blade choice for bandsaw cutting 304/316 SS

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So it took all of 20 cuts on 316L 1/16" to kill my blade on my JET saw. I was wondering what the best tpi would be for my saw. I think it is a 52", but I am not positive. I'm not near the saw at the moment.factors:strictly stainless tubingnever Alexpect 50 cuts per bladeprice thanks
Reply:Did you mean 1/16" dia round stock?   If so there is no good blade for thet.  Try a chop saw or a rod shear.
Reply:Hey jakea,SS is a bear to cut with many saws & blades. You would have to do some serious homework with blade manufacturers to determine what is available for SS. I know of one shop locally here that does a lot of SS tubing cutting & they use a 16tpi Aggressor bi-metal blade with coolant. Also, you did not indicate the tubing configuration. Round? Square? Or rectangular? I helped them once to solve their longevity of their cuts by clamping their sq & rect. stock by making a small vise attachment to keep the sq & rect tubing indexed so the blade was traveling thru the walls only & not cutting on the flats. It was from a design I made for my dry cut saw to cut all the sq & rect tubing I do daily & I showed the shop foreman my setup. They made one & it is how they cut all their sq/rect tubing. Here's some pics of my setup to give you an idea of cutting this way to extend blade life. Works very well.Denny Attached ImagesComplete Welding/Machine/Fab. ShopMobile UnitFinally retired*Moderator*"A man's word is his honor...without honor there is nothing.""Words are like bullets.... Once they leave your muzzle, you cannot get them back."
Reply:stainless is a real bitch to cut. I've looked at charts for recommended blade for a band saw that I was working with & the charts show recommended blade speeds & tooth counts for other materials but when it comes to this stainless the chart only says "not recommended"  I'd agree that a chop saw or maybe even a carbide dry saw may be a better way to cut this, I winded up buying a cold saw to cut a bunch of 304ss pipe that I needed to cut & it's even tough with that, overloading the saw after a few cuts & I have to limit it to a very low duty cycle to prevent thermal shut down of the coldsaw...miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:Hey Denny, Nice little jig, must make one up for myself. Miller Auto Invision 456 + S-62 wire feederC6240B1 Gap bed lathe16 ft3 air compressor16 speed pedestal drillHafco BS-912 Bandsaw
Reply:thanks guys. I am cutting round tubing, all 1/16th thick.Do 304 and 316 cut different? Does the structure of the metal(IE crystaline structure) affect cutting properties?
Reply:Try more head pressure and slower feed rate make sure the blade is getting proper cooling
Reply:I agree on using a chop saw.  Anything other than thin stainless will kill a bandsaw blade in short order.  I use  bi-metal blades in my Greenlee bandsaw and I can tell a difference in the way the blade cuts after I have used it on even one piece of stainless.  If someone does know of a blade that can stand up to stainless, I hope they speak up.  Also, not even all chop saw wheels are up to the task for stainless.  Some just sit on the metal and start glowing on the edge.  The more aggressive the chop saw wheel, the  better.DougMiller Syncrowave 350Millermatic 252/ 30A spoolgunMiller Bobcat 225g w/ 3545 spoolgunLincoln PowerArc4000Lincoln 175 Mig  Lincoln 135 Mig Everlast 250EX TigCentury ac/dc 230 amp stickVictor O/AHypertherm 1000 plasma
Reply:I use the 18t bi-metal blades from Enco on the 4x6 hf band saw. I cut stainless 1/16 304 tube from 1.750 to 4" diameter. The blades hold up very well. I was always told the blades would dull very quickly cutting stainless. Dont even think of using a standard blade. They go away in nothing flat on stainlessI also use milwaukee bi-metal blades on my porta band.mm135HTP Invertig 201 With water cooler9" Southbend LatheLots of hand tools.
Reply:Originally Posted by jakeathanks guys. I am cutting round tubing, all 1/16th thick.Do 304 and 316 cut different? Does the structure of the metal(IE crystaline structure) affect cutting properties?
Reply:Originally Posted by GabZipDid you mean 1/16" dia round stock?   If so there is no good blade for thet.  Try a chop saw or a rod shear.
Reply:I'm now cutting a lot of stainless tubing like this for my turbo headers & personally I found the best way to cut this & get many perfect cuts without killing a blade was to get a coldsaw.this gives me many perfect cuts easily with a razor sharp milled edge that is like nothing else when it comes to this ss pipe  if this is something you plan to do a lot of then might be worth considering a setup like this,it turns a nightmare of a job into something easy & almost a pleasure to do I don't know how much you care about the finished cut quality but these cuts can't be beat,I'm just learning to tig this stuff together so I'm cutting & re welding these together over & over again,this setup allows me to do this repeatedly without issue other than taking it easy on the duty cycle to not overheat the saw motor itselfthe cuts are almost ready to weld right out of the saw, I just bevel the edges a little & then weld them.I can't imagine a better way than this to do it miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:i really appreciate all the input.I have a milwaukee chop saw, but it has no way of controlling the cuts. I need a vise and clamping system something terrible.Is there an aftermarket peice I can get to let me accurately place the cuts? Or can I make something myself? I'm not very good at fabrication, I will admit at the first chance I can
Reply:well what are you cutting? just straight tubing is pretty easy to clamp but once you get into smaller stuff like the weld el's that I'm using that becomes a problem. I winded up making my own holding fixture for them. I used the next size up elbow to make this jig.because of such a wide range of possibilities I think the best thing would be to fabricate something, depends what you are cuttingyou can use a drill press vice & modify that for a chop sawmiller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:I'm working with basically 1.5" and 3" as of now. Straight and mandrels.I really like your setup. How much bigger did you go? 1/8"? 1/4"?
Reply:I'm cutting 1 1/4" so the over sized one I used is 1.5", but the 1 1/4" is a normal radius bend & the 1.5" is a tight radius bend & they match up well... may take a little playing with it to get it right, even if the bend is not an exact match it does still help to start with a larger radius & cut that in half & then work from there as a starting point. it does not have to fully contact everywhere to hold it well, as long as it clamps in several places it'll do. you don't want the pieces your cutting to move or even vibrate much really, holding the pieces securely is half the battle reallymiller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:another possibility is to make your cuts with a plasma cutter but then you'll need a grinder & then a nice big heavy belt sander to finish your edges... that could work too but will take a lot more labor for each cut. I was looking for the least labor per cutmiller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:I just want cut accuracy with the least amount of work. Any tips/diys for making a clamping system for a normal chop saw?
Reply:well, like I said, use an over sized elbow to make a clamp for the elbows & adapt some sort of a vice to the chop saw base I guess. what I've done there should also help for a chop saw but a regular abrasive chop saw will be a bitch no matter what reallyanother thing you may want to look into like I mentioned before is a carbide tipped chop saw. they are lower rpm than an abrasive chop saw so you can't just use that blade on your chop saw . search for evolution saw & check that stuff out, may be worth the investment as there not too expensive really & they won't heat up & burn through the stainless like an abrasive chop saw will. if your going to go through the effort of building clamping devices it'd be better to base them on something like an evolution type rather than a normal abrasive chop saw...miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:Turbo, that was some good photography..... and cutting.  How did you do the bevels so evenly on the pieces to be joined?DougMiller Syncrowave 350Millermatic 252/ 30A spoolgunMiller Bobcat 225g w/ 3545 spoolgunLincoln PowerArc4000Lincoln 175 Mig  Lincoln 135 Mig Everlast 250EX TigCentury ac/dc 230 amp stickVictor O/AHypertherm 1000 plasma
Reply:thanks, I made a beveler specifically for these pipes, see a thread I put up for it here: http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=45518miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:Turbo-I liked that beveler and will probably rip-off your design.On the original subject of cutting stainless, you recommend the cold saw, but your photos look like you are doing cuts without the coolant.  I thought one of the things that made a real cold saw work was the use of the lubricating coolant?DougMiller Syncrowave 350Millermatic 252/ 30A spoolgunMiller Bobcat 225g w/ 3545 spoolgunLincoln PowerArc4000Lincoln 175 Mig  Lincoln 135 Mig Everlast 250EX TigCentury ac/dc 230 amp stickVictor O/AHypertherm 1000 plasma
Reply:that's why I put that thread up, figured it could help others of course when I'm cutting I am running the coolant, it sure wouldn't work without that. I had to make a whole coolant pump & reservoir setup for this too  see here : http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=45479miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:I installed a Cougar XXM51 blade from Cut Technologies on my old Wellsaw. The result has been amazing. After tuning the saw up and putting this blade on the cuts are near perfect everytime. The photo is of some cuts made in 304 SS. Attached Images
Reply:Band Saw?  We used Lenox blades with coolant for production work.  The important thing with stainless is not to be gentle.  You want to remove metal with every tooth that passes by.  If a tooth passes by and doesn't have enough contact pressure to make a cut, it hardens the surface so that the next tooth wont be able to make the cut.  Stainless will get so hard nothing short of carbide will touch it.