I got one of those cheap-o HF band saws. The horizontal one. I think it is called a 4". Their $149 special.
I got some 14tpi blades for cutting .065 tubing. Occasionally, I will cut some stouter stuff, but mainly tubing.
I noticed that this is eating blades a little faster than I think it should. (I think they should last for 5-7 years.) But, I have been using it quite a bit, and have gone through two blades already.
I was looking at the directions on the new blade, and noticed that there is a 10tpi that is recommended for metal cutting. These are the Home Depot variety blades, I believe Ridgid.
Should I go to a 10tpi, or is this just what they do?
You probably have a 3-speed belt pulley arrangement. You get speeds from about 100 to 200 SFPM with that, I think. For aluminum, use the higher speed, for steel, use the lowest speed.
.065 tubing probably needs a FINER blade tooth pitch! You normally want 3 teeth in the material. 3 x 1/.065 = needs about a 46 tooth blade, by that rule. You won't find one that fine, of course.
Be glad you weren't using a $50 Starrett bimetal blade with your tubing, it would have stripped all the teeth in one rotation of the blade!
Don't you notice the 14 TPI blade grabs and tears the heck out of the tubing as it is cutting half-way through the tube? The 14 TPI teeth would be expected to fall into the edge of the metal and take a full-depth bite, which is very hard on the blade. Maybe you are controlling the feed manually when you do this.
Are you serious about the 5 - 7 years? I don't think metal (horizontal) saw blades last that long under ANY circumstances due to the twist applied to the blade. That added flexing of the blade fatigues the metal. If I get a couple hundred cuts out of my el-cheapo blades that come in 100' rolls, I'm pretty happy. Sometimes, I even wear out the teeth before the blade itself is starting to wear out. Usually it breaks a couple of times at the joint, because my crappy blade welder is not really set quite right.
No, he isn't! :-) The "3 tooth"-rule is right. As a note, there are also variable pitch blades, that claim to be more versatile.
But the interesting thing quality producers say about their blades is, that you have to cut them in (break them in) before "real use". They say, that you have to cut several square cm with reduced speed and feed to dull the blade! And only then, you can go full feed. I have the impression they are right.
I'm using 6/10 tpi comby blades. With thin tubing, you should also have
The guys on the 4x6 Yahoo group all seem to be using 10/14 bimetal. I'm using 10/14 plain HSS and it seems to work fine on nearly everything I cut. Thin tubing is problematic, but those cut so quickly that it's no big deal to hold the weight off it by hand. If I were doing a lot of cuts, I'd buy a finer-tooth blade.
I have one of those machines, too. I run (cheap) 16 tpi Starrett blades in it and use it mostly for cutting rectangular tubing. It works great. The blades aren't exactly immortal, but, overall, the blade cost is a couple cents per cut. I also have a big, old Wilton with a coolant system on it. I run a 4 tpi bi-metal blade in it and use it for bigger (NEVER anything less than an inch wide) solid stuff. (The little HF machine is pretty slow on that stuff after the blade has cut a few tubes...)
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