homemade blades for sonic tools

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I use one of those sonic tools at work for cutting into drywall and plaster when fishing circuits into existing buildings. If any of you have used one, you know the blades are expensive and short lived, especially on old plaster. I thought I would try making my own by using the old worn out ones and welding pieces of saw blades onto them. I could use pieces of sawzall plaster blades, and pieces of hack saw blades butt welded to the old blades and ground smooth. I thought I would either braze them or mig them. It might seem ridiculous but I just want to see if I can make a better blade than I can buy. I even thougt about hardfacing some of the old ones and filing teeth into them. Do you guys think it will work? I really don't have anything to lose and it will give me another excuse to diddle around in the shop on the weekend.Miller Challenger 172Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC 225/150Miller Maxstar 150 STLVictor 100CVictor JourneymanOxweld OAHarris O/ASmith O/A little torchNo, that's not my car.
Reply:You need an excuse to diddle in the shop?!!.No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWYou need an excuse to diddle in the shop?!!
Reply:You're missing the point. The only ones you need to justify are the ones you haven't bought yet. On second thought, tig might be a good way to do these. You don't have one (or better 2) of those yet. .No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:ive pondered the same thing the blades suck especially if you need to cut corner bead   bi metal my but i have the dremel version and their blades are junk i just got an adapter from bosch to try there blades lemme know how it goes 350P 30A spool gun cut master 51  syncro 250 other stuff " take a dog off the street and make him prosper and he will not bite you sad the same cannot be said for man" i didnt use punctuation just to piss you off
Reply:I'd bet it's a no-go on filing the hardfacing.  If it's truly hard the file should just glide across without removing any material  You could probably grind notches though.  Maybe use a thin whiz wheel.Dynasty200DX w/coolmate1MM210MM VintageESAB miniarc161ltsLincoln AC225Victor O/A, Smith AW1ACutmaster 81IR 2475N7.5FPRage3Jancy USA1019" SBAEAD-200LE
Reply:Bosch owns dremel.  The blades are incompatible, but I would suspect that other than how it attaches, the quality would be the same.I've got a Fein supertool (its like the multimaster, but more powerful) that was made to cut windshields out.  NO WAY, I was going to pay Fein prices for blades.I actually made an adapter that allows me to grab the blades from the Craftsman version (which I believe will fit the multimaster too, but the supertool has a much larger hex shaped hub).Their blades are actually cheaper than the ones from HF (in part, because many come in two packs).Anyway, my house has stucco walls inside.  Built in 1929, the walls are almost an inch thick, about 3/4 of some fiber reinforced (manila, or something like that) concrete like stuff, covered in a textured hard plaster, all over expanded metal mesh, attached to metal channels (looks a lot like resilient channel).  Before I had this tool, installing an outlet was a nightmare involving lots of drilling, sawzalling, and re-plastering what I cracked out around the edges.  The Fein makes a perfect square cut through all of that stuff (even the steel channel).As for the cutting edge.  I first tried one of the finer toothed plunge blades (it said it was metal/multipurpose cutting).  The teeth disappeared in seconds, but the corners of the blade continued through the plaster somewhat.  That's when I went out to the shop, and cut new teeth into the blade using a cutoff wheel in my angle grinder.  They don't have to be even, or sharp.  Big and blockish squares work almost as well as the triangle shaped teeth you find on a sawzall plaster blade (which is the perfect shape if you have the time to replicate that).  I can cut holes for one or maybe two old-work boxes before the teeth are too worn to use any more (about the same lifetime I was getting out of sawzall blades).  In plasterboard, I figure I could cut several dozen (but I just use a jab saw), and in normal plaster on wood lath, maybe a dozen or so.  The metal in my walls, and the concrete underneath just eats the teeth up.  With wood lath, you also need a somewhat sharp edge to get through unless you just cut the plaster out, and finish with a keyhole saw.The thing is, I never bothered to weld a new edge on.  The wide plunge blade can go in almost two inches in depth, so I've re-ground it a few times now, and still have plenty of metal left to re-grind a few more times.  I figure I lose about 1/4" each time.  Eventually it'll be too shallow to get through, and I might give it new life by TIGging a sawzall blade to its edge, but then again, I also weld together my brazing rod stubs.
Reply:i found 3" diameter jeweler's saw blades about 30 or 40 thousandths thick on ebay. they work great. also got some thicker ones that were not so great--too much weight kept loosening the bolt.
Reply:everybody's blades are incompatible but bosh now has an adapter like previously stated that allows you to use there blades and i thick others as well they sent me aswell as many others a free blade and an adapter seems to be better then the dremel but time will tell  ive got some old blade to try experiments on350P 30A spool gun cut master 51  syncro 250 other stuff " take a dog off the street and make him prosper and he will not bite you sad the same cannot be said for man" i didnt use punctuation just to piss you off
Reply:I had the same thought about welding a piece of hacksaw blade to a worn out blade. Bimetal hacksaw blades are cheap and when you cut them into short chunks they're really cheap. To be REALLY REALLY cheap one could cut the good sections off of worn-out hacksaw or sawzall blades. Lincoln SA200, HH135, Lencospot, HF80 Inverter, Rockwell 11x35 lathe, HF drill mill, Kama 554 tractor w/ FEL & BH, Belarus 250AS, lot's of Chinese tools
Reply:You could save a few cents that way, but if I'm going to be spending the time to weld a new blade up, I'll be using something with brand new teeth.  That got me thinking though, it might be worth my while to do that, using one of those new sawzall blades that has carbide teeth.I suppose a carbide grit blade might work for my stucco, but the round ones I have (which you can easily get for one of these tools) aren't large enough to get through my walls, and the round shape isn't good at the corners.  I may just cut one up and turn it into a carbide grit plunge blade.Oh, and using hacksaw blades is a good idea for some general use, but a bad idea for plaster.  That needs a much coarser tooth.   You might want to look at the sawzall or lenox blades designed specifically for plaster.  Its a symmetrical triangular tooth, around 6tpi.  No gullet, kind of dull, cuts both ways.
Reply:for plaster and drywall i want to try the rockwell blades they carry at lowes very aggressive looking tooth like on a drywall saw350P 30A spool gun cut master 51  syncro 250 other stuff " take a dog off the street and make him prosper and he will not bite you sad the same cannot be said for man" i didnt use punctuation just to piss you off