BANDSAW FOR STAINLESS ROD

[INTERPOLATE]

Greetings group.
What size bandsaw will I need to purchase to cut stainless steel rod up to 6" OD.
Is there a minimum motor power and blade size requirement? Do I just get the biggest I can afford?
I am looking at JET bandsaws. Any opinions?
Can I expect decent band life cutting SS?

Thanks!
DJ

[motorworks]

Hi
I find the baxter vert bandsaw good for most of my work.
http://www.verticut.com/
As well I use the Starrett M42 blades and get good results on various types of material
though I do not cut 6"stainless bar very often.
e

[Forrest Addy]

Sawing 6" stainless is not a difficult problem. The key is the saw band not necesarily the sawing machine.

Stainless cuts readily with any quality HSS bi-metal saw stock provided the cutting edges are sharp and durable and the teeth are not permitted to dwell in the cut.

A good $10,000 industrial band cut-off saw will out-perform a cheap $700 import home shop 7 x 12 band cut-off saw but either machine will do the job provided you select a band stock suited to the problem.

For 6" stainless 303 and 304 I'd suggest a 2-3 vari-pitch bi-metal 3/4" band stock running at 80 ft/min using plenty of feed and coolant. This band stock is for solid material not pipe or thin walled tubing.

If your 6" stock is a pipe or tube be sure to select a saw band pitch having 2 or more teeth engaged with the wall at minimum thickness. Coarser pitches will hang up on the wall. For Sch 40 pipe you'd probably need a 4-6 or 5-8 pitch.

Sawbands have a finite life. The usual failure mode is normal wear where cutting action slows to some unprofitable rate. The are other modes. The band may simply quit cutting suddenly and dwell in the kerf forever creating a work hardened zone that no new band can re-start in. It could fail from a simple break or it may fail by sawing a wild kerf curving over an inch.

The band life of a cut-off saw band in stainless will be measured in a few hours of continuous piece cutting and the cut quality and time will have to be carefully monitored. When the cut time doubles from that of a fresh band it's probably time to change it even if it seems to be cutting OK. You might get a few more cuts from the worn band but consider the cost recovered from extending the life of a $30 to $60 band for a few more cuts of against the cost of a ruined cut in expensive material.

I prefer Lenox "Super" band stock for my cheap and utterly stock import Rong Fu 7 x 12 band cut-off saw. There are several other brands offering equivalent and just as clean cutting and durable saw stock. There are also saw stocks offered that are a couple of grades superior - and correspondingly expensive.

Another important part of the picture is a good coolant. Soluable oil has a good history cutting stainless. Personally, I'd use a a rich (7 to 1) mix of soluable oil for solid stainless. There are a number of more expensive certainly efficacious coolants provided the correct one is selected. Here I suggest you consult with Houghton or Mobil coolant tech reps.

Cutting heavy stainless barstock with an abrasive shop saw is an exceedingly poor idea. Stainless does not grind well and it tends to load and bond with the abrasive. It would take a 20 HP foundry duty abrasive oscillating arbor chop saw running a 24" wheel to cleanly and efficiently cut 6" diameter stainless removing a 1/4" kerf in the process and you'd eat 2" off the wheel diameter per cut in the process.

A large cold saw will also do the job but sharpening the blade represents a significant cost/cut expense.

There's many choices for the problem NTERPOLATE poses but I'd cut the stuff in a plain vanilla band cut-off saw using a plain vanilla bi-metal coarse pitch band.

As for the difference between a $700 Enco TurnPro 7 x 12 band cut-off saw and the exact same saw from Jet for $1100 is the color of the paint and the name on the stickers. Both saws are made in Asia by TurnPro. The TurnPro is smokey blue and the Jet is Bkack and white.


[This message has been edited by Forrest Addy (edited 11-12-2003).]