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I have a nice sheet aly I bought for my project. It is 2.5~mm chequer plate that needs to be cut into 7 pieces (straight across the sheet, no curves needed), and I tried to cut it with a metal blade in a jigsaw - I only got ¾ of the way through cutting the first piece (2nd photo)

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The problem is the blade became blunted, either due to aluminium wearing it out, or the aluminium melting and blocking it. This probably due to the speed on the jigsaw being set too high, so would it be possible to cut the aluminium using a jigsaw, and if so what would be the best way to go about it? I know about cutting wood and plastic with a jigsaw, I am not experienced at all with cutting metal.

One thought I had would be to try getting some new blades (e.g. 1 2). However I am not sure what would be best specification of blade to look for. The jigsaw is a Makita 4350FCT.

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They do make blades designed for non-ferrous metal, and may make a difference over a standard bi-metal/multipurpose blade. These may be special order v. a home depot find.

I suggest going almost painfully slow to maximize cutting, over deforming the material/dulling the blade.

However, the two best ways I know to cut this material are a power 'nibbler' that cuts semi-circular bits out with a repeating punch style cutter, or on a power shear.

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    Agreed. It sounds like the OP is trying to push through to fast, forcing the blade to cut faster than it's designed to. Let the blade eat the aluminum at its pace, not at your pace. Replace as needed when it does wear down to avoid the issues. Mar 13, 2015 at 13:33
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Aluminum cuts very nicely with a circular saw. Get yourself a new carbide-tipped blade (and some earplugs), clamp a guide to the plate on both sides of the saw, and lower the blade about 1cm past the metal. Push slowly.

A well-used blade, or non-carbide blade, will do a spectacularly poor job.

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I have cut these with both a table/circular saw and an angle grinder. I don't think the blade angle is going to work with a jigsaw. Even a circular saw with small teeth wasn't a clean cut.

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