[Ivan Miranda] comes from a land where the shops close on Sundays. Thus, when he found himself in need of a cutting blade, he realised he would have to build his own, or simply wait. He elected to do the former, and we get to enjoy the journey. (Video, embedded below.)
His first attempt was to cut a wooden plank with a 3D-printed cutting blade fitted to a mitre saw. After setting up the mitre saw to cut while he was at a safe distance, [Ivan] elected to test the blade. Alas, it simply melted, and the wood was barely scratched, so [Ivan] went back to the drawing board.
His second attempt was to CNC mill an aluminium blade, which was a full 6 mm thick. The saw needed some modifications to the saw to fit properly, but it was able to cut wood without major drama!
Returning to the 3D-printed concept, [Ivan] suspected reducing the surface speed of the cutting disc could reduce friction-induced heating. This would allow the 3D-printed blade to cut wood without melting, in theory. To achieve this, he built his own basic drop saw using a steel frame and a brushless motor. With a little water spray, and careful control of speed and pressure, the blade was able to slowly chew through a plank of wood. Afterwards, the teeth were almost completely worn down.
The fact is, 3D-printed blades are usually going to be too soft to do any real useful work. However, it’s fun to watch, and that’s good enough for us. If you want something more useful though, consider building your own knives.
Friedrich Mohs rolls in his grave.
More work but it would be interesting to 3d print a blade that has tiny pockets in which you stick metal inserts, much the way carbide saw blades are mild steel with carbide inserts brazed on.
Interesting idea but wouldn’t the forces on it crack the pockets?
Metal inserts like Stanley knife / box cutter blades?
when you reach that level of desperation you might as well remove the teeth from the broken blade and friction burn trough your wood
Would it make any difference?
Or remove your teeth from your skull and 3d print fixtures for human teeth to the disk
3d printed metal would be a more likely viable candidate moving forward with this concept. Cool test in any case!
Maybe a hardwood blade? A blade made with termites? Woodpecker beaks? Beaver teeth? Flint inserts? A disk with sand glued to the edge?
“The fact is, 3D-printed blades are usually going to be too soft to do any real useful work.”
You’ve never had to cut really stale bread.
You don’t cut stale bread. You just throw it in the trash, where it belongs.
Two words : Pain perdu, look it up
respectfully disagree with both of you, i propose making saw blades *from* stale bread, also known as the hardest material in the known universe.
Ok… you want to make your on nano plastics… fine… but pleas seal your workshop and be the only one to breathe or eat it!
Kind of reminds me of “I did a thing” trying to chop down a tree using only a tree. This somehow managed to be slightly more successful.