Cutting metal on a band saw for wood? Rather not. We explain why

Many people have had the same idea – and perhaps you too: I have a band saw (machine) for wood, so what if I used it to cut metal or steel as well? Surely it is enough just to change the blade… But it is not that simple – band saws designed for wood are usually not suitable for metal. Here we explain why.

cutting steel on a band saw for wood

Key concept – cutting speed

When cutting, it is important that the teeth of the band saw blade enter the material and remove sufficiently large chips, not just dust. Otherwise, the teeth will drag too much in the material, wear down, or may even break off. This rule applies equally to wood and metals.

The difference lies in speed – when cutting wood, the blade runs at a much higher speed. While for steel the ideal value ranges between 60 and 120 metres per minute (so that the tooth of the band saw blade has time to “bite into” the material and remove a chip), with wood it is not unusual for the speed to be ten times higher. And when cutting logs, cutting speed can even climb up to 3 000 metres per minute.

Band saws (the machines) are built for these conditions and in the vast majority of cases do not allow the band speed to be reduced to a level suitable for metals. So even if you were to fit the correct blade, it would still run too fast and would sooner destroy itself in the material than cut it properly.

Reducing the speed using a frequency converter is not a solution either, because after such a modification the machine will lose power and will no longer be able to drive the band saw blade (the blade will stop in the cut).

Cutting wood vs cutting metal

Band saws for joinery and woodworking are characterised by high speed – even the smallest machines can run the blade at 900 metres per minute (for example Parkside PBS 350 B2, Scheppach HBS 30 or Einhell TC-SB 200). For cutting wood it holds that:

band speed generally ranges from approx. 370 to 1 500 metres per minute;
as a rule, the larger the band saw, the higher the band speed;
larger machines usually have one, two or more speeds, sometimes the band speed can be changed while running;
machine suppliers give “cutting speed” or “band speed” as a parameter. Note – sometimes they may quote revolutions per minute, but this is usually motor speed. This information does not help much, because we do not know the transmission ratio between the motor and the drive wheel.

We therefore do not recommend using wood-cutting band saw blades to cut metal. Definitely not steel, and even non-ferrous metals are not a very good idea (and if at all, then only under certain conditions). For such materials the following applies:

recommended cutting speed for steel is 60 to 120 metres per minute;
for copper, depending on hardness, 80 to 400 metres per minute; for aluminium 80 to 800 (we recommend cutting with a bimetal metal-cutting blade);
each tooth should be under load and the band speed should allow the tooth to remove a chip that fits into the tooth gullet (more in the texts How to choose a band saw blade for cutting metal and Recommended speeds for metal-cutting band saw blades).

And what are your own experiences with cutting on a band saw? Share them with us and with other readers in the comments below this article.