Cutting Round bar

D

DANNYBOY

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I'm sure I've got this in the wrong forum so feel free to move it or let me know where to put it.:whiteflag: LOL

Anyway, Thought I'd ask the advice of the knowledgeable folks here. I'm cutting 7/8" Round bar 1" long I have been cutting a stick in 4 pieces and tacking it together and cutting it in the band saw. but it has a tendancy to strip teeth form time to time I'm using a lenox 10/14 bi-metal.I also stack 1x1x14ga.sq.tube, 3/4x3/4x11ga.sq.tube and 3/4 sch.40 pipe with no problems.

Does anyone have a better idea for cutting this(chop saw,cold saw) or mabey a diffrent blade.

Thanks, Danny
 
I've got a hunch the tack welds are what are stripping the teeth from your bandsaw blades, but I don't know for certain just where you are tacking your rods together, so that could be an incorrect guess. I don't know how many pieces you have to cut, but you might be better off just cutting one bar at a time.

Additionally, considering the size of the material you are cutting, you could probably use a blade with only 6 TPI or so. No matter what blade you use, you will need to start the cut slowly until you have about 3 teeth or more resting on the work, same thing with the last little bit of the cut. If your blade is hitting the work too hard or with too much cutting pressure, the start or end of the cut could be the problem.
 
Thanks Wermie,

Their tacked on the end. One at a time is to slow 239 cuts argh!!
I'm thinking a chop saw.
 
If they are only tacked on the ends, the blade is not having to encounter the welds, so we can rule that out. It is probably at some point where there are not enough teeth on the work, such as when the blade is just starting into a new piece of stock or is just finishing a piece. For that brief bit of time the blade only has a couple of teeth on the work which could start stripping a couple of teeth off. Once it starts, it just keeps on going.... zzzzzzzzippp!

I assume you are using a horizontal band saw. If you are standing your stack up and down in the saw vice, try laying the stack horizontally. This will increase the area of work that the teeth encounter. You will need to slow the feed rate appropriately, but you should be able to get one blade to cut all of the pieces that way. Just be extra careful getting the cut started on the first piece. Due to the angle of the blade to the work, when the blade first touches the work there will only be a couple of teeth on the work until the saw gets a good cut started.

You could also try making your stack into a cubic arrangement.

Instead of this:
O
O
O
O

or this:
OOOO

you would have this:
OO
OO

I don't know just how you have been stacking them, so maybe I'm not telling you anything new, but I am just passing on what I know would help.
 
I've been doing
oo
oo

and going as slow as it will go I have a dake johnson modle j-10 saw
 
Dang, I don't know what else would be doing it. Unless chip loading is causing the blade to bind up. That's why I mentioned 6 TPI instead of 10-14 like you've been using. 10-14 is fine for thinner materials, but won't do when cutting through something broad. Do the teeth seem to strip off at the same point in the cut each time? If so, at what point is it? Start, end, half way through the first stack, right at the end of the first stack/start of the second? Something that points to a common denominator might be helpful.
 
It seams to do it about 1/3 into the bottom stack like one of them is spinning or loose,I know their not cause their welded.

I'm mostly courious if a cold saw is faster than a chop saw . I can't stand 3 cuts for $50.00
 
A chop saw would be faster, but will burn the ends a bit and will waste more of your stock than a cold saw. A cold saw runs in coolant and the cutters are not cheap. Cold saws are great in production environments where the cut off pieces go into another machining process, such as in a collet in a lathe. If not used regularly, you have the problems with the coolant going rancid, too. A chop saw will leave a rougher end, and converts a lot of metal into sparks, meaning you will have to leave a bit more metal for clean up during machining, but for hobby guys or small shops the chop saw may be the better route.
 
I would be inclined to say that the problem is excessive chip load . Chips are building up
in the center of the stack where the four radii come together, they can't escape and when
the blade reaches that depth it has to drag through it already loaded up.
Flood coolant would help with this but if this is not an option then you could use an air nozzle
to blow the area clean as the blade starts to enter that part of the material.
Just a little baby sitting involved but cheaper than blades.

William
 
thanks vapremac,
I'll give that a try,

wermie
I hate chop saws I was glad when mine died several years ago but with this much cutting to do I'll probably bite the bullet.

Danny
 
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