As a furniture designer I work in a range of materials but primarily with wood and metal. I like to use a bandsaw for both of these materials but I only have a small woodcutting saw. Aside from a variable speed DoAll, which is very expensive, there aren’t many bandsaws made that can do both. So if you need to cut both, like me, you need two different machines.
Why can’t someone cut both materials on the same saw?
Well, primarily because in order to cut metal, a saw blade needs to be moving slowly through the work, and to cut wood it should be moving fairly fast. We can talk about the different speeds that a blade moves through a workpiece in terms of FPM – feet per minute (sometimes also called surface feet per minute – SFPM). The speed range for cutting wood is wide but a comfortable speed is about 3000 fpm. The range for metal cutting however is around 300.. a big difference. The other difference is of course in the blade itself.
*SAFETY FIRST: the images here show all belts and pulleys exposed. If you build this or something like it, you should also consider building a cover for these moving parts. Exposed they do present a hazard.
(No images available for this Shopbuilt Equipment listing.)
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