Band Saw

[Hellbringer]

i am looking at getting a bang saw and i was at sears today and i founs this one.

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...&bidsite=CRAFT

and i was woundering if it would cut metal and on the web site it says that it will cut non ferrous metal...... and in the deffanition on non ferrous metal is any thing with out iron. do you guys think it would be able to cut (what i would call) steal and they put that on there as a saftey or do you think it is limited to non ferrous metal (brass, copper, zinc, lead, aluminium ) Thanks in advance

Mike

[Geof]

Provided you get the correct blades cutting aluminum will be fine, brass not much different, copper will cut but your blade life will be reduced, lead is fine, zinc, pure zinc that is, I have not cut. Steel no, certainly not; the blade speed is much too high and the type of blade is not suitable.

[Hellbringer]

what blade would you suggest? like how many tpi? Thanks Mike

[darnit]

I have to agree with Geof and his post, but I will throw out a little bit of info that I have found helpful when trying to cut tempered steel without annealing the whole piece. If you use a fine tooth wood blade and high rpm (blade speed) it is possible to cut thin pieces of tempered steel (.125 or less). I found this information quite helpful when I was cutting scrounged steel pieces for knife blades. I have done this with an old sears bandsaw just for this purpose. I will offer a WARNING that this IS NOT SAFE and could ruin your bandsaw and that blade will be useless for wood. I would not recommend that you buy this saw with the intention of cutting any steel but just wanted share.

[miljnor]

these saws can actually cut steel if you buy an abrasive saw blade for them. A budy of mine uses one in his fab shop. and you just spin it fast and so far it has lasted about 6months. I don' buy them for my shop becuase my employees would find some way to break it and they aint cheep!

[Geof]

For thin material up to around 1/8, 10 to 14 tpi may be best. You want 2 or 3 teeth in the cut; thicker material you can go to 6 tpi. If you are doing a lot of metal cutting it may be worth getting bi-metal blades as they last much longer but are more expensive.

I will also mention that metal cutting on a bandsaw is a good way to lose portions of fingers; I have not so far but I do have a few notches. Make sure your workpiece is held very firmly and your fingers are well away from the blade. Do not rush things; let the work kind of 'float' through the blade, if you have to push the blade is getting dull. Make sure the work is nicely supported on the table and that you are not cutting on an overhanging section. Be very careful with round bar; the point where the material first touches the blade is overhanging compared to where the bar is supported by the table and the blade can grab at first contact and spin the bar out of your grip, or if you are holding too close the the cut spin your fingers into the blade.

Eye protection is a given, hearing protection is a good idea. In my opinion glovess are a very serious no, no. They reduce your ability to grip, provide no protection against the blade cutting you and can actually be a very effective way for your fingers to get dragged into the blade.

[Geof]

Darnit;

You are talking about friction cutting. I do wish you had used a much bigger font, bold and all upper case for; "I will offer a WARNING that this IS NOT SAFE".

I have used a big friction saw; 30" wheels and a 3/4" blade running at something like 6000 fpm; it would cut through a fully hard file 1/4" thick like butter. I stopped using it after the blade broke one day and the broken end hit the table and all fifteen feet of it concertined into a little bundle of twisted metal with much noise. Nobody was hurt but nobody, including the boss, was willing to give the machine another chance.

The abrasive blade Michael T. is referring to is a different thing and doesn't go anywhere near as fast. They are good but expensive.

[darnit]

I am sorry Geof you are correct I should have made the warning much bigger and in all caps. You are correct it does cut like butter and is extremely loud and it is not fun when the blade breaks but it gets the job done.