A guy at our local flea market (Waldo, FL) is selling 4' x 10' sheets of aluminum. He couldn't tell me how thick it is, but I'd say slightly under 1/16th of an inch (say 0.05 to 0.06"). It's in excellent shape, the plastic protection sheets are still on, not bent up or anything. Being a sucker for cheap materials, I dove in and bought three sheets for $100, thinking I can put it to use for interior cabinet faces (bathroom tambour is shot and I'll probably end out replacing it) and maybe make some nice aluminum boxes to replace the awful heavy sliding drawers under my dinette . . . and still end out with material for belly patches or whatever (tin can doghouse
?). Not to mention having some material to burn on beginner's mistakes.
Now that I have the stuff home, I realize I don't know the first thing about working with it.
I have aviation ships, but I've never been real good about cutting a straight even line with them. Google search turns up about 15 ways to cut thin non-ferrous sheet metal.
How do others work with the stuff? I think I'll start with straight lines, and when I gain confidence, try some curved stuff.
p.s. It has arrows for the grain. Do you run the grain up? down? across? or just try to be consistent in matching grain?