I bought a bandsaw with a continuous diamond blade for cutting glass. I haven't used it and wonder if I can change it's purpose to cutting some small aluminum pieces. If so, should I still use the water cooling system? The blade is rather expensive so if it is going to gum up quickly and be impossible to clean then I'll just sell it.
Abrasive cutting of aluminum usually results in the clogging of the blade. I would take it off, measure it and get a proper blade made up for your machine. Also, what speed does the machine run at? Can the speed be reduced? Generally you don't want to cut aluminum at more than
1000-1200 fpm. I have a Delta 14" wood bandsaw that I changed out the pulleys on to reduce the speed on, I took it from aprox 3000 down to 1100 fpm. I bought some M42 Bimetal blades for it but f> I bought a bandsaw with a continuous diamond blade for cutting glass. IMachineman wrote in news:zBsQc.85372$ snipped-for-privacy@fe17.usenetserver.com:
Diamond is perfect for cutting aluminum, because the aluminum will not build-up on diamond. The only question here is gullet size. If the diamond blade has tiny gullets, then I would be concerned with chips not being cleared and eventual packing. Diamond is the material of choice for cutting aluminum in industry. Everything else builds an edge.
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