Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Jan 23, 3:22 pm, Wes wrote:

"Bob La Londe" wrote:

Any of you guys use one for cutting metal ... and admit to it?

They tend to go too fast. Aluminum you can get away with. I'm wondering how mine would
do with a 7/8" pitch 1 1/4 wide band. I think I'll stick to wood though.
Wes


Bob, cutting steel at wood speed dulls the blade in seconds. When
someone did that I hid the good blades and left the dull one on until
I needed the saw, then I put the dull one back on afterwards. When
they complained I asked them what they needed to cut, often revealing
the perp. I couldn't stop them, they were engineers and I was only the
lab tech, but at least they had to sit through an explanation.


Someone during the day used to do that at the votech college in Wichita
repeatedly. I was doing the machining evening class and many times spent
much of an evening cutting 2" aluminium with a hacksaw as it was quicker
than the bandsaw. The lecturers were helpful but didn't have access to
other replacement blades.

Wes, Suffolk Saw told me that those blades should run at 5000 feet per
minute. I think they said to set the guides about 1/8" outside the
straight line between the tires and use rollers on the inside only. I
did that, skate bearings in and generic Cool Blocks out, and it worked
fine.

jsw