New saw for the shop

Bill Siegle

Bill Siegle

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Messages
6,955
well after way too many years of grinding my blades to shape I finally invested in a Harbor Freight special and bought one of their 1hp horizontal/vertical metal cutting bandsaws.The 1/3hp model was $129 but I decided to upgrade to the 1hp model for $209. Got to the register and yippeee!!!!! It's on sale at $159 :D I still need to pic up some descent blades for it but I got it built today with no issues and even with the low quality HB blade she cuts like a dream :) Gonna save me a whole lot of dust clean up and belts!!! I removed all the horizontal clamp fixtures and will pad that area for a seat. Any recomendations on which tooth size works best for 5160?
 
Tooth size really depends on thickness of material being cut.

I don't think you can beat the Lennox Die-Master II line of blades.

For average knife stuff I use a 10/14 vari tooth blade. I used to use a 14, but found the 10/14 to cut faster and last longer. I believe the average target is to have at least two teeth in the material being cut.

All that said, I can grind an S30V hunter to shape in about 5 minutes but it takes me 15 to cut one out.

Less dust and less cost for belts though.... So, "Six a one, half dozen of another" :D
 
Enco has a blade called the aggressor. I have tried a lot of blades and my saw goes constantly. These blades cut stuff that Lenox blades skate over.
 
I don't know about 5160, but I cut 1095, 01, s30v, and cpm154 on a 1/2 x 64 1/2 bimetal blade at 14tpi. Anything 12tpi and up should do it (for 3/16" and up) , the trick is to run your blade speed at different rates for different materials and use finer blades (3 teeth in contact at all times as a minimum) for finer stock.

mine is a 3 speed pulley set-up:

fast - wood, aluminum, micarta
medium - non-ferrous (brass, nickle-silver) metals, mild steel, and hard woods (ebony, ironwood, ziricote, stabilized woods)
slow - high carbon and stainless steels (including 300 series), g10 (beats the shit out of blades), and thick (1-2" +) cuts of very dense hardwood

As the density and/or "hardness" of your material increases - blade speed and feed pressure decreases.

Have a good one,

Nathan

note: I'm using $22 CDN blades from princess auto. I do about 2-3hrs of cutting per week and I haven't changed a blade in 8 months. If your blades start losing teeth, slow down and/or use a finer pitch.
 
Thanks for the advice guys :) Gonna be calling my supplier on monday and getting a few blades in. Also NDALLYN, you mentioned G10 beats up the blades. There is a blade stock out there I am going to hunt down that uses imbedded grit(tungsten carbide I think) as a cutting medium for glass laminates. I used one when I worked at Benchmade Knife Co and it is the Bee's Knees for cutting G10!!! Doesn't clog and wear is pretty much nill. I plan on keeping one of those for my G10. Probably use the HF cheapies to cut micartas though :) If I find a source I'll let you guys know.
 
Bill

Starrett has them
you can order it as a finished blade, or as weld your own

Carbide Grit
http://catalog.starrett.com/catalog/catalog/groups.asp?GroupID=200


Diamond Grit
http://catalog.starrett.com/catalog/catalog/groups.asp?GroupID=747

I looked at it too, untill i saw the price.
the diamond was more than the carbide.
i don't normally shy away from spending cash on tools or tooling,
but if i recall correctly - a carbide 64.5", 1/2" blade was more than cnd $100
and closer to 200 than 100

it might be worth it, but i didn't go for it at the time.

I'm interested in what you findout.

Steve
 
I have seen the carbide blades for use on jigsaws if anyone would be interested in a low cost version. It should work fine for cutting G10 but I don't have a jigsaw so I just make do with the bandsaw and cut really slow and with very little pressure. Before I had a bandsaw, I used to cut everything with a hacksaw and I did use a grit-coated wire on my scrollsaw to cut some G10 once but had problems with the blades and wire breaking from the heat build-up.
 
Is this the one you bought?

93762.gif
 
Well I finally got around to getting the new Starrett blade on the saw. Got em from a local industrial supply house at about $17per(bought 2). All I can saw is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They cut like a hot knife through butter! Took me two blanks to get the feel for speed and pressure but after that there was no stopping me. About 5 minutes of cutting resulted in a ready to go blank :) Got 7 big knives all blanked out and the blade's teeth still feel factory fresh. Blgoode, you nailed it. I am wondering why I wasted so many years without a saw. Gonna make my shop cleaner and possibly faster. Definitely greaner as now I can save all my scraps and recycle them and that is a nice plus. Also got a quote on the carbide grit saw blades and they are gonna run $75 so I am gonna try some cheapy HF blades and see how they do 1st. If they suck I'll bite the bullet. May even buy another saw just for the G10 to save on changing out saw blades. For that the 1/3hp model would be fine :D Anyhoo thanks to everyone for the suggestions on blades so I could get it right the 1st time!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top