On 2019-08-14, Bob La Londe wrote:
I got suckered in by some SPAM from Grizzly and ordered a G0621X
variable speed vertical wood/metal bandsaw. Of course it seems to only
come with a wood blade, and I will probably only ever use it for metal
cutting. (I already have a decent Rigid mid/small woodcutting upright
bandsaw.)
Hmm ... that wood blade might be a good choice when cutting
aluminum which is at least three teeth thick.
I think I know why they had them on sale. The title of the listing says
its 3 phase. You have to read down into the description to see they
sell it with a VFD control for speed control and its wires to plug into
a single phase outlet. I think most small shop and home shop people saw
"3 phase" and just skipped onto the next listing.
Sounds like you got a bargain.
I'm getting ready to order a metal cutting blade for it. I like the way
the M42 blades hold up on my 7x10 bandsaw so I figured I'd just get
those for the upright. The saw spec says blade width from 1/8 to 1
inch, but I doubt I'll be doing any scroll cutting with it. I'm kinda
looking for the most useful pitch and width so to speak. Is there a big
difference between a 3/4 inch wide blade and a 1 inch wide blade. I
suspect I'll be doing 99.9% straight cutting stuff that isn't practical
to fit in the horizontal. Cost difference is only about $10-15 dollars
depending on the source, but still $10 is a premium six pack of beer or
a couple shots of top grade Canadian rye for after work.
The 3/4" should be good enough. I would go for the 1" if I were
cutting rather thick steel purely on straight lines.
1/2" might even do -- but there is something to be said for
using the same blade stock for both the horizontal and the vertical --
*if* you have a blade welder. (Maybe the Grizzly came with one in the
column?) Then just buy spools of blade stock and you can make up blades
for both saws.
Then there is pitch. The blade on my 7x10 horizontal seems to do just
fine for most things. I use it on aluminum most of the time, but it
will severe 1-5/8 4140QT round without much thought, and of course it
severs easy machining stress proof almost as fast as it chops aluminum.
Looks like about 12 pitch. I can't recall, but it might be variable
pitch 12/14 or something like that. I don't want to have a bunch of
different blades hanging on the wall. Just one spare that will allow me
to keep going if I break one while I order another spare.
Or -- as I mentioned above -- a roll of stock, if you have a
blade welder.
It will get
used most of the time to cut 6061 or 7075 aluminum from 1/2" thick to 2
inch thick.
For that -- 6 TPI would do.
It will occasionally need to cut some 4140HT or some A36
from 1/4 inch to 1-1/2 inch.
In that case -- go up to about 12 TPI -- so you always have at
least three teeth in the workpiece.
Rarely I may need to cut some pieces of
aluminum sheet in either 5052 or 3003. Now I usually cut those with a
circular saw on the wood deck of my equipment trailer.
A stomp shear is nice for that -- but if you are using a
circular saw, you don't have one. (And the bench-mount ones are not
wide enough to cut the typical 4'x8' sheet metal stock.)
I'm leaning towards a 12-14TPI or 10-12TPI 3/4 inch blade since that's
what I am running on the horizontal, but I'm open to changing my mind.
For most of what you are doing (other than the sheet aluminum,
whose thickness you did not mention) the 12-14 TIP should do. The 10-12
TPI might be marginal on the 1/4" thick stock -- and you really do want
a finer tooth blade for the sheet aluminum, which I'm guessing is about
16 gauge or so.
Enjoy,
DoN.
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