Mike Spencer fired this volley in
:

I've heard somewhere about arc cutting with a band saw. Alleged that
U-Haul did it in trailer fab. Use wood-cutting speed on a large band
saw, insulate the workpiece from the table with masonite, connect one
welder lead to the workpiece and one so that the blade is live. Blade
said to stay cool enough due to speed.

Never heard of it again, too chicken to try to do it with my antique
24" flat-belt drive saw.

Anybody actually do this?


The band might stay "cool enough", but arc erosion would be exactly the
same on the blade as it was on the material being cut (+-). So, if you
had (say) 1 square inch to cut, then you'd better have one square inch's
worth of blade to waste before it wears down too far to be able to clear
the guide bearings.

This is sort of along the lines of "friction heat cutting" with a
bandsaw. Yeah... right! You're going to keep the whole length of a band
at yellow-white heat continually... Really?

Well, maybe if your bandsaw can run at a couple-hundred feet per second!

Lloyd