Metal cutting band saw

I sold a table saw to a friend one time, and later he accused me of cheating him!! He said the motor was shot, and had no power!! I asked to see it, and first thing i noticed was the long extension cord coiled next to the saw. I turned the saw on and it took a while to get up to speed, so i asked if we could move the saw over by the wall, and plug it in direct!! Once done, it came right up to speed and cut well.

Robert

Recommended bandsaw speeds as well as most other metal cutting speeds are given in feet per minute (FPM) rather than RPM's. Based on Machinery's handbook recommedations, a bandsaw should cut mild steel OK between 300-400 FPM. To find out what your saw is capable of in fpm, measure the circumference of the blade in feet. Then make a mark on the blade and find a reference point on the saw. Turn the saw on and count the number of times the blade makes a complete revolution in one minute.

You don't say if the saw is a horizontal or vertical. If it's a vertical, forget the cylinder and push the piece through USING A PIECE OF WOOD or something like that so you don't saw your hand. If it's a horizontal, the feed more than likely depends on the weight of the saw to feed through the metal and the cylinder just holds it back. The more you open the cylinder, the faster it drops. On a horizontal saw, unless you are sawing a square part, laying the piece down will work better than standing it up because more teeth are engaged at any given time.

The number of teeth per inch is called the pitch. One last thing, the blade will last longer if you use a cutting fluid, preferrable water based. Good luck and be careful.