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Saw Cutting Stainless Stock

gkoenig

gkoenig

Titanium
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Location
Portland, OR
Normally, I'm an aluminum kinda guy but I'm now looking at making a product out of 17-4.

The thing is, I have no idea what the best way to saw the raw stock is. I need small pieces (1" round bar cut to .5" lengths, and .5" square bar cut to 1" lengths). None of the stainless suppliers around here can cut it. The online outfits want to charge me $1.50 per cut, which seems expensive.

Now, in the shop space I'm in, I've got access to a nice older HydMech S20 Series II bandsaw. She eats aluminum all day long, but I have no idea what blade to get for stainless, or just how long that blade is going to last. Western Tool is happy to sell me a new blade for $80, but when I look up blade cutting life in 17-4, folks are often measuring life in a hundred cuts or so (but they are also usually talking about big ass cuts, not little ones like this). Happy to fit the HydMech and go that route, but the cost savings isn't going to be there if I wind up having to change the blade every 100 cuts.

So what are you guys all doing for similar stuff?
 
Find a good, used cold saw and automate it with a pusher, stop, and automatic clamp. If you're doing hundreds of parts you'll want to free yourself from manual cutting, and the setup can be used with Al also.

For the cold saw, you can use a smaller than normal blade to reduce surface speed, and go to a finer tooth to ensure longer life. Talk to triplechip [http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/members/triplechip/] about this.

For the saw, stability is key, make sure the trunnion and spindle are tight and robust for best results.
 
A good bi-metal bandsaw blade should last for thousands of cuts in small stuff like that, no problem. get your down feed speed right, much slower than the max for aluminum, don't let it rub ( like leaving a tape measure on the saw, and you wonder why it sounds different and its not moving! :D ), use coolant or cutting oil.

lenox, Irwin, and Morse blades are often on sale at MSC.

square up the saw well, and you should be able to bundle cut the square stock, 8-10 pcs at a time, easy.

you can tack weld together some cut lengths of the rounds to keep them from spinning and gang cut that too
 
Place I used to work bought a S20A series II.. That saw paid for itself on the first job.

7"D, 1" wall Ali-Nickel-Bronze. Ended up being 12,000 parts or some stupid thing.. 700 or
so parts per blade... On the manual saw we HAD, I'd start at 45 seconds a cut, and was at over
3 minutes by part 100.. That Hyd-mech.. 39 seconds a cut all the way until that blade broke.
As for paying for itself, supplier wanted $3 a cut, and would only guarantee 1/4" plus an eighth,
I sliced them to .170 (so we saved a THOUSANDS on material, and over $30k in cut charges).

Back to your situation.. Its 17-4.. It is an incredibly friendly material to work with, with
the proper blade (that SHOULD NOT cost $80), I'd venture you could get at least 10,000 parts out
of a single blade IF.... IF you don't do anything stupid..

You HAVE THE SAW to do this... I don't, I'm bringing in a pile of 1/2" 303 Monday morning
to the place I used to work, and I'm going to pay about 7 cents a cut.

$1.50 a cut on 1/2" (or even 1")material.. I'd tell them to go F' themselves.
Quite honestly, drop ship the material to me, and I'll cut it on a manual saw for $1,
and I'll even ship it to you for free.
 
At work we used to cut 17-4 all the time including Monel and Inconel, dont ever remember using any blade other than a standard staggered tooth.
For small dia. use a fine tooth and watch your feed.
 
If you cut them yourself, your blade choice depends on your bundle size. I can't recommend a current blade supplier as I weld my own from a 250' roll. But find a good blade supplier or look over the manufacturers websites to learn about blades and then call their tech help lines for recommendations. They will need to know the horsepower of your saw and your SFM choices. If they don't ask about them, they probably won't have the best advice (unless they are so good they know from your model number).
 
I say don’t sweat your blade choice.

Just get a 6-10 vari-tooth bi-metal from any of the above brands, or starrett (a bit overpriced), and go for it.

If you are cutting real production quantities, in the tens of thousands and up, by all means contact the manufacturers, otherwise you won’t even notice the difference before you are done.
 
if you cutting dry,,your screwed
my little Rong Fu with a 10-14 bi metal blade with coolant, could easily do 500,most likely closer to 2 or 3 thousand cuts as long as I am running the saw and not Bubba ,on those little pieces
There is no cost effective way if you employ Bubba
Don't go a thousand miles a hour for speed
not a big deal
 
Lenox sells rolls of bi metal blades, we cut everything from steel, stainless 304/316, aluminum with them, many many parts, big and small, tube, angle, and solid. If your not setup with coolant don't sweat it, WD 40 in a poly spray bottle works just fine. As said before take it easy, keep pressure on the cut, don't go to slow, but not to fast. I take it kind of easy on stainless, easier then some around here and they last along time.
 
Thanks guys!

I'm going to call that place above and see what their costs are.

If it's too high, I'll get to know this HydMech more intimately and snag a blade for it. Thanks to you guys, I have a lot more confidence this is doable.

Long term, I would love a good cold saw (I mean, who wouldn't?) so if one comes along for a reasonable price, I'll snag it. New ones are way too much to justify for this work yet, and she's looking thin in the PDX/SEA area for good used ones.
 
With a cold saw the cut will be so good and accurate you won't need to machine the ends. That very well could make the saw affordable. It did for us.
 
Keep your blade speed down and it should last a long time. Needs to be about 1/3 the speed you are running in aluminum, or less. Low speed and heavy feed. You don't want the saw rubbing on the material or it can work harden.
 
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