Hi All,
Sorry I spelled “metals” wrong. I tried to edit but couldn’t.
Anyway………
I had a job described as “insalling aluminum sliding door tracks” I took a quick look at them and purchased a Freud carbide 80t blade for non-ferrous metals. I instantly discovered upon blade meets material that it was some sort of steel. It had a plasic coating on it so I couldn’t tell exactly and had no magnet nearby. The metal was maybe 16ga.
Anyway I looked at the $60 blade- calculated it’s a loss either way as I saw no blades for mild steel and would spend 2 hours searching. I was able to use a grinder for the bulk of the work but the bottom had to be sq and clean so I used the above blade.
Aside from lots of sparks it cut ok. I securely clamped the work-eye-ear-dust protection were worn. The blade seems none worse for the wear.
The only thing I can imagine ruining the blade was the heat and I quickly learned what feed rate kept the metal from glowing red-GO FAST!
Was I risking more than blade?
How would you have done it?
Thanks,
N
Edited 6/28/2003 10:27:19 PM ET by notrix
Replies
Notrix,
Carbide is pretty tough stuff. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a carbide cutter to glow bright orange cutting out a cobalt steel tap on a CNC with minimal wear on the cutter. It is brittle though. It has a lot of compression strength, but little elongation strength. Blade chatter and harmonics will kill it quickly. Typically, sparks are a sure sign that it is disintegrating. FWIW, we almost never run any kind of coolant when rough machining steel with carbide.
Jon
Notrix,
HEY HEY HEY! I bet you almost wet your pants when you started blowing sparks! I would have loved to see the look on your face when that happened, and then when you found out you were cutting ferrous metal.
Two different techniques I can think of to efficiently cut steel. One- use a carburendum ferrous metal cutting blade on a 14" chop saw or a 7-1/4" circular saw. Now that will really blow sparks. You may want to try a practice cut first cause this technique can temper or burn the metal leaving it looking nasty.
Second technique is get out a high-tension hacksaw with a new blade and go to town. This can take awhile but leaves a nice clean cut.
Good Luck, Right now it seems you may need a little of it coming your way!
Cork in Chicago