I am Not familiar with the saw. However, wear safety goggles, mask, sleeves and gloves. A metal cutting circ caw throws chips everywhere at high velocity.

 

Thanks. I'm all over the PPE

 

No experience with that saw, but I've stack cut roofing metal with a circ saw. Very loud, throws lots of angry little metal splinters everywhere, but it does work. You have to feed into the cut slowly to keep from grabbing. A fine tooth blade helps, too.

Personally, I'd use an angle grinder, abrasive blade for a circ saw (I guess), or a plasma cutter... That's just me, though.

 

I have that saw and use it regularly. I have cut sheets of steel from 1/16" to 1/2" as well as aluminum from 1/16" to 1/4"
There are different blades available based on the metal type and thickness being cut. Nearly all of the brands do well. For thinner metal such as 1/16", use a higher tooth count blade such as 50 tooth or greater.

Support both sides of the cut if you can by placing the sheet between two saw horses or something else. When I make longer cuts I also stop after a foot or so and place vise grips or a clamp on the beginning of the cut to lessen vibration and the cut closing up.

 

Thanks for the tips and clarifying I should be fine on 11ga sheet metal with some care taken. The extra support and stabilization makes good sense. Do you ever use it to take off < 1" from the 1/16" material? I can foresee a situation where I need to take off an extra 1/4", for instance. I'm wondering if Milwaukee's comments about minimum 1" cutoff relate to safety, quality of cut, or more of a frustration factor.

 

With a guide and a proper set up you can take off 1/4 inch no problem. Me personally I would use an abrasive wheel that is .035 thick.

 

On a circular saw or angle grinder? It does seem that for thinner material the wheel is better, though I've also shied away from using abrasive wheels, due to their propensity to come apart on occasion and have gravitated towards a diamond blade on my angle grinders. Do you find those can be as effective?

 

I have had to trim small amounts off thinner sheet. If you are taking 1/2" or less, it may get caught in the guard.
I get around that by making a cut until it is at the guard or into it. Stopping the cut, then bending the scrap down so the guard helps to push it down instead of into the guard.

 

Ok, thanks. That's exactly what I was wondering about. Sounds like it's more of an inconvenience thing than anything.

 

I've cut a 14' long insulated door panels with aluminum on both sides to make an insulated area for my water pump in my crawl space. Regular wood metal blade cut great. Mind you I looked like an aluminum chia pet when I was done from the pieces it was throwing off. It was noisy as he77 too.
I have cut 14ga steel with a carbide blade, blade lasted for about 40' of cutting, I think it was the vibration that finally did it in.

 

I have successfully used circular and radial-arm saws for such purposes, equipped with both abrasive and normal steel blades. Your M6370 has a rotational speed of 3700 rpm vs ~11,000 for an angle grinder, so reasonable sized abrasive blades shouldn't come apart, or be nearly as dangerous if they did.

That said, here's what Milwaukee says about this saw you're asking about: [Copied From Here; highlighting mine]

6370-20

8" Metal Cutting Saw

Milwaukee's 8" Metal Cutting Circular Saw delivers faster, cooler, cleaner, more affordable metal cutting. Forget the showers of hot metal chips and sparks that were once an aerial threat on metal construction jobsites. The 6370 shears the metal, producing a virtually spark-free wake and cool, burr and scorch-free edges that don't require post-cut finishing. Cool cut waste, in the form of metal shavings, is effectively contained with a durable magnesium blade shield and channeled into the saw's integral ChipTank. Cool cutting also means that materials can be handled almost immediately following a cut, reducing downtime. Driven by a powerful 15 amp (1-3/4 max HP), 3,700 RPM motor and equipped with a full grill of razor-sharp, cermet-tip teeth, the 6370 tears through tough cuts without hesitation. Count on up to 10 gauge sheets and 1/4 in. steel plate cuts, all day, every day. More extreme cuts, even up to 3/4 in. steel plate, are possible when proper operating techniques are used. Any way you slice it, cold cutting metal means value. Internal test results indicate that our new metal cutting blades last a minimum of 25 times a standard abrasive wheel. Specially-formulated cermet tip metallurgy and tooth geometry ensure these incredible blades cut faster, stay sharp longer, and resist more impacts. Translation? A significantly lower cost per cut ($0.20 versus $0.60), not to mention the savings associated with 1 versus 25 blade changes. To keep on target, the new 6370 features a set of on-board sight-line and blade point-of-entry indicators along with a slot in the saw's shoe for a rip fence. It is also the first and only corded metal cutting saw to feature a lower guard retraction lever. Plunge cuts, a frequent challenge for metal roofing contractors, are fast and furious with this exciting new tool. The lever's location, adjacent to the side handle, ensures that the user has both hands firmly on the saw throughout the cut. Beyond its capacity to cut solid, thicker gauge materials, the 6370, with a 2-9/16 in. cut-depth, screams through most corrugated metal roofing and decking sheets, structural, shape, grating and framing materials in one-pass. Insufficient cut depth means material must be flipped over and re-cut, usually a two-man operation. To ensure a smooth ride, the new 6370 is equipped with a set of serious comfort features. The tool's rear and side handles feature soft, tactile gripping surfaces and are designed to comfortably fit any user's hands. The side handle is canted forward to reduce wrist strain as well as wrapped completely to the motor housing, offering maximum comfort and control in any cutting orientation. Down-time is lost time so we've added valuable, time-saving features to the 6370. Removing the blade shield to discard cut waste or change blades is effortless with our exclusive, quick-release shield buckle. The remaining saw controls are conveniently located to ensure fast, effortless operation before, during and after the cut.

Sounds to me like the saw was designed for this kind of job, so it's at least worth trying.

If I had to cut lots of smaller parts, I might make a plywood table w/ cutout area so I could keep all the sheet flat and supported while I moved the saw over the cutout area. Or maybe mount and use as a table saw, feeding the metal in.
If cutting stainless and I wanted lubrication, perhaps gluing paper on the backside and adding lubrication to it, to be adsorbed by the paper. Lots of little 'tricks' possible, depending on the need.

 

I'm still using the stock blade, haven't cut anything less than 1/8.

 

I considered buying one even though I don’t need it, mostly because I have a sickness for Milwaukee tools.

A friend who’s a YouTuber has it he just did a video on it. I recently saw his in person. Fair warning the tool itself is way bigger than you’d think.

https://youtu.be/Xt4PnrISBlg?si=kVumW57EWKxV9dv9

 

I considered buying one even though I don’t need it, mostly because I have a sickness for Milwaukee tools.

I hear you... I bought a M12 pex tool and the drill and impact thinking it would be a lot lighter on the remodel, but that I wouldn't buy much more. Now I probably have a dozen or more of that tool series.

 

Back when I did a bit of remodeling, and repair work, I worked with metal roofing. The brand was Pro Panel. Don't even know if it exists anymore, but it's all the same stuff.

Used to just turn the saw blade around so the teeth were running backwards, and cut the stuff. Was a bit noisy.

EDIT: Actually, dunno if that would work with 1/16 material

 

For posterity - I broke in the saw the other day. Cut through metal studs pretty cleanly. The first few were totally clean, and then they developed more of a burr. The 16th inch material cut fine, too, with a clean edge. Definitely a noisy sucker.

The only problems I had with the saw were:
- As you raise the blade for such shallow material, it actually gets a little too high to push smoothly. So, it's a decision between safety and tool steadiness
- As you raise the blade, the line that shows where the end of the cut is supposed to be doesn't hold true. Makes it a little hard when you're not cutting off an entire strip of material, rather cutting out a corner from the sheet.

 

If you’re cutting light gauge steel studs it’s because they’re too thin for the saw. I don’t know if this tool has a riving knife behind the blade it probably doesn’t but the kerf of thicker material also acts as a guide for the blade. It also has the rigidity to withstand flexing when the saw teeth collide with it. Very thin material flaps in the breeze a bit when carbide blade hits it.

The way we used to cut steel studs on jobsites is a chop block and you put the entire 10 stud bundle in at once and slice it with the packaging bands still on it.

 

I have that saw (I bought it after asking here about it) and I am as happy as I could be. I have never cut anything thinner than 4mm so I don't know how it behaves with sheetmetal. But what I DO KNOW is that finding cutting blades other than the original Milwaukee... is not that easy, at all.

So far I have gone through one blade (I don't know if it was operator error or just regular wear and tear) but when I tried to buy a replacement, I couldn't find any other compatible with the saw.

Maybe the "get a blade with greater tooth count" is not feasible?

Mikel

 

Thanks.

The manual indicates there are 2 blades available.
8" Metal Cutting Blades
42 Tooth Blade For cutting metal workpieces greater than 3/32" thick Cat. No. 48-40-4515
50 Tooth Blade For cutting metal workpieces less than 3/32" thick Cat. No. 48-40-4520

In the above video for the batter version of the tool, that guy says he likes the Diablo Cermet II blades (https://www.diablotools.com/explore/saw-blades/steel-cutting). It looks like they make a 42T and 54T in the 8" size.

 

I have that saw and cut sheets of 20 and 22 gauge, no issues at all with the 50 tooth as was mentioned. I made up a straight edge setup since I was cutting the 4' width.
The angle iron is shimmed up and screwed down to a 2x12 so the sheet slides underneath it. That's my saw guide that the saw base goes against . The flat stock with clamps secures the sheet to the wood. After the first cut, the same saw kerf is always used. The balance of sheet is supported by a table. It's been working great so far. I cut 1'' wide strips for cattail leaves I made. Here's a photo in progress. The other is a leafy thing I did.

 

Beautiful, Bob!

 

Nice job, I like it.