G’day. I break heaps of blades, and I suspect that everyone
breaks heaps of them too. Like one person said, tighten the frame
until the blade gives a pleasant fairly high ‘ping’ when gently
plucked with a fingernail, making sure that the butterfly nuts
are tight. The thinner the material to be cut, the finer the
blade to cut it. The blade should have at least two teeth in
contact with the metal/material at any time. Use long, steady
strokes, Keep the blade as vertical as possible. A fine blade (at
least four 0’s) must be used when cutting sharp curves or making
sharp changes of direction like sharp corners, and then the blade
must be kept moving continuously with a little backwards pressure
as the metal or blade is moved to turn that corner. When
piercing use a drill only a little thicker than the blade, and a
similar fine hole at corners will help when making that sharp
direction change (so long as the design can stand it) Sometimes
a little beeswax or candle wax on the blade helps. When cutting
my blanking dies from steel ‘gauge plate’ - carbon steel plate
1/8th thick, - I generally use six 0 blades. But I broke three in
cutting out a 1 1/4" dolphin from 1/8th steel gauge plate. And
felt proud! Don’ madder wot y’do, m’derr, sa long as y’ saw
ut arff. Cheers, –
/\
/ / John Burgess,
/ /
/ //\ @John_Burgess2
/ / \ \
/ (___)
(_________)