half decent air hacksaw blades?

[r.p.mcmurphy]

i bought a air hacksaw from machine mart, but the blades supplied wore down after 6inches of cutting. anyone know where i can buy better quality ones?

Steve

[:::Jerry::::]

quality ones?

Well 'we' use normal hacksaw blades, cut to length (and trimmed if needs be) - and we use a lot of them whilst cutting car body work about....

Just make sure that you get the teeth facing the correct direction, cuts on the pull stroke rather than on the push stroke as with hand tools.

[r.p.mcmurphy]

that sounds a good idea! how many teeth per inch do i need for cutting 16 gauge chassis steel?

Steve

[Jeff]

r.p.mcmurphy wrote :-

As fine a you can get ( cuts down vibration ) we use 26 tpi at work for general cutting but for thin sheet finer would be better

Regards Jeff

[Andy Dingley]

Sandvik or Bahco (Axminster sell them), and definitely get the bi-metal welded ones. These have hard HSS teeth, but aren't brittle at the back.

For twenty years I swore by Eclipse bi-metal blades, but these seem to be of poor quality recently.

Teeth are usually advised to be fine enough to get three teeth into the metal simultaneously, but this is unachievable for sheetmetal (you'd need 48tpi here, although16 gauge is thin for a chassis) With a powered saw and a light initial feed, you can go coarser than this, I'd probably use 24 tpi, but it's always worth having a selection of hacksaw blades in the toolbag. In the workshop, I keep separate frames with each blade permanently in them.

[Jeff]

actually its 24 tpi we use, special short ones with hole at one end only for a cengar saw, sandvic - for your application I would use 32 tpi

Jeff

[Jeff]

or here :-

Jeff

[r.p.mcmurphy]

bought some blades....hows the best way to cut em to size?

steve

[:::Jerry::::]

How do you normally cut sheet metal ?...

I use my teeth but most use metal shears ! :~)

[r.p.mcmurphy]

i tried using tin snips and it just shattered the blade! i think i will use the dremel!

Steve

[:::Jerry::::]

Bought the wrong blades then, you want the ones that are more flexible, hardened only along the teeth...

Also, cut from the non teeth side.

[r.p.mcmurphy]

could you name a brand that you use? Also i did cut from the non teeth side but it just shattered.

Ta

Steve

[Rob Morley]

You need bi-metal blades like these

[usenet]

Well that *shouldn't* work on hacksaw blades unless they're too soft to be hacksaw blades surely.