VIDEO: HOW TO Get the Most Out of Your Bandsaw

JACOB SANCHEZ: Whether you're a large material supplier delivering bulk orders to your customers or you're a job shop, you do your cutting on your floor to get the material out there. You understand the challenges that come with working that bandsaw. And let's be honest, the bandsaw area is the first step in your manufacturing process. It's literally how you get the material onto your floor.

So if that gets bottlenecked, if that gets backed up, that's going to cause you challenges that you don't need. So, what am I hearing when I'm out in the world at any of these facilities? It’s usually these three things. How can I get materials to my floor faster? How can we just cut costs? And how can I just work smarter?

I'm here to answer all of those questions and many more at the Lenox HQ in East Longmeadow, Mass., where you and I are going to be learning How To get the most out of your bandsaw.

When it comes to your bandsaw, choosing the right blade is going to be a challenge that you need to address. Another is going to be making sure those operators are getting the training they need. We're going to be talking about all of those things and more with Michael Ford, a senior industrial solutions manager here at Lenox.

MICHAEL FORD: Hey Jacob, how's it going, brother? Thanks for being here.

JACOB SANCHEZ: So I want to jump right into this. You and I, we've been to manufacturing metalworking facilities around the world, and the bandsaw area isn't always the most well-kept or just the area of the shop that's given the most attention. What are you seeing as a professional in that sector, out in the world?

MICHAEL FORD: Yeah, the bandsawing operation is typically a fairly neglected part of any metalworking facility, and that can pose a problem because when you're manufacturing something, bandsawing is typically the first process that you hit. And if you are not performing well in the bandsawing operation, that there affects every process that happens after the cut.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Really it's almost two categories. You have the big metal suppliers where, I don't know, 40% of their business is just sawing, cutting all day long. And you have these job shops, you have people that are putting out parts from different customers, and they need to get material done on their site. I feel like the way that we address both of those types of metalworking facilities needs to be different.

MICHAEL FORD: Every metalworking facility is different, and in what they are looking for, the objectives of each facility is something that you have to consider with the tooling that you're using in that facility. From the tooling to the machinery and like you said, all the way down to the operator who's running the machine.

JACOB SANCHEZ: And we're going to be talking about all of those things out on the floor. We're going to be going through demos, and specifically what we're going to be hitting on is bi-metal versus carbide in the blade department. I will be honest to everybody out there that knows my experience as a machinist. I, when I was a machinist, I had to go on the “dirty bandsaw”.

I used the same exact blade to cut 6061 aluminum. If I was cutting 1018, if I was cutting 316 stainless, I didn't care. I just had to turn the dials until it didn't sound bad and that was that.

MICHAEL FORD: You're not the only one.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Is that is that wrong? Was I wrong to do it that way?

MICHAEL FORD: I wouldn't say that you're wrong, but bandsawing, even though it's neglected, it can be fine tuned and honed in to make it more and more efficient. And that comes through selecting the proper blade, whether it's bi-metal, carbide, and also training your operators to understand what piece of tool they are working with and how to run that machine in the most efficient way.

JACOB SANCHEZ: I'm ready to go see that now. I got safety glasses. I got safety all ready to go. You mind showing me?

MICHAEL FORD: Let's go get it.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Let's hit it.

So this is it, man. The R&D facility here at Lenox. I am pumped up, brother. Especially to talk to you, Matt.

MATT WHINERY: Hey, Jacob.

JACOB SANCHEZ: How's it going brother?

MATT WHINERY: Good.

JACOB SANCHEZ: You are a senior product engineer here, correct?

MATT WHINERY: Correct.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Super excited for you to be here with us and the How To team today. Do you mind helping me out, getting this up and running? I have a quick question for Michael.

MATT WHINERY: Sure, absolutely.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Thank you. Michael, how do you truly understand how to pair the right blade with the right training? I think it's different. And I need to know what your thoughts are.

MICHAEL FORD: It’s all about everyone in the facility having complete understanding of the objective. Right? So we can put the best blade on the saw possible, but if the operator does not know how to run it, then we have an issue, right? So we want to understand what it is we're trying to do in our metalworking operation and making sure that everyone in the facility, including the operator of the saw, has that same goal.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Is this the bi-metal blade that's in there right now?

MATT WHINERY: Yep. We're running Contestor GT today, we’re cutting 17-4 precipitation hardened stainless steel.

JACOB SANCHEZ: What is your idea of people doing a changeover from bi-metal applications to carbide applications?

MATT WHINERY: Sure. So I think a common misconception out there is that bi-metal is really for those easier to cut materials than carbide.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Which is what we’re running right now?

MATT WHINERY: Exactly.

JACOB SANCHEZ: This crazy steel. Yeah.

MATT WHINERY: We're running a Contestor GT bi-metal blade today on 17-4 precipitation hardened stainless steel. That's a common application for either by bi-metal or carbide, but I think the message here is that you can use carbide in some of your easier to cut materials too, not just your exotic materials and your harder materials, but you can put it on your 1045s, your 1071s, what have you.

Really increase the production output of your facility, whether it's for the downstream operations in your own plant or it's for your customers, getting them a service level that you haven't reached before.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Well, if you guys are trying to impress me as a metalworking owner, I need to see that carbide blade run and not just this 18-minute cycle time.

Do you mind if we do a quick changeover?

MICHAEL FORD: Let's get it.

JACOB SANCHEZ: We got that new carbide blade in. Matt, are we ready to roll through? Okay, that is much faster than what I saw with the bi-material. I get what you mean. Talk about this efficiency for me. I'm seeing it in action now.

MATT WHINERY: So the bi-metal blade we had before was, pretty typical Contestor GT blade. We were running at about two to 2.5in² per minute, as far as the material removal rate. Here we're running around ten. So we got about a 4x increase with carbide, and this blade is going to last a whole lot longer than your bi-metal blade. I mean, depending on where you're using for rates.

This kind of application is something that we see out in the field a lot. It's a pretty typical material. A lot of users use bi-metal. When they put a carbide blade on there it's really kind of a wow factor of how much they can actually put out of that one machine.

JACOB SANCHEZ: So when you're talking about the cost-savings stuff, this is what you mean. This is what you want the customers to see.

MICHAEL FORD: Correct. This is what we want the customers to see. This is what we want them to experience. We want to see the entire Lenox value proposition brought in and put onto the saw.

JACOB SANCHEZ: This is beautiful. I love that you're... Okay, it's already halfway through. You literally see more chips coming off of this. Guys, I appreciate the time here. I want to hit some more bullet points, though, and make sure we really get all of you out there the information you need to better your business. Should we go get after it?

Dude, this is awesome. You guys even have a classroom, like, on site? I love this. Okay. I need all of you to understand and grasp what we have really been diving into today. That's what's about to happen. I want to start off with you, Michael. So you've really been discussing a lot about the cost ratio, the savings ratio. Hit that again for me.

MICHAEL FORD: Yeah. This is really what we've discussed today is how we break through bottlenecks in a manufacturing operation. We can sit there and cut all day long with a bi-metal blade, and some people are totally content with that. But if you really want to get some production out of your machinery, and you have the means to do that, we put a carbide blade on a bandsaw machine and we can see unbelievable feeds and speeds, and we can really see production on a different level.

JACOB SANCHEZ: You. You, sir, really dove in to showing me out there what it's like going from bi-metal, going to carbide. And what's something that you want to still send home to those operators when it comes to choosing that blade? Why do you sometimes go that material route or the carbide route?

MATT WHINERY: Well, I think a lot of people are so focused on using carbide for those harder, more difficult-to-cut materials. But really, you can use a carbide blade on really anything that you're cutting on a bandsaw and improve your production efficiency, get more pieces out the door to your customers, run your downstream operations a lot faster.

MATT WHINERY: I think a lot of people can take advantage of that today.

JACOB SANCHEZ: Getting it downstream, that's what bandsawing is all about brother. I appreciate your time. Both of you. That third bullet point, it's coming from me. And it's about the people. Everything that we've learned today, everything that we're constantly putting into the industry, it's about you guys. It's about us putting this into action in our businesses. It's about training. We need to better our operators, better our people, and above all else, we need you to learn How To get the most out of your bandsaw.

Narrator: For more metalworking tips and industry best practices, stay tuned for the next How To episode and subscribe to the MSC Industrial Supply YouTube channel, a source of original manufacturing content Built To Make You Better.