Cold Saw Use Did You Know

Cold saw cuts in  a material are more similar to a milling operation than those of a traditional abrasive saw. Cold saw blades rotate much slower that an abrasive saw and combined with the continuous flow of coolant the cuts produced are much quality in terms of surface finish and accuracy. For a full user manual for our specific machine please see here. Before any cuts are made, the saw should be momentarily started without contacting any material to ensure that the blade and rotation are both in the correct direction and no blade wobble is experienced.

Securing Materials

Possibly the most important consideration to avoid injury and poor cut finish is properly securing the material to be cut. If a piece of metal or wood is not properly secured in the cold saw there may be unwanted vibration and flexing of the work piece. If there are vibrations during cutting, the cut surface will end up looking much worse than otherwise as well as the cut being less accurate than a cut that is properly secured. If the material is allowed to flex during cutting you may experience binding on the blade. This will cause a poor cut quality and unnecessary heat production in soft materials like aluminum, and in harder materials like steel you may experience a broken blade or chipped teeth. Another situation that may be experienced is the end of the desired work piece not contacting the back of the vice on both sides of the blade because one end of the work piece is too short. In this case, a sacrificial piece of material may be inserted below the working piece that does contact both sides of the vice. This will provide some support to the working material and help prevent some undesirable vibrations.

Coolant

Before any process is started with a cold saw, the blade should be started for a moment to assure that everything is in working order. One check to make at this time is that there is coolant flowing while the blade is rotating. If there is no coolant flow, there are a couple simple checks to make that may remedy this. The first place to look for a solution is the ball valve directly behind the blade cover. If this valve is closed, then there will be no coolant flow. If this valve is open and still no coolant flow, then the issue may be with the supply hose or the coolant tank directly below the saw. The coolant tank should have a mesh filter in the top that will allows the operator to check the fluid level. If this fluid level is not high enough to show in the mesh filter due to either evaporation or splashing during saw use, then the tank needs to be filled. The concentrated coolant is stored in the chemical cabinet and should be mixed with water at a 20:1 ratio by volume. Enough should be mixed to fill the tank until the mesh screen is at a maximum level. The large coolant supply hose should be present and in the mesh filter below the coolant level.