Poor little chop saw says “I think I can”

[WaterH]

So 15 years ago I bought some forks off an old forklift in a junkyard. I figured I could put them on my tractor front end loader. Since I don’t “beat around the bush”, today’s the day. I need to shorten the back of the fork about two inches. This would probably be a good job for my band saw. I broke it a week ago. I don’t know if my little plasma cutter would touch it, but I broke it last week also. So on to the chop saw. This material is about 4” by 1 1/2”.

Ive only gone about a 1/4” and the plastic covering the motor is getting hot. (I’m letting it cool as we speak)

Am I on the right track? Should I be leaning on this thing or just lightly pushing? It doesn’t seem to be making much for sparks.

 

[Stingray]

Seems like every time I've lean real hard it backfires on me and makes it impossible to cut I would go easy, plus better on the saw.

 

[Twankie]

Dress the blade.

Take a scrap of ~1/4" plate and jab it into the cutting disc a few times as it's spinning. Cutting that thick the blade is likely glazed over and needs to be "roughened up"

 

[WaterH]

Dress the blade.

Take a scrap of ~1/4" plate and jab it into the cutting disc a few times as it's spinning. Cutting that thick the blade is likely glazed over and needs to be "roughened up"

Hmmm, I’ll give it a try.

 

[bdkw1]

Wide cuts load up the wheel. Lay the thing down and cut through the thin way.

 

[Pocahontas]

Also turn it sideways so you are cutting the thinner 1 1/2 section instead of trying to cut through the 4 inch section.

 

[WaterH]

Well instead of dressing the wheel, I changed it to a new blade. It made lots of sparks for awhile. Then I switched it back to the smaller wheel and it made lots of sparks again. So switching back and forth between small and large blade seems to work good. I got about 3/4 of the way through and the saw quit. Don’t know if it’s shot. Letting it cool down. I was spraying compresssed air at the vents the whole time to keep it cool. Of course that’s what I was doing when I burned up my band saw motor too. Hmmmm

Side note, why does Dewalt make the guard in such a way that you need three hands to change the blade?

 

[Benny]

Your band saw wouldn't touch that material. Would ruin the blade in short time.

 

[M92PV4U]

Side note, why does Dewalt make the guard in such a way that you need three hands to change the blade?

Because you are supposed to have a small c clamp holding the guard out of your way at all times .

Are you also blowing sparks into the motor with the compressed air? You may also be overheating the winding insulation then blowing it off with the compressed air . I would just let a fan blow across the saw motor pushing the sparks away from the motor.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Torch that fucker off an be done with it

 

[WaterH]

The saw quit because the breaker blew. Continued switching blades until through the first fork. I’m half way through the second now. Big storm came over. Of course, I have half the tractor in the doors so I can’t close them. At least the saw should be cool since it’s soaking wet.

 

[WaterH]

Storm over. Looks prettier than this pic.

Finished the install. The two bolts on the bottom will allow me to position the forks at different widths. I might have to add some reinforcement to the top of my bucket. I’ll see after testing.

This is mainly so I can pick up logs easier. I can’t believe after all these years, I could have had this set up in one day. I was originally thinking I would remove the bucket and have just the forks, but that would have been a lot more trouble.

Edit, I just went to the mailbox and there sits my new motor for the band saw. Now it can sit in the shop in the box till I need the band saw.

 

[CarterKraft]

Storm over. Looks prettier than this pic.

Finished the install. The two bolts on the bottom will allow me to position the forks at different widths. I might have to add some reinforcement to the top of my bucket. I’ll see after testing.

This is mainly so I can pick up logs easier. I can’t believe after all these years, I could have had this set up in one day. I was originally thinking I would remove the bucket and have just the forks, but that would have been a lot more trouble.

Edit, I just went to the mailbox and there sits my new motor for the band saw. Now it can sit in the shop in the box till I need the band saw.

That looks a lot better thank was thinking it was going to