Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello fellow welders I am trying to fab up a custom transmission pan for my 4L80E for my 1987 Buick turbo T to get some hood time with real world joints and hone in my fab skills . So long story short I have to cut the bolting flange out of 1/4 or maybe 3/16 5052 aluminum so I made a template out of wood so that I could use a router with a template bit which has a bearing on the top side to ride on the template . So that being said it start out ok and just got worse from there and ended up not turning out the way I wanted. So my question is there any other way to do this a little easier any help would be appreciated thanks in advance. Weld On

Do you have an upright band saw? You can use a grinder with cut off wheel. I've heard you can use a bar of soap or a wax like a candle on your cutting disks to prevent the aluminum from clogging the blade. After you are done you should use a file our something to smooth it out. The last thing you want is a rough edge. It welds like crap.
Check out 6061 on you tube.
He is the aluminum king
Cheers

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I use a jig saw on aluminum with a wood blade running fast.
I also use chop saw and circular saw on it.
For your inside cuts, I'd likely use the circular saw for large plunge cuts, then finish with the jig saw.

I've cut many feet of 1/4" steel sheet with my skilsaw and a metal cutting blade. Wouldn't hesitate to use it on aluminum.
When I built the full rotation gun turret for a customer's humvee, I used the skilsaw, jig saw and plasma as needed.

You need constant lubrication when cutting aluminum. The heat generated from the blade will cause the material to become "gummy". 5052 cuts like crap generally speaking.

1/4" thick flange is thick. Like really thick.

A friend of mine runs a CNC router cutting/milling aluminum parts all the time. Giant 8' x 20' table, drops 2 sheets of alu on it and goes to town. Uses no lubrication, but he says the spindle speed and feed rates need to be absolutely bang on to do that. He regularly cuts 1/4" aluminium, up to 1" sometimes.

He says any bit of variation in feed rates will pretty much instantly clog and ruin a bit. He also said you need a pretty high powered spindle motor, because you have to push that bit hard. So a a hard and very steady cut....I dont think it can be done by hand without a crap load of lube or wax.

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I've been cutting aluminum using a band saw and putting bees wax on the blade. And lots of times using a portaband. Cant remember the tooth count, not in the shop.