Slitting/slotting Saws What Brand/retailer?

I just use the Harbor freight/Home Depot/Menards small ones up to 4 in,HSS and carbide tipped, this is not production so a little coolant/lube slow feed. Tile cutting blades work. Making arbors to fit.
 
Slitting saws, like most saws, work best when overhang is minimized. Here is a Cleveland blade that is 2.5" OD X 3/32" thick X 7/8" bore: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLEVELAND-U...417360?hash=item35f5e0cdd0:g:BLkAAOSw34FVGcWY for $12.00, shipped, and it seems to be sized right for your job.

Cleveland makes good blades. Always best to use the least number of teeth that gets the job done but no less than 2-3 teeth in the cut at all times. This one should do fine for 1/2" steel.

I also like Martindale saws and here is a good reference from them: http://www.martindaleco.com/HTML/MetalWorkingMicaSaws/Helpful_Hints_MetalWorkingSaws.htm

Buy or make a good arbor. The blade should just fit onto the arbor and the washers should be machined flat. Be sure to lock the screw down tight, with the teeth facing into the cut.

I suggest a sulfur-based cutting oil for saws, keeping the cut well lubed. Go full depth from the start - saws are made to cut this way. The correct speed is important and it will be faster than you think - the article from Martindale is a good starting place. I normally feed manually while listening to and feeling the cut. The saw will hiss when its cutting happily and there will be a slight resistance to feed. Some saws will make a thumping or knocking sound as they cut, as if one tooth is off. This is actually fairly common, especially with coarser toothed saws. As long as the saw cuts smoothly, don't worry about it.
 
mikey said:
Slitting saws, like most saws, work best when overhang is minimized. Here is a Cleveland blade that is 2.5" OD X 3/32" thick X 7/8" bore: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLEVELAND-U...417360?hash=item35f5e0cdd0:g:BLkAAOSw34FVGcWY for $12.00, shipped, and it seems to be sized right for your job.
Click to expand...

is 7/8" an odd size or something? I haven't seen 7/8" arbors.


mikey said:
Buy or make a good arbor. The blade should just fit onto the arbor and the washers should be machined flat. Be sure to lock the screw down tight, with the teeth facing into the cut.
Click to expand...
I'm planing to buy some Sierra American arbors.
 
1/2" and 1" are more common. Many of the multi-step arbors will accommodate a 7/8" saw blade. You can buy most saws with a 1" arbor hole as well.

I've used Martindale, Thurston, Niagra Cutter and Cleveland blades - all worked fine. I try to keep the blade diameter as small as I can to reduce distortion. Larger arbor holes also reduce distortion.
 
A buddy of mine at a local machine shop I hang out at, has taken the 6" HF saw blades and mounted on a shop made arbor. They are using it to slit 1018-1026 steel on their CNC mill! Like they said, we are tired of buying $400 SECO carbide inserted slitting saws and trashing them on every job they have to run. Now if they trash out a 6" HF saw blade, they go buy another one at about$7.50 each!
 
A buddy of mine at a local machine shop I hang out at, has taken the 6" HF saw blades and mounted on a shop made arbor. They are using it to slit 1018-1026 steel on their CNC mill! Like they said, we are tired of buying $400 SECO carbide inserted slitting saws and trashing them on every job they have to run. Now if they trash out a 6" HF saw blade, they go buy another one at about$7.50 each!
 
A buddy of mine at a local machine shop I hang out at, has taken the 6" HF saw blades and mounted on a shop made arbor. They are using it to slit 1018-1026 steel on their CNC mill! Like they said, we are tired of buying $400 SECO carbide inserted slitting saws and trashing them on every job they have to run. Now if they trash out a 6" HF saw blade, they go buy another one at about$7.50 each!
 
nice triple post there 4gsr
I have a couple saws of no particular brand name, they cut good for me, steel and alu, on the knee mill, I think they are around 3in dia, ebay is a good source for blades, I bought from Dans Discount Tools, sometimes he has really good prices, got a sweet $240 EM for 35 bucks shipped
 
Are there any formulas or anything like that, to determine how deep you can cut (ignoring the arbor of course)? Maybe something that takes into account diameter and the number of teeth?

I know you can't cut very deep with the fine teeth saws. Take the banjo I mentioned above, i need to make a cut clean through 1/2" stock. the cut will be 3/32" wide or so, ans 3/4" deep.
 
It think as said above you want 2-3 teeth in the cut at all times, think about using your band saw, how when your cutting thin tubing you use a fine pitch blade, then when you cut the thick solid round you put on a coarse pitch blade. Same principal here, I don't know any formula but I think you can draw it out with the thickness of cut, with diameter of blade to make the depth of cut, and make a good guesstimate of the teeth needed to fulfill the 2-3 teeth rule, I used the same surface speeds as an end mill would use, adjusted for the diameter of the saw of course, and yes cut it full depth, I tried feeding the blade across the work conventional milling, and also just feeding right it, the saw didn't care. Again think of the band saw, you feed the blade full depth of cut for one whack through it
 
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