Effective Stainless Steel Cutting
Most band saw blades fail due to lack of break-in procedure, the feed system is not working correctly, there are too many or too few teeth on the cut, or because of the use of the wrong saw blade for the material to be cut.
In order to help achieve an effective cut of stainless steels, please consider the following:
- Use of the proper saw blade
- Speed rate and Feed rate
- The number of teeth in the saw blade
- Break-in procedure of the saw blade
The best saw blades to use for the proper and effective cutting of stainless steels are the Bi-Metal band saw blades.
The M42 high-speed edge of the band saw blade helps to improve on wear resistance.
Since Stainless Steel belongs in the medium steel range, the blade speed should be set at 200 SFPM (66M) – not too fast and not too slow.
Saw blade teeth can vary based on the thickness of the stainless steel to be cut. If the steel is thick, then a lower TPI should be used in order to allow for enough gullet capacity to hold the chips and prevent blade bounce. The prevention of blade bounce will also prevent the saw blade’s teeth from being stripped during the cutting procedure.
If the material to be cut is too thin, it is recommended that you use a maximum of 10-14 TPI. This will help to prevent the saw blade’s teeth from straddling the work piece while also preventing the teeth from stripping.
Finally, it is important to make sure that the saw blade is properly broken in. Proper break-in of a saw blade not only applies to the cutting of stainless steels but for all cutting materials.
The importance of break-in is to achieve a uniform blade life, to help in the removal of sharp edges, and also because new saw blades have sharp teeth that are more fragile than those lightly honed by a break-in of those teeth.
