Best way to cut aluminum?
 

What is the Best way to cut aluminum? I have no machines that can do it but may be interested if you can find it cheap or cheap at Harbor Freight.

Depends. Are you talking sheet metal, or machining blocks? If sheets, you can use dremel, hacksaw, or jigsaw (use duct tape to protect the surface from scratching if using a jigsaw).

I was looking to do sheets. I want to cut out a custom chassis so what would be the best for that? I heard a scroll saw maybe?

I would say a jig saw with a really fine tooth metal cutting blade for the average joe person wanting to cut alum. Take your time and use the finest tooth metal blade you can get which is a 24tpi if im not mistaken so that the cut is nice and clean and not ragged. Granted its nothing a file and sandpaper cant fix but using a blade that cuts slower means it will be harder to mess up.

Cutting aluminum
 

Yea cutting aluminum for most of us is best done with a jigsaw and then filed to the shape you desire, and finally sanding it with fine sandpaper to get it to a nice finished look. Then finally polishing it to whatever sheen you are looking for. The best way to cut a sheet into a chassis would be with a milling machine. It can be very cool if you just have a friend who has a mill that can do your work for you just by exchanging a few beers for the job.

I have never made a chassis myself, but if I were going to attempt making one I would do a nice drawing of the layout, and then trasnfer the drawing to your aluminum sheet. Next I would drill pilot holes wherever needed to make cutting as easy as possible. Finally cutting out your design with either a jigsaw, or if you can find a good blade that would cut aluminum in a scrollsaw that would be the cat's meow because of the great versitility that a scrollsaw provides. Good luck with your project and please come back and share your results with us.

Circular saw to get the rough shape ('boundary' cuts) then use a jigsaw or hacksaw to cut in finer detail

You need the correct circular saw blade of course & cutting agent!

I wouldn't buy a power tool for a single chassis. I've found that with a little patience, hand saws produce a very good result. A hack saw can make a very straight cut if you follow a straight line with the saw at a long angle - the blade itself keeps you cutting straight. A finer-blade saw can make nice round cuts:

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/show...8&postcount=54

I've had to do very little filing/sanding when I'm done.

I don't think he was suggesting 'buy a power tool' just if he had one available. Even a 4" grinder with 1mm blade could could do the same thing (plate might get hot though) but doing rough cuts can speed things up sometimes.