On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:25:12 -0600, Karl Townsend
wrote:

On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:38:33 -0500, Ed Huntress
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:55:39 -0600, Karl Townsend
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:35:24 -0800 (PST), aribert neumann
wrote:

My wanted a touch-pad for her recipes in the kitchen - so I got her
one for Christmas. Now she is looking for a holder that will store
the pad up under the upper cabinets and pivot down and out for her to
read. The only articulating holder that I found was for an I-pad and
hers is not the same size. I am thinking of a bracket mounted to the
underside of the upper cabinet with a simple pivot, a pair of links
that are saw cut for the touch-pad to slip into. I am thinking of
making the links out of annealed 304 SS. Do I need to be concerned
about work hardening from sawing? I have very little experience
working w/ SS.

I've got a whole bunch of 304 sheet. I basically can't bandsaw it, it
just dulls the blade

If you want to see a discussion of bandsawing 304 - 316 stainless, I
wrote an article about it last month that will at least explain what's
going on, and what bandsaw blade makers do to overcome it:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/fabs...ruary2012/#/44

It's not easy with small bandsaws to get enough pressure on the cut.
Most people try to use a fine-pitch blade, and that just work-hardens
the material.

If you're hacksawing by hand, keep up the pressure, don't let the
blade skate over the work, and use the coarsest-tooth blade you can
get away with.

303 is easier to saw. Just don't use it for outdoors projects.

Ed, I've got close to a 1000 sq ft of 304 in thickness from 0.060 to
0.250. Is there a Starret VTF blade for this? I have a roll in
bandsaw and can put a fair bit of pressure on the blade.

Ya' got me, Karl. I think the VTH is primarily for barstock and thick
sections.

You can take a look at Starrett's selection guides and see what they
recommend. They're also very good on the phone. Here's their
application-based blade selection info:

http://www.starrett.com/saws/saws-ha...and-saw-blades



I have cut some of the thicker stuff with a 10-14 bimetal blade. But
it had better be a valuable project cause the blade won't last very
long. Mostly, I just get out the plasma cutter or Modern brand
gobbler.

Karl

Well, I guess you read my article and you see why regular bimetal
blades have a tough go in austenitic stainless. They're probably the
most commonly used baldes, however, especially if you don't have power
feed. They'll do the job but, as you say, they don't last very long.

Thin stainless is a bugger to bandsaw. If you learn something from
Starrett or anywhere else, I'll bet a lot of folks here would be
interested.

--
Ed Huntress