Does slitting saw stay clean? I.e. no sticky bits during cutting. Swarf must come out of the tooth spaces.
Do you use coolant to wash off the swarf?
Does it starts fine and you run problems only when slit is deep?
How does the swarf comes out (coarse, fine, stringly)?
Is your slitting saw vertical or horizontal....I.e. do you need to lift the swarf out from the trench?
What size groove you make? Is your groove 3 mm wide and also slitting saw 3 mm wide? Does the groove go cleanly trough a block of steel, or is it stopped and/or cavities on the way? Depth is 60 mm? how many passes it takes to get that deep?
What steel? I have some tempering steel, that is really wonderful material when you need it but absolutely taxing on cutting tools and nerves. Turning yes, drilling only with an attitude and correct drills...threading is nearly impossible, unless really expensive taps and absolutely correct size hole (that hasn't been workhardened) is prepared...etc.
What kind if slitting saw? Standard HSS, with minimal tooths and very small side clearance, or something else?
Best slitting saws have some side clearance or even alternating teeth (or "trapetzoidal"), they are more forgiving than the cheap ones that have very small side relief ground on them.
I have used slittingsaws pretty much and here are some ramdom toughts I have learned (after shatering one blade and dulling few and made some cuts that would fit well in MOMA, but not in engineering):
* SLOoooooooW speed. I go under 100 rpm allready at 100 mm dia slitting saw.
* Plenty of coolant. Water emulssion is a proverbial (bianchi) to the machine and it's messy, but lot of it will flush swarf out of deep groove. If you don't get the swarf out, blade wanders all over.
* I have used IPA winter quality winshield washer liquid for aluminium. Certain grades of aluminium clogs slit saw easy. Sometimes pressurized air + shopvack works better....protect your eyes/face.
* Rigid setup...you don't want things to move or vibrate.
* Enough cutting depth and feed. You want decent chips out, not fine dust - it dulls the the saw and you definately don't want to hog until all space between saw teeths is filled up - something going to give up big time.
* Use correct blade width....this thin blades don't really excell on side load.
If you use very slow speed you don't need to cool the slitting saw, but the swarf must come out of the slitting saw teeths and groove. Some cutting oils tend to make small chips cling on the saw....which did not work for me. I have use spray can oil and shopvack sometimes and it works most of the time.
Pictures?
Hope you crack it. I mean the problem, not the part.
I hope this helps and does not confuse further,
Pekka
