TiALN vs AlTiN

I don't have one of those ... At one time I had a pretty nice circular saw . I mounted an abrasive blade to cut some pieces of steel and pretty soon I had a piece of junk that would just spark and growl . I do have a few cutoff discs for the angle grinder , so when that's the only option I'll use it .

I don't have one of those ... At one time I had a pretty nice circular saw . I mounted an abrasive blade to cut some pieces of steel and pretty soon I had a piece of junk that would just spark and growl . I do have a few cutoff discs for the angle grinder , so when that's the only option I'll use it .

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I've seen a better one than my Enco rapidly cut off a large number of mild steel (?) blocks maybe 2~4" wide, in the parking lot between the company machine shop and my lab. They are good for rebar and conduit, though they burr the ends. Otherwise I prefer my bandsaw or a cutoff disk in a cheap, light weight 7" angle grinder. I have good 4-1/2" and 7" angle grinders for serious work and $15 ones that soon overheat for the brief tasks like wire-brushing a weld or gouging out defects.

I have a pretty nice circular saw too. A nice Skil Wormdrive. It only gets premium wood blades. At one time I was breaking down a bit of steel to make non penetrating roof mounts for satellite dishes. The TVRO company was paying me the same rate for the mount whether I bought one or made one, so I made one and got paid for installing it too. I used a Black & Decker circular saw with an abrasive blade for that, and it lasted for years. Plastic melted and slag built up, but it kept going. I think I paid $29.95 for that saw at K-Mart. It did finally die, but only after many years. I got my money's worth out of it. I do have a circular saw I sometimes use for cutting steel now, but it uses carbide steel cutting blades. I am sure they would not hold up to anything hard. It works great on aluminum up to a couple inches or mild steel up to 3/8 (so far). It was NOT $29.95.

When cutting tube I always use the bigger horizontal, and set the hydraulic down feed so it doesn't fall to fast. It works great. If I hadn't stripped the worm gear (replaced now) on the smaller horizontal I might have never found out how great the 7x12s are with the hydraulic down feed control. I do have an abrasive chop saw, but it rarely gets used anymore.

When cutting tube I always use the bigger horizontal, and set the hydraulic down feed so it doesn't fall to fast. It works great. If I hadn't stripped the worm gear (replaced now) on the smaller horizontal I might have never found out how great the 7x12s are with the hydraulic down feed control. I do have an abrasive chop saw, but it rarely gets used anymore.

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I learned on DoALL horizontal and vertical bandsaws, so I knew how a bandsaw was supposed to work and could tinker with a 4x6 until it did so, close enough for hobby use. I don't think it or the 30" 3-in-1 sheet metal machine belong in a business, they need too much attention to get and keep them right. Mine came second-hand from shops that had given up on them.

There are probably a lot more of those 4x6 saws in businesses than you might think. I used mine everyday for five years, and that was after I owned it for a few years just tinkering before that. I was a kid the first time I saw one in a business. Probably more than 40 years ago. My Harbor Freight 4x6 cuts a lot straighter than that old machine did. LOL. The big key is an undamaged blade. I've noticed new blades almost always cut straight. Even worn blades cut straight if the pressure isn't to high, and the tooth set has not been messed up.

I probably wouldn't have bought the 7x12 except I could get it the same day, and it would take an unknown time to get the gear for the 4x6. Took a week. The one from the Grizzly 4x6 was a drop in replacement for the one on my Harbor Freight 4x6 bandsaw.

I'd like to find an affordable vertical band saw for use in my shop. The one I have is a 3 phase with a built in VFD, but it has almost no power at low surface speed. I might try swapping the pullies to get more torque, but then the built in surface speed display (just reads off the VFD) would be wrong. As it is I almost never use it. I often choose to use the 7x12 for vertical work in the upright position instead.

Depending on your VFD you may be able to scale the display value to suit your pulley change. I've done it on a flat lap for glass where I displayed the platter RPM rather than the motor RPM.

I'd like to find an affordable vertical band saw for use in my shop. The one I have is a 3 phase with a built in VFD, but it has almost no power at low surface speed. I might try swapping the pullies to get more torque, but then the built in surface speed display (just reads off the VFD) would be wrong. As it is I almost never use it. I often choose to use the 7x12 for vertical work in the upright position instead.

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Perhaps you could rig a magnet-sensor bicycle speedometer to a wheel and calibrate it to give you a useful indication of blade speed. On my motorcycle-wheel sawmill the speedometer reading is close enough to 1/100th of the feet per minute, 60 MPH = 5280 FPM, or 88 FPS. The 55 MPH tick mark is approximately the blade maker's suggested 5000 FPM.

Entirely possible. I haven't even looked to see if I can get a manual for the VFD. I was thinking if I can cut the speed by 2:1 I could also just half whatever it says on the display. That basic math is within my capability. Its a low priority on my list of projects.

I'm sure I could figure out something.

I buy what's avaible and reasonably priced. I do all short run stuff and don't have any long runs where I could accually compare tools or coatings.

I prefer TiN it's generally cheaper and works on both steel and aluminum. Getting harder to find everyone likes to sell the exotic coatings. Most likely a higher markup on those.

I do a lot of high speed milling of aluminum. 5,100RPM to 24,000 RPM. Mostly above 19,000. Aluminum chip welds to TiN. (and all of the aluminum/alumina nitride/oxide coatings too) Diamond and ZrN are the only coatings that don't seem to stick to hot aluminum chips, and they can still stick. I found flood coolant and sharp bright carbide uncoated with aluminum geometry (40-45 degree helix and very sharp edge) gives me hours of cut time without chip welding. When I say hours I mean that literally. Code files of a few hundred thousand lines are common, and files with over a million lines of code are not all that uncommon in my shop.

On the manual machines I do not always run coolant for short tasks like squaring up blanks to go on the high speed machines, but even there if I am doing a lot of work and heats starts to build up I have seen signs of chip welding. TiN is far worse than bright carbide. Even when I run specialty HSS cutters that are hard to find in carbide I run bright uncoated for aluminum.

I'm not saying you are wrong or that your experience isn't what it is. I am just saying that based on my experience with the types of machining I due TiN is terrible in aluminum. I haven't been thrilled with it in steel either, but I have no patience for doing a job slower than I am able to do it and still meet spec. Currently I run Carbide AlTiN for most of my steel work, but I've read a few articles claiming TiAlN might be better for some types of steel work. It has not been my experience. That is why I asked for other people's experiences. To know when it might be.

I want to finish off by saying thank you. I appreciate your feedback. Knowing that its possible to get okay work with a TiN coated tool in aluminum is not something I would have otherwise believed. Thank you.