting it I use scissors. However, the medal deforms. 

[Mark]

Other factors will enter into it:

-Aluminum sheet, tubing, or structural shapes?

-Is the aluminum going to be purely decorative (like thin sheet applied over an interior to get the look of aluminum) or will it be structural?

-What are you attaching to...sheet plastic, other metals, or ?

[crazyjim]

I usually cut aluminum tubing with an Xacto knife.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Thanks Bill. I'll give super glue another try. As far as cutting it I use scissors. However, the medal deforms. 

Yeah, cutting thin metal is always a kinda problem. You can usually flatten the edge afterwards by running a block of hardwood down it, but depending on the thickness and the design of the cutting tool, the edge may get slightly stretched. That makes it difficult to straighten.

Real-world sheet-metal shears are made in 3 versions to minimize distortion, so depending on your budget and how much cutting you do, might be worth looking at.

The BEST way to do it is with a mini-shear like this, which is just a scaled-down model of the ones fabricators use. This one comes from Micro-Mark, and can also function as a brake to form radii and sharp folds in sheetmetal.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[jaftygas]

Thanks Bill, if I had the money I would get that press brake for sure.

[Straightliner59]

Joe, I used JB Weld to mount the "eyes" to the aluminum shocks for my Chevelle. As someone else mentioned, I generally use an XActo knife to cut tubing. For cutting this aluminum sheet, I use a fair of Fiskars' scissors. I simply make sure that the side I want to use is lying flat against the blade. It can be a tad awkward, but, it keeps the edges from deforming. Here are a couple of photos of a motor plate I cut using that method.

Edited October 21, 2017 by Straightliner59

[jaftygas]

Thank you Daniel. That is awesome. JB weld? That must not take but a tip of a toothpick. I'm going to 5 min epoxy for some headers I'm doing.

[jaftygas]

Thank you too Bill. I was going to try to make bomber seats for my rat rod. Start with paper flat patterns and then try with very thin gauge aluminum. 

Other factors will enter into it:

-Aluminum sheet, tubing, or structural shapes?

-Is the aluminum going to be purely decorative (like thin sheet applied over an interior to get the look of aluminum) or will it be structural?

-What are you attaching to...sheet plastic, other metals, or ?