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Ruined my bandsaw blade yesterday

Like usual in the last week, I was cutting up steel bars on my bandsaw. I cut them up so that they fit in USPS flat rate boxes and can be economically shipped to hobbyists.

Anyway, I took the next rectangular bar without thinking too much. It had a couple of pins in it, which shuold have tipped me off, but did not.

I loaded it into the bandsaw, turned it on, and walked away.

10 minutes lates I come back, and to my surprise, the bandsaw is still going, without having even made a dent in the bar.

A little investigation made me realize that the bar is hardened A-2 (it had it stamped on the side, it was hadr to notice).

The $40 blade is ruined.

So, I will be more careful!

i
Reply to
Ignoramus329
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Save the blade for friction sawing. It may work, if there's enough HSS in it.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

It may be worthwhile to attach a file to the saw, in the way that a chuck key is chained to a drill press.

An alternate tester could be a carbide-tipped scribe, I suppose, or even a hacksaw blade.

Reply to
Wild_Bill

I thought you were going to say something stupid like "I was cutting wood with it and hit a nail or something".

Reply to
Transition Zone

That's why I make blades out of 100 foot rolls of the cheap stuff. The stuff I cut tends to tear up blades, but I only pay a couple buck each (I know, now, the cost has gone way up).

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

That's interesting. I was very happy with this blade. It worked very well for a long time.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus329

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

I cut up all sorts of things, from cutting gold edge fingers off circuit boards to old bed rails (both really hard on blades). Also, my cheap 4x6" bandsaw doesn't have hydraulic feed. So, I tear up blades pretty quickly. Mostly I cut aluminum sheet and bar stock for machining operations, which is pretty gentle on the blades, and they will wear out from fatigue before the teeth are shot.

I did get a free sample Starrett bimetal blade, and teeth chipped off in the first couple minutes of use. So, on this saw, you can't use the expensive blades.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Maybe the teeth were too big for your work, maybe it was too low TPI?

Reply to
Ignoramus16981

You CAN add your own "hydraulic" downfeed control with a simple cylinder and a needle valve, with a couple feet of copper tubing.

Its not rocket science.

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

  1. Lie
  2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
  3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
  4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
  5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
  6. Then everyone must conform to the lie
Reply to
Gunner

"PrecisionmachinisT" wrote in message news:q9mdnabY-oq7uL7MnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@scnresearch.com...

You could add a hook for a hacksaw to test mystery metal. I use

10-for-a-dollar blue-painted blades on unknown steel, which is most of my stock. They cut as well as good ones at first though they don't stay sharp very long.
Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Hi, what's your band saw by the way?

Reply to
surfside

I've seen where a Milwaukee was engineered to run string, twine or cord or something like that. I never actually saw it run, though.

Reply to
Transition Zone

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