[R-390] Cutting aluminum sheet

[Tisha Hayes]

Right out of college I was working for a company that also fabricated their
own custom control cabinets out of aluminum. They used a table saw with a
pretty coarse blade. No guards, no shields, they were dragging these big 4'
x 4' sheets of 1/4" aluminum and one guy would wrestle this through the saw.

The entire process horrified me; I was picturing just about every way it
could go bad. Sometimes the metal sheet would ride up and the blade would
cut a nasty gouge on the bottom the sheet as it tried to launch this big
piece of aluminum back in to the belly of the guy who was feeding the
monster. My imagination for how bad it could get would be perfect for movie
making or nightmares.

When I was making prototypes or test jigs out of a bed of nails with POGO
contacts I had to be in the same room. I made every effort to not be there
on aluminum cutting day.

>From what I recall, the blade had to be riding pretty high off of the deck
to minimize the bucking.

It also did make a horrendous noise. Even a half-a-building away I could
hear it when they were cutting aluminum.

*Ms. Tisha Hayes, AA4HA*
*"*There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in **the
town; they are wasting their time.*
* It is possible to be a solitary in one's mind while living in a crowd;
and it is possible for those who are **solitary to live in the crowd of
their own thoughts.*"*
**-Amma Syncletica of Alexandria**