If you’re looking for the perfect excuse to buy that big, beautiful bridgeport mill, we’ve got some bad news: it won’t make a perfectly square end cut in aluminum extrusion. Sadly, making these DIY squaring jigs and searching for the fairness of your tool elsewhere is much more affordable.
There is no doubt about the usefulness of aluminum extrusion in both prototyping and production build, or the versatile structural members often add some class to the projects. But without the square cut, any frames made from these can be fatally damaging, leading to sadness and frustration down the road. [Midwest Cyberpunk]Its mill-less solution uses a cheap Harbor Freight router as a spindle for a carbide endmill, mounted on a laser-cut acrylic baseplate mounted to the wheel that mounts in the V-groove – you guessed it – aluminum extrusion. A fence and clamping system holds the extrusion firmly and once trammed, the jig quickly and easily cuts square extruders roughly with a meter saw, angle grinder or even a hacksaw. Watch the video below for details of the build.
We like the simplicity and usefulness of this jig, but see a few areas for improvement. Adding some quick-throw toggle clamps would be a nice touch, as the MDF bed will stretch and have some fencing for longer cuts. But as it is, this tool gets the job done, and doesn’t break the bank like a mill purchase. Yet if your heart is set on a millstone, who will stop us?