Slitting Saw How To

[Johno1958]

Hi All
I have slitting saw job coming up in aluminum . The slitting saw is 63mm which is about 2.5" and 3mm about 1/8" wide and 38 teeth, straight hss blade which gives me the shivers just looking at it. I have looked up Little Machine Shops feeds and speed calculator and treated the saw as a big mill cutter which gave RPM speed of 310 and a chip load of 0.42mm . Feed rate is at nearly 5m or 194 ip per minute which I couldn't crank that fast if I tried..The slots I am aiming for are 5 to 8mm deep no active cooling ,only a squirt of WD 40.What depth of cut should be looking at each pass? My mill is a Sieg X2.7 so it's getting towards the size of an X3.
Thank you.
John

 

[bazmak]

300 rpm seems ok.Full depth 1 pass should be ok with hand feed
and trial/error /experience wit plenty of wd 40

 

[Lakc]

Keeping the aluminum from sticking to the teeth is probably the most important part of the process. If you must use wd40, use more than will spray out of a spray can. In other words buy it by the gallon and put it into a large volume squirter type oil can and pump the daylights out of it. Slitting is by far the messiest operation I ever performed but the clean up is better than all the saws the broke in my face ruining the part in the process. I was doing about the same size and depth slots with commercial oil/water mix cutting fluids and using around 3 ounces of fluid in 32mm. Flood is the operative word.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Johno--I have a few slitting saws, and was taking many passes with about 0.010" depth of cut. Then I read about other people taking full depth cuts of 1/4" and even 5/16". I found that hard to believe but found that with lots of spray on wd40 from an aerosol can and a slow feed that it worked just fine. I was surprises and pleased to find that.---Brian

 

[xpylonracer]

John
Make sure the workholding clamps are very secure before cutting and make sure you are not "climb" cutting or you may/will get a jammed cutter.

xpylonracer

 

[deverett]

Just curious - are we talking about slitting saws with no side clearance or very thin side and face cutters? Like Brian, I find it hard to believe that full depth cutting is possible, particularly on some of the thinner saws, say 30 thou. or less which I have used on quite deep cuts. I know that one cut gives less wear and tear on the teeth, but I just can't bring myself to cut 1/4" or 5/16" deep in one pass with the possibility of the teeth becoming clogged.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

 

[Mechanicboy]

Use kerosene instead WD-40 when cutting in aluminium.

 

[WOB]

Use kerosene instead WD-40 when cutting in aluminium.

WD-40 is mostly kerosene.

WOB

 

[XD351]

True but plain kero is cheaper to buy in bulk . I have heard of people using denatured alcohol or metho on aluminium as it evaporates and doesn't leave gunk oily gunk on the machine .

 

[Johno1958]

Thanks everyone.
Looks like I'll be using some scrap and doing some test cuts. Almost makes me want to make/buy a flood coolant system but I really have been getting a long quite well without one (until now?). The majority of the material is 6061 aluminium but the head is 6060 and is gummy stuff so keeping the blade clean will be a challenge. I don't think I'll break a blade but I may stall out my machine.
I'll have to research metho as a cutting fluid but I also have heard of this. Sounds like a fire hazzard :hDe:

Cheers

John

 

[Lakc]

I'll have to research metho as a cutting fluid but I also have heard of this. Sounds like a fire hazzard :hDe:

Cheers

John

Invisible fires are not my idea of fun :/
I can get water mix cutting oil cheap here so that is what I use in a decent sized pump oil can. Plenty of lubricant, just as the teeth enter the part.

 

[bazmak]

Full depth of cut with very fine feed and continually backing off
There is no way you should be anywhere near stalling the machine
Just take your time ,back off the cutter ,stop the machine and clear chips etc
CONTINUOUSLY.This job should take 2/3 times longer than you think but
well worth the effort and not jamming the cutter.Run a diamond file over the teeth of the cutter before you start

 

[Wizard69]

I haventdone a lot of slitting saw cutting eo cant offer much more than already has been offered. So here it goes.


First understand how your saw is ground. Many are hollow ground which limits depth of cut.

Second try to think of this saw as being similar to a bandsaw blade where ideally you have at least 3 teeth engaged in the cut. At least that worked the few times ive done it.

 

[XD351]

Some people don't run the locating key so if it jams up the blade can spin in the holder , i tried this last time i used my slitting saw as i had to run the blade right out on the end of the holder to get clearance over the chuck so the locating key couldn't engage the slot in the saw bore and everything went well .

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

I just did a bunch of full depth cutting of 1/2" & 3/4" aluminum yesterday with my X3 mill. I use a 3 3/4" 24 tooth carbide tooth blade that's originally made for cutting wood in a battery powered trim saw. Until a few weeks ago I had always cut a 1st pass @ .100" depth then successive cuts @ 1/4" to 3/8" with 300 to 350 rpm, conventional cutting direction. It was always a feed by hand, hold your breath job trying to avoid chips clogging the gullets & jamming.

After switching to climb-cutting, I run @ 600-650 rpm & use the power feed turned up to half to 3/4 speed, depending on stock thickness with an occasional spritz of water-soluble coolant. It's absolutely amazing how much difference there is when you blast the chips out behind the cut instead of trying to keep them from clogging up the works in front of it. I woud expect the same results with HSS blades run a bit slower. Try it, you'll like it!:thumbup:

 

[werowance]

After switching to climb-cutting, I run @ 600-650 rpm & use the power feed turned up to half to 3/4 speed,

wow, everytime I climb cut with my slitting saw, things get mangled, jammed pushed out of the vice etc. it never ends pretty for me. bent saw blades even... what type of slitting saws /arbor are you using? not that I am an expert by any means and still learning my self is why I am asking.

the climb cuts I made were actually by accident by starting on the wrong end of the part....:wall:

 

[Charles Lamont]

Ideally, if the slitting saw is clamped to the arbor by a bolt, run so that if the saw tries to jam the bolt will losen. However, this normally means running in reverse, which you machine may well not do.

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

wow, everytime I climb cut with my slitting saw, things get mangled, jammed pushed out of the vice etc. it never ends pretty for me. bent saw blades even... what type of slitting saws /arbor are you using?

The blade mentioned above is mounted in a homemade 3/4" straight shank arbor.



I have the gibs set with a little drag on X & I lock down Y & Z before starting a cut. Perhaps your mill is set up on the loose side? I kid you not, my X3 has some wear on it but climb sawing works great!

 

[werowance]

wow, that's a wood saw blade for the little battery powered deals isn't it? I guess since its carbide itll cut metal just like it would wood.
mine is actually a lathe mill combo. which I regret going that route, but yes the mill head is on a post that can work its way loose and swing around and well just about everything can vibrate loose on it.

what I normally use is little bitty about 1.5 to 2 inch dia saw blades about .030 or thinner. slitting little screw heads or slitting to a hole to make a clamp or something.

but that blade is a beast.

 

[bazmak]

The woodworking carbide insert blades as shown work best in aluminium
at higher speeds ,feeds etc and go down to about 3mm thickness.True slitting saws go much thinner,are carbon or hss and usually have no kerf so have to be run slower with more chance of jamming.We seem to have been discussing 2 different thing here. If your slots are at least 3mm w then use the carbide
woodworking saw.I have used both in alum