Thread: Home cutting tools

Like Oldneweng I have GMC friction saw.
It does not flex unless pushed too hard on a worn blade.These beasts run on peripheral blade speed.

Let the motor keep up the revs and all is well.

Mine cuts dead square and to the millimetre as its fitted with a back stop.


I go through about 3 blades per year.I feel people are pushing them too hard if they are getting blade flex.

I agree they are noisy but are dam site faster than a bandsaw.

Grahame

Thanks all for the help. It looks like the horizontal band saw is the best option. The only one I'm familiar with is the one at the steel shop, where they don't cut mitres and only cut all the way through. Great saw though.

How fine is the control on these? Say I want to cut S/RHS accurately through three sides along scribe lines in order to bend it and reweld, e.g. for barwork on my car. Doing this with a grinder is messy and inaccurate, although the welder hides a multitude of sins. Can I do it with a hbs? Can I stop the cut halfway through without damaging the blade?

A 9" grinder scares me a bit and I don't do enough sheet work to justify it. Besides the steel shop cuts sheet pretty accurately and can fold it etc and don't really charge anything.

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Like Oldneweng I have GMC friction saw.
It does not flex unless pushed too hard on a worn blade.These beasts run on peripheral blade speed.

Let the motor keep up the revs and all is well.

Mine cuts dead square and to the millimetre as its fitted with a back stop.


I go through about 3 blades per year.I feel people are pushing them too hard if they are getting blade flex.

I agree they are noisy but are dam site faster than a bandsaw.

Grahame

Grahame,
That looks suspiciously like a shopping trolly handle on your saw stand.....does that mean that the stand never goes where you want it too?
I stuffed the armature on my hitachi abrasive saw a few months back trying to cut through 3" square solid...OK, my fault really not the machines. I hated the thing though, noisy, slow, and real good at setting fire to things. The blades bind as the steel you are cutting heats up and expands back into the cut. I did find a huge difference in cut speed depending on the blades i used. I bought some Pferd? ones once that just sat there making noise, and barely any sparks.
I was spoilt where i used to work, we had a thomas cold cut, great saw, i cut up to 3" dia solid on it no worries. You could either swivel the head or the vice or both, which made miters a breeze to cut. Was slow in solid though, great on pipe...actually it cut more chrome hanging rail than anything else, not really much of a demanding job.

Say I want to cut S/RHS accurately through three sides along scribe lines in order to bend it and reweld,

That won't work that much. The arm of a band saw swings down, it doesn't move down parallel. Also, you can't tilt the blade. So that won't work at all.
There do exist bands saws where the blade moves down parallel. But these are certainly out of the size envelope you thought of.

If I'd have to make cuts like these (I'd avoid them), I'd use a jig saw.

Why not completely cut through? What you do is for bed frames.


Nick

Originally Posted by MuellerNick

That won't work that much. The arm of a band saw swings down, it doesn't move down parallel. Also, you can't tilt the blade. So that won't work at all.
There do exist bands saws where the blade moves down parallel. But these are certainly out of the size envelope you thought of.

If I'd have to make cuts like these (I'd avoid them), I'd use a jig saw.

Why not completely cut through? What you do is for bed frames.


Nick

It looks better with a bent 4th side.

Having said that I never do it myself, I just cut the mitre and weld it back together.

My cheap POS Chinese swivelling head bandsaw is one of the most used tools in my shop. If it died today I'd be off to the shop for a new one tomorrow, or sooner. But do NOT get the straight cut units - as Nick said earlier, they're a right PITA when cutting tube etc on an angle.

PDW

Stopping the cut half way thru is no problem but you would be talking about doing this with a double mitre. If the angle of cut on the saw was changed this would cut the wrong sides. The only way to do this would be to change the angle of the metal in the vice so it was not sitting flat but up on an angle.

Dean

Originally Posted by Ueee

Grahame,
That looks suspiciously like a shopping trolly handle on your saw stand.....does that mean that the stand never goes where you want it too?
I stuffed the armature on my hitachi abrasive saw a few months back trying to cut through 3" square solid...OK, my fault really not the machines. I hated the thing though, noisy, slow, and real good at setting fire to things. The blades bind as the steel you are cutting heats up and expands back into the cut. I did find a huge difference in cut speed depending on the blades i used. I bought some Pferd? ones once that just sat there making noise, and barely any sparks.
I was spoilt where i used to work, we had a thomas cold cut, great saw, i cut up to 3" dia solid on it no worries. You could either swivel the head or the vice or both, which made miters a breeze to cut. Was slow in solid though, great on pipe...actually it cut more chrome hanging rail than anything else, not really much of a demanding job.

Trolley was a feral that someone had already snavelled the castors(bugger).
It was hobbled and could not be pushed back to its herd.

It was kinder not to let it suffer so put it out of its misery and cut out the flat panels for her indoors fernery / flowers etc. The handle hung around for a while until it dawned on me to use it.I am re furbing it as you see.

I have watched the school kids glaze the periphery of the cut off wheel by using excess down force on it.I had to use a bit of used a/grinder disc against the cutoff wheel edge to de-glaze it. Same kids deflected the wheel to such an extent it cut a notch out of the friction saw deck. Some are just too bloody dumb to understand repeated simple instruction and I had to kick them off the machine before they hurt themselves.

Another thing to remember is to always use the blotter gasket that comes with the wheels.The flanges must have a blotter under them.


I suppose friction saws are better suited towards tubular work than solids.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Another thing to remember is to always use the blotter gasket that comes with the wheels.The flanges must have a blotter under them.

Grahame

I have read that about grinding wheels for the bench grinder too. I know its a bit off topic but can you explain why for me?

I have read that about grinding wheels for the bench grinder too. I know its a bit off topic but can you explain why for me?

If "blotter" is a thick paper:
This distributes the force over an area. Wheels are made out of grit and that sticks out. You have small points of huge stress. This is avoided with the paper.
It is different with the cuttoff disks. They are reinforced with a lot of glass fibers, they don't need the paper (but it doesn't hurt). Also, there is one included already while pressing them.
Grinding disks are divided into ones for freehand work and machine work. NEVER use one in an angle grinder that is supposed for machine work, they lack the reinforcement fibers.


Nick

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Trolley was a feral that someone had already snavelled the castors(bugger).
It was hobbled and could not be pushed back to its herd.

It was kinder not to let it suffer so put it out of its misery and cut out the flat panels for her indoors fernery / flowers etc. The handle hung around for a while until it dawned on me to use it.I am re furbing it as you see.

I have watched the school kids glaze the periphery of the cut off wheel by using excess down force on it.I had to use a bit of used a/grinder disc against the cutoff wheel edge to de-glaze it. Same kids deflected the wheel to such an extent it cut a notch out of the friction saw deck. Some are just too bloody dumb to understand repeated simple instruction and I had to kick them off the machine before they hurt themselves.

Another thing to remember is to always use the blotter gasket that comes with the wheels.The flanges must have a blotter under them.


I suppose friction saws are better suited towards tubular work than solids.

Grahame

What Blotter that comes with the wheels. The next wheel I buy that comes with a blotter will be the first one. Someone should tell the people in the stores about this. I asked about blotters once and was told they are in a box over there, help yourself. I always use them tho.

Dean

The boxes of blades we purchased (when I was a teacher) with the friction saw blades always came with blotters.I was unaware of the change until I asked this week for a blotter for the friction wheels I purchased (as singles) for home and got the same answer as the rest of you. I looked up the Norton abrasives site and found that it is as Nick indicated, in that they are not needed.

I have no idea as to why the situation changed.

Grahame