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Dimond Wet Tile Saw for steel
- Thread starter Barmaley
- Start date
What does it mean to dress the blade?
I would give this more of a "maybe" than a yes. The blade may or may not make it through this. It may also require multiple dressings even if it does make it. To dress the blade you'll need to at minimum press a fairly coarse abrasive stone (silicon carbide or aluminum oxide) into it as it is spinning - you'll need to do this multiple times. This will eat away some of the binder, release dull diamonds and expose new sharp ones. Depending on the bond, this may or may not work well. If the wheel has a metal bond (almost certainly will for a tile saw blade) the dressing probably won't be that easy. In that case, you might be better served with a silicon carbide or aluminum oxide grinding wheel in something like a Dremel and using it on/against the periphery of the diamond blade in similar fashion as described previously for the stone to serve the same purpose. Metal bond wheels are not easy to dress.
I would suggest to use a fiber cut-off wheel instead but that will likely ruin the temper of the blade in the vicinity of the cut. Know anyone with a plasma cutter? You could cut it quick and easy with one of those, then grinding just a bit back off the cut line should get you back to good steel again. You might also be able to try a fiber cut-off wheel in the tile saw with water cooling - that might just work.
I would suggest to use a fiber cut-off wheel instead but that will likely ruin the temper of the blade in the vicinity of the cut. Know anyone with a plasma cutter? You could cut it quick and easy with one of those, then grinding just a bit back off the cut line should get you back to good steel again. You might also be able to try a fiber cut-off wheel in the tile saw with water cooling - that might just work.
Wow - it looks like a serious project! I did not expect to get into so much trouble!!! I thought that if ceramic is much harder than steel it should be easier to cut steel than ceramic on a wet saw. I do not know anyone with plasma cutter. Is there any alternative technique to cut hardened steel? Can I use any form of electrical of chemical etching? Or is it possible to do local heat treatment to lower hardness if the steel in the location of cuts since every point where I should cut is far away from the sharp edge?
Alternative would be to find 3 pieces of 1"x 8" stainless steel strips so I could sharpen and use as blades for cabbage shredder? I bought and tried planer blades which work beautifully but they rust terribly fast! The blades have to be reasonably thick sturdy.
Alternative would be to find 3 pieces of 1"x 8" stainless steel strips so I could sharpen and use as blades for cabbage shredder? I bought and tried planer blades which work beautifully but they rust terribly fast! The blades have to be reasonably thick sturdy.
The same as "dressing" your sharpening stones when they get glazed. The best way is to use a spinning Alox bench grinder wheel running around 300-500 rpm held at a 45 degree angle to the spinning diamond blade. This is the way they are shaped and dressed at the factory and the way I dressed all of my sintered diamond tools to like new cutting performance. Pushing an abrasive stick into the blade or cutting a cinder block or sandstone I have found to be totally useless. The best hack method is to use an angle grinder with one of those tough wheels used to grind welds and such.
Since I have cut around 20" of 3/8"-1/2" steel plate and bar with my diamond saw, I really need to get a band saw, I will say it's not that big a deal, but it is hell on your blade so don't expect to cut tile or stone with it when you are done. I have a few abrasive blades for cutting steel but they wear fairly fast and really make a mess, but with lots of water and some care you can make clean cuts that don't heat the steel.
It sounds like messing with and dressing a metal bond wheel is a bit beyond his experience level. In that case, I'd just use a cut-off wheel on a die grinder, then after you're done shaping the blades, try them and see how they work. If they're just cutting cabbage they may work just fine as-is. If they are wearing out quickly, give them a shade-tree heat treatment with a torch and a bucket of oil, then stick them in the oven at 500° for an hour to temper.
Oh, and the reason the tile saw blade can cut ceramic tile easily but not steel is because of the speed at which the wheel runs - at high speed, it's not optimal to use diamond abrasive on steel. A chemical reaction occurs which causes the diamond (composed of the element carbon) to be absorbed into the steel. So it isn't about hardness, but rather compatibility. Ideally you'd use a cutting blade embedded with CBN abrasive, which doesn't react with steel and is almost as hard as diamond. But those are quite expensive, hence my recommendation of the fiber cut-off wheel.
Oh, and the reason the tile saw blade can cut ceramic tile easily but not steel is because of the speed at which the wheel runs - at high speed, it's not optimal to use diamond abrasive on steel. A chemical reaction occurs which causes the diamond (composed of the element carbon) to be absorbed into the steel. So it isn't about hardness, but rather compatibility. Ideally you'd use a cutting blade embedded with CBN abrasive, which doesn't react with steel and is almost as hard as diamond. But those are quite expensive, hence my recommendation of the fiber cut-off wheel.
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Yes, as already mentioned, pushing the stick into the wheel will not do a whole lot for a metal bond wheel. It does work well for resin bond, but a tile saw blade will almost certainly be metal bond.
I think the wear on a diamond tile saw blade may actually be a big deal for someone like this who plans to do it one time and doesn't want to destroy a tile saw blade that he borrowed or paid a decent sum for.
Barmaley, what tools are at your disposal? This will help us to recommend real world solutions for you. You mention a tile saw, do you have one? If so what blade does it take? I like tile saws as they have good water cooling so you don't damage the steel.
Keep in mind "ceramic" is generally a higher grade aluminum oxide, it's not going to be orders of magnitude better.
Keep in mind "ceramic" is generally a higher grade aluminum oxide, it's not going to be orders of magnitude better.
To give you idea about my tools arsenals I have a hammer, plyers and a screwdriver LOL.
I have a RIDGID6.5 Amp Corded 7 in. Table Top Wet Tile Saw Model# R4021 with a blade which came with it. I ma cutting granite tiles for a bathroom remodeling and I do not think I would need the blade after the project is done so I may utilize it for the blade project.
In addition I bought Chinesium Professional Kitchen Sharpening Cutter Sharpener System Fix Angle w/4 Stones USA by Ruixin which appears to be a complete junk, so I made my own machine out of one board, two planks and two very strong magnets. It works beautifully and I used it to re-profile the machete edge. It took me a while and if I new that Dimond blade will not cut is I would not spent all the efforts to sharpen the thing!
The reason I bought Harbor Freight serrated machete was that is costs $4.99. I hope I would not need to spend another $99 for tools and materials to cut the machete. My machete does not scratch granite but the granite does, so I figure out that the machete is softer than the granite which my saw should handle easily. I am actually surprised what it may ruin the blade.
What about electrolyze or something which can eats into the metal mass by chemical reaction? I simply need a serrated edge to disappear by a straight line.
I now remember you won't need to dress the diamond blade while cutting steel, it won't make a difference. So, if you don't care about your blade when you are done with your remodel then it most likely would do the job, but don't expect to cut stone with it again. How hard is your $5 machete? Perhaps a hacksaw might work?
Diamonds don't like cutting ductile materials, they like hard, brittle materials that fracture vs deform.
Removing metal through chemical erosion is slow, really slow.
Diamonds don't like cutting ductile materials, they like hard, brittle materials that fracture vs deform.
Removing metal through chemical erosion is slow, really slow.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
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Is it the one with the saw back that's shown on their website as a clearance item? If so you could just take a file to it and file the teeth down. If cutting it via other methods you'd still need to end up filing the cut smooth.
I was thinking to get a big bath made of glass or plastic, place part if the machete in the salty water, connect to a 12V power source and leave it for a week (I am not in rush). I think that a week later I will get a clean straight line of all the extra material "eaten" by electrolysis. Do you think is should work?
This is exactly the one. I tried to cut it with a heck saw and it does make a scratch but does not cut.
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- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
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Ideally it'd take all of a few seconds on a 2x72 belt grinder, but as is I'd file it down. If you have access to an angle grinder or dremel with cutoff wheels those will work better than trying to use the tile saw.
Can t be simple/cheaper then this to cut hardened steel.........And don t even try to cut steel with diamond wet tile saw , that would not work !
Blades on picture are from T3 HSS steel , very rare and hard to find steel .
It is small angle grinder , you can find one for 30$ .With cutting disc it will easy cut any steel regardless how hard it is .It will cut your machete in ten seconds .If you go this route buy cutting disc /1mm thick/ for stainless steel , they work better then ordinary one .And be careful ,angle grinders can be dangerous...
This is over 64 Rockwell M2 HSS steel and 5mm thick .........And my small Angle grinder don t care about that .........
