Bought a vertical metal cutting bandsaw, dumb question???

[Russel Nash]

Hi all,

I bought this saw:

http://stlouis.craigslist.org/tls/2443157674.html

with the horizontal saw I bought, I will squirt down the blade or the kerf with WD-40.

I am wondering if I need to do the same for this new to me vertical saw. I have seen those cardboard tubes filled with a waxy like substance to be used as blade lube.

It has crowned rubber tires/wheels, like a regular woodcutting bandsaw....whereas, my horizontal saw has cast iron/metal wheels with a lip which is where the back of the blade, I guess, rubs or rides against.

The other thing I noticed with this new to me saw is that it needs a brush of some sort to clear the shavings off the bottom tire.

Thanks in advance!

[quasi]

that is not really a metal cutting bandsaw, it is a wood cutting bandsaw with a gearbox to lower the fpm down to a somewhat usable speed.

[rbertalotto]

Great saw at a great price!

I have a very similar setup in my shop and it will cut metal all day long. But it's all about the blades. You want at least two teeyh in the material at all times. So the thickness of the stock is the deciding factor on the number of teeth.

Buy the best, American made blades that you can find.

I run mine usually dry. I cut up to 3/8" carbon steel and upwards of 2" in aluminum with a dry blade. I will use WD40 on long cuts on aluminum to keep the chips from welding themselves to the gullets on the blades tooth.

[Russel Nash]

quasi wrote:


that is not really a metal cutting bandsaw, it is a wood cutting bandsaw with a gearbox to lower the fpm down to a somewhat usable speed.

The chart on the side of the bandsaw says it is 40 fpm (or SFM) on its lowest setting, which is where it is now.

Is that a slow enough speed for ya?

It seemed to work alright cutting 1/8" thick steel last night.

If you have a better way to take a 110 volt single phase motor which spins at about 3,450 or 1,725 RPM's down to a blade speed below 100 fpm, I'd be all ears...I think the rest of the bandsaw industry would be too.

[theperfessor]

Russel, I have an old Walker Turner vertical bandsaw that was set up for wood cutting speeds. I replaced the straight belt drive system with a belt drive from motor to a right angle speed reducer and from the speed reducer to the saw with a chain drive. The motor to reducer has a four step pulley system I turned on my lathe. The saw uses rubber tires like yours. I just hooked up a flexible nozzle intended for coolant to my compressed air system through a brass shut off valve. When I cut I just crack open the valve and the air flow cools the blade and clears the chips. Not only can I see the line I cut to on the workpiece easier but with enough airflow and the right blade it will blow most of the chips out of the gullets on the blade. It's much better than the "puffer" system some saws have. I can post pictures later if any one is interested.

[Longwood]

I have one of the old ones sold by Sears that has the cast aluminum covers. It runs too fast to cut steel well but I use it for that sometimes. I simply keep my feed speed very low.
On aluminum it works very well. I have cut several VW heads in two for making 2 cylinder engines and I have a piece of 3-1/2" aluminum round stock that I cut pieces off of now and then.
The cooling setup the professor mentioned is perfect for chip removal and improving visibility, and a bit of Beakfree makes a good enough lube to keep the blade clean and the tiny little bearing, that I installed to back the blade up, quiet.
I don't buy or the wavy steel cutting blades because they don't work very well. I won't even try to use Harbor Freight blades.

[Russel Nash]

here are some pics:

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/gryphon1994/3k23p43l55Y15Q15U3b6f83340c968e10171b.jpg

http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/gryphon1994/3m73o93l65Y35X15R5b6fa4acbca103651711.jpg

[Longwood]

That is a nice saw. It will come in handy for soooo many things.
Mine is much smaller and, because I am too lazy to put some step pulleys on it, only runs a one speed but it has a 12 inch throat and it was given to me.
All I had to do to it was replace the tires, blade guides and make the support for the bearing to back up the blade.
Here in the desert, the expensive and difficult to install tires, do not last long so now I simply give the wheels about ten or twelve wraps of 200 MPH tape.

[nanuk]

could you get a treadmill motor in there to reduce the speed?

[rbertalotto]

I converted a wood cutting bandsaw to metal cutting with a treadmill motor

Read about it here:

http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/machine_tool/bandsaw-wood-to-met/

[Russel Nash]

^^^ That's cool!

I was trying to cut some 4" diameter solid round/cylindrical bar stock the other night with my Wells #8 horizontal bandsaw. It was a lesson in frustration. The blade I have on there now just has too many teeth...a 10/14 variable pitch.

As far as the Powermatic vertical bandsaw goes, I was thinking of making a circle cutting jig for it.

I was going to buy a 1/4" wide blade with 10/14 variable teeth, but my supplier doesn't stock that.

The closest they had was a 1/2" wide blade, so I was trying to figure out how tight of a radius I could cut with that.

In the search for the chart or .jpg that depicted blade width to radius, I found this link:

http://www.americanmachinetools.com/how_to_use_bandsaw.htm

some of the information at the link is kind of archaic, but at least for me, still fun and kinda educational to read.

[JIMinPHX]

When I used to use a vertical band saw, I used to use a homemade dripper to lube the blade. I used about 8" of 2" PVC pipe with 1 end cap as a tank. I tapped the bottom of the cap 1/8" npt & screwed in a small valve that went to a short length of 1/8" od copper tube. The tube just rubbed up against the blade. When I opened the valve, the lube would just dribble on the blade & the saw ran happily. I used a water soluble cutting fluid in mine, but it had iron drive wheels. I don't know which lubes work well with rubber wheels.

I usually use a brass wire brush the clean the chips & crud off of the blade, wheels, & bearings. I don't know if this is the OSHA approved method or not, but I just hold the brush against the various parts of the machine as the blade spins. Things clean up in a few seconds. I clean about once every half hour when the saw is running hot & heavy.