buickmarti Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 I work in a sheet metal fab shop - we wearout/break at least one bi-metal band saw blade a week. Anybody know what they are made of? Want to try and make some damascus blanks. Tried to google it but had no luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 Manufacturers tend to be close on such things; I'd suggest doing a heat, water quench and break test on them like one would do on any unknown scrap one was thinking about adding into a billet. If it's not up to where you would like; use them for the Ni layers and something like file for the HC. Or do a San Mai to have the edge HC and the sides "pretty". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 I have been saving Do-All bimetal blades for years. I folded a piece over lengthwise once, seemed to want to weld OK. I knock the teeth off and use them for tooling elements, think super-shims. Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kozzy Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Bimetal typically implies a spring steel back with a high speed steel section welded on for the teeth. Here's a bit of info on the process from one manufacturer that includes a hint that the HSS portion is M42/M51. https://www.pilanametal.com/band-saw-blades.html I didn't see a mention of what spring steel is used but I didn't dig. HSS tends to want a heat treat that is beyond what most people can do in their places so it might introduce some problems. I'm not sure there would actually be enough to complicate things but it's at least something to ponder. The biggest issue: do you have a way to get the blade pieces perfectly clean so they'll weld up? I'm assuming the shop saw in questions is likely a horizontal bandsaw and those see coolant and a lot of greasy surface gunk from the metals being cut. All that should come off if you don't want weld skips. It aint fun when there are lots of little pieces or the crap is hard to get off. Maybe plan to tumble them clean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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