Common bandsaw blade that cuts tool steel?

Yes.

Best Regards Tom.

You want friction-cutting blades. The blade gets cherry-red, the workpiece gets yellow, and the blade wins. Not good for a bandsaw, though, the tires don't like heat. Usually seen in table saw, with lots of precautions against sawdust accumulating in the spark path.

Look up a company that makes bandsaw blades to order and ask them. Bandsaw blade stock in many sizes and is available in both tungsten carbide grit coated and diamond grit coated so one of those will likely do. I know a chap that cuts up truck tyres with a TC grit coated blade and it slices through the steel belting easily, didn't cost a great deal to have it made either.

Speaking of carbide, I saw t/c grit jigsaw blades on Harbor Fright's site this morning. They must be a new product. 3 for $5.

Buy M42 tipped blades and cool them before, during and after the cut.

Tool steel is often ground to size.

TC is good as well.

You don't say what you are cutting - just tool ?? steel ??

Mart> >> In case I don't find them...

Maybe new for HF but I bought some about 15 years ago and IIRC they weren't new then.

I've heard somewhere about arc cutting with a band saw. Alleged that U-Haul did it in trailer fab. Use wood-cutting speed on a large band saw, insulate the workpiece from the table with masonite, connect one welder lead to the workpiece and one so that the blade is live. Blade said to stay cool enough due to speed.

Never heard of it again, too chicken to try to do it with my antique

Anybody actually do this?

Mike Spencer fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@bogus.nodomain.nowhere:

The band might stay "cool enough", but arc erosion would be exactly the same on the blade as it was on the material being cut (+-). So, if you had (say) 1 square inch to cut, then you'd better have one square inch's worth of blade to waste before it wears down too far to be able to clear the guide bearings.

This is sort of along the lines of "friction heat cutting" with a bandsaw. Yeah... right! You're going to keep the whole length of a band at yellow-white heat continually... Really?

Well, maybe if your bandsaw can run at a couple-hundred feet per second!

Lloyd

The business about the band getting yellow hot is nonsense. The body of a friction blade gets barely warm to the touch. 6000 FPM (100 FPS) is fast enough for most uses, but some machines run up to 15000 FPM. I used to have a 36" saw that ran around 6000 FPM, and it made quick work of 1/4" stainless, was acceptable for 1/2" SS plate, and would sever 3/4" bar stock in a pinch. My 16" DoAll tops out at 1500 FPM, and will cut 1/8" SS, but it's a stretch.

I would expect the erosion to be equal if the voltage was AC. But not so sure about DC. If I recall correctly when doing edm , the erosion of the tool is less than the erosion of the work.

Dan

It is, if the polarity is right and the relative melting points don't interfere.

It's possible to get "zero wear" on an EDM electrode (the electrode wears, but the workpiece material is re-deposited on the electrode at the same rate). It's tricky and not something to try with a bandsaw blade. But there will be a difference in relative wear based on several factors -- which I'd have to look up, but for which I don't have the time.

I've stayed out of this thread because I saw no mention of workpiece material hardness, only that it's "tool steel." Annealed tool steel is commonly cut with a variety of HSS sawblades, typically the bimetal type. Hardened tool steel can be cut with a carbide-toothed blade but that requires a very rigid saw, hydraulic downfeed, and a bit of experimenting.

Or, if your band saw can handle it you can friction saw it. They make, or made, special friction sawing blades or for occasional use you can just weld a blade the "other way" so the teeth point up. It takes more than the usual pressure to get the cut started but once it starts to cut feed pressure seems a bit less then conventional sawing.

I've cut 1/2" HSS tool bits by friction sawing with no problems.