On Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:25:29 -0600, Ignoramus22609
wrote:

On 2013-03-02, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:46:48 -0600, Ignoramus22609
wrote:

Ed, I am using those Starrett blades with variable teeth and they are
amazing, well worth the money. I can easily make, say, 20 cuts of 5
inch rounds on a given day, lately. The blades fly through regular steel.

i

Aha. Well, I haven't followed this thread very well, having given up
on having any helpful ideas early on, but the previous comment about
non-austenitic stainless steel plucked a cord.

FWIW, most high-nickel steels, which work-harden like crazy, are also
magnetic. Even 304 is highly magnetic if it's been heavily cold-worked
but not annealed, as is the case with cold-rolled bars.

Grade 316 won't be magnetic even if you beat it like hell. High-nickel
tool steels will be magentic, and they work-harden.

Work hardening causes a lot of surprises. Not that I'm sure what
you're encountering, but it's something to keep in mind.


I rechecked that steel round. Despite having been told that it is
magnetic, it was not magnetic, it was 300 series stainless. The
bandsaw cut it just fine, but it took an inordinate amount of time.

i

People who cut a lot of 300 Series and who know their stuff keep
telling me it isn't difficult or particularly slow. My experience with
it is that it can be difficult, and it's pretty slow.

Machinability for typical grades runs around 40%. But it seems to be
more extreme when you're sawing versus, say, turning it.

Don't hold me to it. I don't have a lot of experience with it, except
for drilling thousands of pieces in a Herbert turret lathe. Otherwise,
I haven't machined it much with other methods.

--
Ed Huntress