Band Saw???

[Pat Comeau]

Hi Guy's, i bought a nice little bandsaw today and was wondering what is the best size and type of blades for cutting aluminum?, ( 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 )?...4 TPI or 8 TPI?. thanks................Pat C.

here you can see the sawhttp://www.kingcanada.com/Products.htm?CD=13&ID=20830

[Bent]

Pat, That looks like a solid little unit.
The blade I found best for all-round cutting is the 3/16" 10 TPI blade. "Viking" brand blades are one of my favorites.
If you plan on cutting aluminum with it (which it is really good for), here are some tips:
- Keep the blade tight, it wanders less that way.
- Don't expect to use the miter fence to make a straight cut...no way, the blade can and will wander in the cut. A wider blade and also a blade with lots of "set" in the teeth alleviates this problem only somewhat.
-Don't force the cut. Just feed in as the blade cuts.
- Barring accidents, a blade lasts a heck of a long time when cutting aluminum.
- I even cut out all the changer raise and lower bars with a metal cutting blade 1/8 and 3/16...i think 14 tpi. The stock was 1/16" galvanized, and of course it ate up blades in no time. I think I went thru 2 blades per changer, but that's cheap compared to a dremel, hacksaw and hammer&chisel.

The bandsaw is one of the safest power tools in your shop. If a blade breaks, everything stops instantly.
You'll find it will become one of your most favorite saws...

[Scott Howard]

I have one close to that and use it all the time. I use 3/8 x 18 teeth .

[Pat Comeau]

Hey Scott, funny you said that... i bought 3/8 18tpi yesterday and it works like a charm ...it cuts through aluminum so easy i never had so much fun cutting aluminums , i also made some bellcranks using only the bandsaw and press drill and it's a blast...it takes 10 to 15 minutes to cut and drill a bellcrank , Bent...you were right when you said that the bandsaw would become my favorite tools i'm loving it .

[Bent]

Scott, I am gonna try the 3/8" 18 tpi as per your suggestion. I am sure it will work great for straight and near straight cuts. I think I'll use the 3/16 for tight curves .

[Allan]

I have one of these for the tight stuff.

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I have never tried the bandsaw for tight curves. Does it chew up the tires if you use a narrow blade?

Allan.....

[Scott Howard]

Pat

I do mostly straight cut with it . When doing a round cut such as the radius on a knee lever , I make a couple of cuts and finish with the belt sander. I bought a attachment for the mill to do a radius but have not used it yet.

[Bent]

For those of us who don't have a mill (as of yet) the bandsaw comes in handy. Rounding of the knee lever ends was great..so was rough cutting the round of the fingers--- with my 3/16th blade.

Allan, it won't chew up the tires but it will track off the blade or break it if you try to cut too tight a curve.
I tried a scroll saw as well. Couldn't make it work too well in aluminum. That's not to say it's impossible. Could be my ineptness.

[Allan]

...I tried a scroll saw as well. Couldn't make it work too well in aluminum. That's not to say it's impossible. Could be my ineptness.

Bent, don't assume that you are doing much wrong. Two things, It took me ages to find the right blades to use and the right speed also. I will look for a blade packet if I can find one (or I will have to repeat the whole exercise of finding them once more!) and let you know what ones I used in the end. As far as speed goes, a slow to medium speed worked better for me. I found that a high speed seemed to pull the chips back into the cut and cause a jamb.

A really neat trick you can do with a scroll saw is to take the ends of your dull or broken blades and epoxy them to a thin strip of something like emery cloth. The resulting object is great for filing/polishing in tight spaces. I use parts of the used up belts from one of my belt sanders to make these in various grades.

I assume that you use a stone to take the edges off the back of your band saw blades. Do the same with the blades on your scroll saw. Makes a lot of difference on tight cuts - stops a lot of jamming up.

Allan.....

[Scott Howard]

Bent

I still use my band saw a lot. Sometimes it easier to just make a few cuts and hit the belt sander than set up what is needed on the mill. I guess I am a little on the lazy side. I did the radius on knee levers for a long time by laying a US 25 cent quarter ,on them and just making it . I use several coins depending on the width of the part. It takes about four cuts to get it close , followed buy a little on the belt sander . I originally bought the radius attachment for making changer fingers but I don't see me doing one as of now .