Vibrating cold saw. Any ideas/remedies?

I have a new-to-me Dake/MEP cold saw that I've been trying to get dialed in. It started out as a unit with power downfeed and such. However, I believe it was run into the ground and then resurrected. Hopefully, it will turn out to be a good tool that I can rely on for years to come.

Anyway, it has dovetail ways that the head travels on. I have adjusted the gib several times to get rid of some vibration that I'm experiencing. I've been able to get some smooth cuts without vibration, but it seems like it's pretty bad now. I've tightened the blade, the vise... I can't figure out why this thing wants to shake while cutting. I've been cutting some 1.5" aluminum round stock. It has a nice finish whether or not it vibrates. I believe the blade has 240 teeth. However, it vibrates in a way that makes me think it isn't a speed/feed issue.

If anyone has any pointers as to where this vibration may be coming from, please let me know. I will probably play with the gib a little more and take a closer look at the holding surfaces of the vise. The round had a small flat milled into one side (for indexing purposes), so I'm pretty sure that it was being held securely. If anyone can offer some advice for this thing, please let me know. Thank you for taking time to read my post!

Bearings, gears, general power train, blade mounting, bad blade grinding etc?

The cold saw is not ideal for cutting aluminium; the speed is too low and the tooth pitch too fine. Probably not enough tooth clearance to clear the chips.

I use a Super Brown manual feed and what works for me is to use a very rich coolant mix (15%) and lots of flow. A perfectly round blade also helps although they often appear to have a little eccentricity which seems to set off the vibration.

I would add that it cuts steel very smooth and quiet; the vibration is only an issue with aluminium.

Regards,

Mike.

My bet is the teeth are getting packed with aluminum, setting up the vibration. Even an 80 tooth carbide 12" non-ferrous metal cutting blade will pack with chips in aluminum. I haven't had this problem with a 60 tooth blade though.

My guess is the tooth pitch is too fine, though it is impossible to know what your teeth-per-inch is without knowing the blade diameter. Cold saws come in many different diameters.

Our cold saw is set up for tube cutting, and will always vibrate when you try to cut solid material (unless you change the blade). For this reason we use the cold saw for steel tube, a bandsaw or reciprocator for solid steel and a high speed saw (HSS, similar to cold saw blade) for aluminium extrusions. The latter uses a drip-feed of cutting fluid, the others use flood coolant.

The charts I have recommend something like 2 1/2 tpi for cutting 1 1/2" solid. They also give the rule-of-thumb of 2-3 teeth always engaged and not more than 7 teeth engaged. Another chart recommends fewer teeth (steel x .75) for cutting non-ferrous. 240 teeth on a 12 1/2" diameter blade is 6 tpi, whereas 2 1/2 tpi is around 100 teeth. I would get some advise about tpi from a blade seller or the saw manufacturer, they are pretty expensive items.

These coarse tooth saws work very well for solid, but the problem is no one likes to change them when cutting tube, so we tend to keep finer blades on the cold saw and accept a bit of vibration when cutting heavy wall or small section solids.

Call DAKE and ask them........

Does this saw have a reverse switch ? My Super Brown reccomends that solids should be run with the blade turning away from the fence . Of course you have to mount the blade with the teeth facing the correct way .
I cut all my solids this way , steel , alum. It has something to do with the way the head swings into the cut . But if you have dovetail ways , I guess that means your saw feeds in a srtaight line . Worth a try though . I agree that a very rich coolant is a must . Learned that a long time ago . I have an aammeter on my saw and it tells me if the saw is cutting evenly .
If I see a rythmic spike , it tells me I have a tooth loading up . This will lead to a broken blade in a hurry if you dont correct it .
I send all my blades to Scotchman in S Dakota and have never been disappointed .
FBB