Query regarding Bandsaws..

[Kyle]

Can you run a metal cutting blade on a wood sawing bandsaw or is the speed too great? I have a delta industrial 17" and was curious whether this would run a steel cutting blade. The saw is not variable speed.

 

[froglips]

Might be an obvious question, but do you want to cut metal with the bandsaw/metal blade?

Jim

 

[nelsone]

Probably would depend on what kind of metal you are wanting to cut. Brass or other soft non-ferous metals would probably be fine with the higher speed, but I think carbon steel may present a problem if you can't slow it down. I wonder if one of those router speed controllers would work???

 

[JackLeg]

Kyle: Don't take ANY chances! Sell ME your present saw and buy you a good metal saw! LOL! (But serious also!)
:wsmile:

 

[Sully]

For cutting ferrous metals it will be too fast. But more importantly if you start cutting metal with your machine, you will probably ruin the tires as they will get embedded with metal shards.

J

 

[Makinsawdust]

Kyle,
You said it is not variable speed, but you have made sure you don't have two pulley's on your lower wheel haven't you? A lot of wood bandsaw's have two speeds. Sully is correct about the metal imbedding in the tires but if it's worth enough to you, you can always replace the tires afterward.
Rob

 

[mkepke]

Assuming this is fore cutting metal, woodcutting saws run way too fast for cutting metal.

Optimum for wood is 3700-4000 fpm. Ferrous metal is 40-300 fpm. Aluminum is from 500-4000 fpm. The variety in the metals is due to thickness, alloy, blade type.

Bottom line: metal blades in a woodcutting saw cutting ferrous metal = quick blade death.

-Mark

 

[Travis Porter]

You can if you slow the FPM way down and you can do that by switching out to different pullies.

 

[Gotcha6]

An obvious question to ask here is can you buy a metal cutting blade specific to your saw & needs, or will you need to have some made? Some manufacturers also offer a speed reducer for metal cutting on their machines. Don't know about Delta, though.

 

[Mike Davis]

In 1978 I got an order for four 24 inch tall letters to be cut out of 1/2 inch thick plate aluminum.

All I had at the time was a Craftsman 14 inch woodcutting band saw. I used a 4 TPI skip tooth blade in that saw and cut out the 4 letters. It was slow going and I had to do a lot of filing to smooth the edge, But it worked much better than the jig saw and I made a grand profit for a week's work. Which was pretty good pay back then.

So, yeah it will work, you may have to change pulleys, blades and get new tires afterwards.

I think you have to weigh the value/need of the project vs. the cost of a few replacement parts or the cost of a saw made specifically for metal cutting.