Where can I purchase a good blade, I have used the harbor freight ones and northern tool one and they seem not to last very long when cutting stainless steel

 

Try MSC... www.mscdirect.com

Starrett and Lennox baldes are good quality, but blade speed, number of teeth and force are all factors as well. For thin stuff use a blade with more teeth.

 

so for sch40 what can i use and also can i use same blade as for 16g

 

The general rule of thumb is that you should have at least 3 teeth engaged in the workpiece at all times. Thats really hard to do on thin stuff though but you'd want a blade with something like 20 teeth per inch.

Do you know what is causing your issues now? Are blades breaking or are teeth ripping off? Or both?

 

harbor freight blades with a diy lubricating system with no issues. some good cutting fluid will let the blades go a LONG way.

 

You dont have issues, but is the cut speed similar to that of a good blade?


I am looking into blades as well, I want to speed up the cutting process. Right now im about 5 minutes per cut through a 1.5" shedule 10 pipe. If I could get that to half of my time now and keep the same blade life, i would consider the price of a more expensive blade.

 

Allow me to start by saying I don't do much fab work, it's nothing more than a side hobby.

To date, bi-metal blades seem to last the longest for me. I get a local saw and tool company to make them for me. I have a few different tooth configurations based solely on the recommendation of one of the guys at the company after I told him what I was going to be cutting. For thin sheet metal he recommended x tooth configuration, and so on.

If I had to pick an actual brand, Lenox has always been good to me.

 

Just ordered a nice tecsaw brand blade for my new 7x12.

Hope the combination of cutting fluid on a pump, more agressive blade and hydraulic downfeed will get me cutting faster and longer...

Blade was pretty reasonable too

 

I use Lenox 8-12 Variable tooth blade. Use it for stainless and aluminum on both my vertical and horizontal units, 1"x.035" blade.

Mine are 9.54' long and are ~$65 each

I use rustlick ws5050 cutting fluid.

 

thanks i got them and works great, what are you using to cut exhaust pipes on the bandsaw like a fixture or something?

 

I use 24t blades on all my saws. All my cuts are clean and don't require a lot of clean up. My 7x12 uses coolant, and it's used all the time.

I tried coarser blades, but they ripped pieces out of my hands on the vertical and if they caught a part on accident- they would rip teeth off or bend the tube in the vice.

They are used 100% on stainless tube, and I'm
Very happy with them. I will time cut speed, but I have 4 saws, so its a chore to keep between all of them. Each one does a different cut on a part so I don't have to sit there and watch the paint dry, and if I change angles, I keep them there.

 

got the one ed said and cuts really good with no issues.

 

yeah, im happy with the cut speed. we dont do much schedule/pipe work because it isnt needed to make manifolds if built correctly, but we do basically everything in stainless and perfectly happy with the cut speed with the hf blades.

 

5 minutes on a 1.5in SCH 10 is serious.


1lb of bow weight or what?

 

was on an old HF style saw.

Bought a new 7x12 with a bimetal 10-13 tooth blade and im about 30 seconds a cut now.