Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw? Final Pix

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BKind2Anmls

New User
Susan
I epoxied some 10-gauge wire from electrical cable into a block of maple and cut it into the shape of a Christmas tree. I next want to slice it up for ornaments. Can I do this on my bandsaw with a wood cutting blade? Everything I can find on the Internet says "you can cut thin sheets of copper with wood blades" but I am not dealing with sheets.

Thanks

Tree_Front.jpg

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/medium/Tree_Back.jpg
 
T

toolferone

Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

I don't think you will have any problem. How many teeth on the blade?
 

BKind2Anmls

New User
Susan
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

I have several blades. What size and how many teeth would you recommend? Is more or fewer better?
 
T

toolferone

Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

Try a 6 tooth and nice easy feed rate should do it.
 

Woodman2k

Greg Bender
Corporate Member
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

Susan,
you should have at least 1 to 2 teeth engaged in the metal all the way through the cut. That wire looks to be the size of the gullets on some blades and would creat some problems if feeding too fast. The other problem might be if the blade is too fine and it creats metal dust ,that will smear across the face of the cut and stain the wood. You will be doing some sanding either way.Is that aluminum wire?
Greg
 
T

toolferone

Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

10 ga wire is just under 1/8". Maybe 8 teeth would work better.
 

BKind2Anmls

New User
Susan
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

OK. Thanks everyone. I'll look and see if I have a blade with around 6-8 teeth per inch and feed it slowly. Does the blade width matter?
 

ehpoole

Administrator
Ethan
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

I cut non-ferrous metals fairly regularly on my bandsaw and tablesaw (and occassionally my router), so I can confirm that no harm will be done to the blade or saw with regard to what you are trying. Just be aware that metal tends to behave (and sound) quite different than when working with wood with your power tools.

However, by combining metal with wood you are creating two competing variables with regard to TPI for your blade choice. With wood that thick you tend to want to choose a blade with fewer teeth/inch and deep gullets to allow the gullets to remove the waste material efficiently. However, when cutting metal you tend to want considerably more teeth/inch and shallower gullets to ensure a smoother cut and to prevent the blade from trying to take too big of a bite into the metal (which will tend to tear the metal moreso than cut it and reduces blade life).

One would tend to want to aim for at least 10+TPI (actually, 15-20TPI would be nice) for the metal side of the equation, but the thickness of your project probably calls for more like 4-6TPI for the wood. So your first pass or two is going to be experimental in terms of finding the optimal balance between a coarser blade for the wood and a finer blade for the metal. I would offer more specific advice as the to the optimal blade, but I have not yet had a need as of yet to combine metal and wood on my bandsaw (I've done so with my tablesaw, circular saw and router, but never the bandsaw).

In this case, it probably would have been easier/safer to install the copper after resawing the wood. The copper could then have been brought level to the wood at the same time you sand the final piece to remove bandsaw marks.

Blade width isn't really an issue so long as you have adequate tension and are not suffering from any deflection or barrel cutting (due to inadequte tension). A wider blade makes it easier to stay in a straight line when resawing, but your ornament is small enough that that really shouldn't be an issue. I normally use a 1" blade when resawing, but for a small project like this I would be perfectly happy with a 1/4" blade. In fact, I would consider the 1/4" blade far more appropriate for a project of this size.
 

BKind2Anmls

New User
Susan
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

I thought about using the table saw. It will remove more wood but would make a cleaner cut. I plan to epoxy the tree to a slab with a handle and then take relatively thin slices. I did consider adding the copper after the fact but that would have taken me so much longer since there would have been 660 instead of 132 holes to fill! I have six of these about 1.5" thick and I want to saw them into about 1/8" thick ornaments. I am going to saturate the holes with thin CA after each cut just in case the epoxy job wasn't complete and also will drape blankets around the bandsaw to catch any flying copper disks so I can put them back in.

Thank you very much for the warning about the sound. Now I will be expecting it and won't jump (I hope) when it happens. :embarrassed:
 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

The risk of the copper studs falling out when a slice is made is a very real one. I recommend before each slice covering the outside with masking tape and pressing it down so it can stick as best it can to the ends of the copper pieces. This may save hunting them up on the floor.
 

BKind2Anmls

New User
Susan
Re: Can I Cut This With a Bandsaw?

Actually, it was anti-climatic. I glued it to a block and ran it through against the fence and it cut just like slicing a block of wood. I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks for everyone's advice.
 

BKind2Anmls

New User
Susan
None of the brass popped out and it cut like a breeze. I used a 1/2" resaw blade and superglued the cut-out tree (1.25" thick) to a wood block for safety. I sliced 1/8" and 1/4" thick and then sanded to 12,000. No finish.

Wood is curly maple, inserts are brass.

Chrimstas_Tree_with_Brass.jpg
 
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