am i asking too much?

7

724wd

Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
435
ok, i have my new deep cut milwaukee portaband mounted in my new SWAG offroad stand and it is head and shoulders above my old HF junker clamped in my bench vise.

anywho, i am working on a new knife design - an integral out of A2. I've done an integral Loveless DPH from the same bar (1.375" round from ENCO) on my HF junker and it worked great, though it DID take a long time to make the cuts. with the new Milwaukee, I made one cut 5" long and it cooked the Milwaukee blade. another cut, another blade. I have A LOT more cutting to do. i realize this is super thick steel and super long cuts, but i did it before...

What are the best portaband blades? I'm running the blade slow, but it still heats up the steel pretty darn quick. is lubrication recommended? will that mess up the bearings? I would really like to make a drop bracket to get the upper bearings down by the work so the blade stops wandering. anyway, sorry for rambling...
 
For sure you want brand name soft back blades and for this job with 14 teeth per inch. Then its go very s l o w . Frank
 
I run Starrets blades. Here are a couple things.
First remember you have about 1/2 as much blade length so it will only last 1/2 as long and heat up twice as fast.

Usually you want fewer teeth on thicker material. With 14 teeth per inch and thick material your teeth are loaded with cuttings in the first say 1/4" as the go down the cut, then the loaded teeth have a hard time cutting the deeper material as they are full of cutting. You can get 10 per inch or blades that have teeth that vary from 10-14 per.

Keeping the feed pressure down will help. Be gently starting into a cut. If you break a tooth off it often lodges in the material and the next few teeth hit the stuck hardened tooth and rip of too. It you get missing teeth it gets worse fast and bounces in the cut.
Any kind of lube on a small rubber tired saw usually don't work out as it also lubes the drive wheel and slips.
 
Good info Jim, great to know about the loading of teeth and thickness. Will store this in the little grey cells. Thanks.
 
I use the blades sold at lowes, blue and white package- i forgot the brand name. They last a long time, including cutting up damascus billets for restacks. I used the milwakee blades from home depot and they lasted about as long as yours.
 
AH! thank you! i bought blades with the most teeth, thinking thick material, many teeth! now i know better! i'll try better blades with fewer teeth.
 
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