Dry Cut For Stainless Tube

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The bandsaw works good, but it is SLOW. I know at the end of the day, it is stainless and I'll only be able to go so fast, but I am thinking about either a dry cut or abrasive chop saw. This will be almost exclusively for 1/16" and 1/8" wall stainless tube 2"-3" diameter.I did a search but couldn't find any comments by people who tried cutting stainless using one of the stainless specific blades. I am pretty sure an abrasive chop saw will do the job faster than the bandsaw, but the extra cleanup means it might not put me ahead. If the dry cut saw can compete with an abrasive in terms of speed wihtout killing blades too often it might be the ticket.Any thoughts?
Reply:Plasma with the tube on rollers?  The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:Miter cuts would be tricky I think
Reply:Stick with the bandsaw IMO. Loads of mess to clean up with abrasive chopsaw and they're not the most accurate things anywayI love my dry cut saw but don't use it for stainless, regular blades die pretty quickly if used on stainless, specific blades... hellishly expensive, i know of a couple of people that spent the money on them and were less than impressed (whether that's their technique or not...) with blade life versus cost. I've also heard various things about the differences between them- the blade sharpener that i use swears that there's no difference between them other than tooth count (his own 'brand' blades are labelled as such) while other sources i'm aware of claim the grade of carbide is different. I've not been able to confirm either way. Might have to risk one of his blades one day, see how they hold up on stainless compared with 'brand name' bladesWhat about spending the money to improve the system you currently have- auto feed etc so that you can set up a cut, leave it to do it's thing while you tack up the previous one...
Reply:The auto feed comment is a good one- I am using a vertical bandsaw right now, if I got a little horizontal unit I could set it up so it doesn't need much babysitting. I like the vertical becuase it is so flexible, I can just do almost anything with it - but maybe I should get a little horizontal one for the repetitive stuff, even if it isn't much better, I could re-sell it and not lose much. And even if it were slow it'd be less painful since I'm not friggin feeidn the piece by hand.Thanks Hotrodder, that's a good thought.
Reply:We use a northern dry cut for up to 5" 304 tube .065 wall.  It makes very good and fast cuts that are pretty clean.  Blade has close to 2 years on it and still works.  It also makes very accurate miter cuts on the 5" tube, so 2 and 3" would be no problem.Have we all gone mad?
Reply:In my experience stainless blades have more teeth than mild steel blades..But I don't know how they cut stainless, and how long...
Reply:I worked at a business that cut at least 4,000 feet of stainless tubing a year.We used an abrasive cutoff saw. 1.5 inch .049 and .065 tubing 316 tubingAfter 7 years and one set of brushes the makita cut off saw died.The the next  cutoff saw went 3 more years before I left that job.i read a book that computed costs of different methods and that the abrasive saw was the least expensive all things considered.The saw was noisy and dusty.so located the saw in a seperate room hooked to a shop vacuum. The exhaust hose led to another small room about 10 feet away, and in that room was a 50 gallon drum that collected the grit and epoxy dust. It worked well but you had to wear a mask and ear protection at all times.The shop was cleaned every friday at the last hour of the day.If you cut ANY angles on tubes or other shapes the piece HAS TO BE CLAMPED DOWN or you can get hurt. Do not think you will cut a miter on a round tube and not get hurt sooner or later. I feel i had to write this warning to  others.Last edited by Donald Branscom; 08-22-2008 at 03:21 AM.AWS certified welding inspectorAWS certified welder
Reply:Capnbondo,You may well need to make a clamping fixture or two for a horizontal bandsaw considering the type of cuts made- you'd almost certainly need fixtures for a cut off saw. It'll never be as versatile as a vertical but it's strengths lie elsewhereSn0border,What blade are you using, regular to constant use? From a quick google it appears to be similar to my dewalt and the other usual suspects, same rpm etcThe 'general purpose' 70ish tooth blades i've used really don't like stainless. Stainless blades from the usual suspects are typically 90 tooth as are the 'thin section' blades but apparently there are other differences- no one near me stocks the stainless blades so i've not been able to have a look to see if the tooth geometry is different.
Reply:Sn0border,2 years on 1 blade! Wow, that sounds promising!Donald, yeah, the mess is the major downside of the abrasive saw for sure. My shop is a pita to keep clean as it is, and I generally have a car in there being worked on as well, the bandsaw has served me well to that end- doesn't spray dust sparks all over which is a huge plus. Hotrodder, ya, no worries on the fixtures. I have to make jigs for the vertical as well to cut the really sharp miters for collectors consistently. A horizontal bandsaw or dry cut will likely need similar fixtures I think. I have been looking at the makita 12"  dry cut- 1300rpm as opposed to the 1500rpm of most if the 14" saws, so with a smaller blade and lower rpm, I bet the surface speed is more stainless friendly, and apparently the 12" blades wander quite a but less. It's limited to 4.5" tube, but in the case case where I need to cut something bigger than that I can use the bandsaw or a cutoff wheel even for how rarely I need to do that... I really appreciate the insight guys.
Reply:its not been under heavy regular use.  We probably have about 150 cuts on it.  The main reason we got it was because the scotchman cold saw cant clamp 5" in its jaws.If your using it every day or week, it might not be the best for your use.  But if its every few days your should be fine.  We like to spray wd-40 on the blade as its cutting to help keep it cool.Have we all gone mad?
Reply:The abrasive cut off saw has abrasive blades available that are thinner 3/32 and they cut much faster than the thick blades.When cutting flat bar, stand the flat bar on edge NOT flat and it will cut much faster.Same with angle iron. Most people know that, but I thought i would add that just in case.AWS certified welding inspectorAWS certified welder
Reply:Donald, abrasive saws are never going to be as accurate as a bandsaw, cold saw or dry cut. Especially with thinner blades. While fine for a lot of work the angles involved with making a collector for example are pretty severeGood point on the way stock is cut. Somewhere in the archives is a few threads on cold cut/chop saws (by Yorkiepap IIRC) that show some neat ideas regarding fixturing- a modification to the vice/fence so that square section can be cut this  way rather than this [] way- very simple but easier on the saw and faster Capenbondo, my Dewalt and the Northern that Sn0border uses are both 1300rpm, 14" blade though. I would check the pricing of 12" blades before getting the Makita. Might be very wrong but with 14" being far more common there's probably a wider selection of blades at better prices- the ones that i'm using now are a fraction the price of Dewalts and last as long between sharpenings though if i'm pedantic the cut quality is ever so slightly inferior
Reply:Thanks again guys.Ya, thin abrasive wheel cuts so mich better, but as hotrodder says, it'd be wandering all over the map for my app, again, unless I went REALLY slowly. Also part of the reason I think a 12" might be better since I don't need the capacity of a 14" plus I am a makita guy and I know where there is one for a good deal.I looked into blades, selection for 12" is slightly slimmer but equivalent blades are slightly cheaper. The stianless-specific ones are all quite expensive, with the one made by makita being the cheapest at around $200.  Dewalt wants something silly like $300. You can't get the stainless steel verison of the Morse Metal Devil in 12", and Evolution don't make 12" blades. I've heard good things about the Freud Diablo Steel Demon blades, and they're like $70.I will probably save money in the long run by just getting the makita stainless blade though. Really it's not as expensive as it seems at a glance as long as one is carefult not to go crazy and break teeth off, since you can sharpen them quite a few times.Any thoughts on blades?Oh also, i did buy the makita! For $200 I thought it was a good buy.
Reply:Just a quick update-I got this thing set up today and HOLY CRAP! It really is a chopsaw on steroids. EASILY 4x the speed of the bandsaw, easy. It has the stock blade on it and the original owner destroyed it, missing lots of teeth, and it STILL cuts like crazy, just leaves a burr. I bet it would make a mess of aluminum. But I even tried some stainless and it just rips through it! Loud as HELL though. The loudest tool I own by far. A new blade might help a bit, I ordered a CMT dry cut blade (226.080.012) because they claim it works on stainles and was "only" $114. Anyways initial results are AWESOME! When I first got my bandsaw, I felt like a caveman who has discovered fire after having cut everything with a 4.5" grinder previously.I feel like that again. This is literally going to save more than an hour worth fabricating time per header, probably closer to 1.5" hours.