How to Make Floats?


Bud

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The sparks generated by metal working on a woodworking machine might not be ideal. Might be best to have a dedicated machine. I do think it technically could cut metal if you put a bi metal blade on there.

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I know mine is marketed as a wood/metal bandsaw (old craftsman), and I have metal cutting blades for it.   If it works it would be a heck of a lot faster and a hell of a lot less work than a hacksaw.  If I ever did use it for metal I would definitely clean all the dust out of it first.

 

I've used it to cut meat.  While it worked great, I would not recommend. 

I'd imagine It must have some way of adjusting the speed.

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32 minutes ago, Immortan D said:

I use my bandsaw to cut aluminum all the time, no problem. I just set it to low speed and use a blade for non ferrous. I haven't tried steel though, because I know it's messy (oil...). I use my grinder or my jigsaw for that.

Aluminum is easier to cut... Same as copper... Go get some A2 and try it out. Depending on how slow your bandsaw can go, you may be ok. 

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2 hours ago, Llama said:

If you ignore me, how will you see all of my witty comments and emojis? :blink:

I was just curious as I'd never seen this feature before. Can you un- ignore someone after they become not so obnoxious? Can I tell if I've been ignored?

ignored.jpg

 

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10 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

I was just curious as I'd never seen this feature before. Can you un- ignore someone after they become not so obnoxious? Can I tell if I've been ignored?

ignored.jpg

 

I'll block you, and you can tell me if you know. But I won't see any response from you because you'll be blocked. This is interesting. 

13 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

I was just curious as I'd never seen this feature before. Can you un- ignore someone after they become not so obnoxious? Can I tell if I've been ignored?

ignored.jpg

 

Ok... I ignored you. Did you know I was ignoring you? Also, when looking at this thread your posts were blocked, but I was given the option to see the content. Then I "unignored" you. 

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5 minutes ago, Llama said:

I'll block you, and you can tell me if you know. But I won't see any response from you because you'll be blocked. This is interesting. 

Ok... I ignored you. Did you know I was ignoring you? Also, when looking at this thread your posts were blocked, but I was given the option to see the content. Then I "unignored" you. 

To be honest, I did temporarily have an empty feeling and was unaware of what it was but I feel better now! Wonder how many just clicked the ignore button on us after all of this bs;)

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52 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

After reading this thread, I'm too tired to Google. Can someone explain what a float is?

 

Disclaimer - I've never used one and don't own any.

They're shaped like files.  Typically they have teeth on just one side and each tooth runs the width of the float.  You sharpen them by running a small file (like a saw file) across the float.

They cut in one direction and cut more like a plane or chisel - with a shearing action rather than the abrading action of a file or rasp. 

Liogier's web store has a variety of them with some decent pictures.  (you can use the currency dropdown on the left to change to whatever is appropriate for you)

http://www.hand-stitched-rasp-riffler.com/floats.html

And here is the LN page - https://www.lie-nielsen.com/nodes/4081/floats

 

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5 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Wonder how many just clicked the ignore button on us after all of this bs;)

It is one of my goals in life to become irrelevant... 

3 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

After reading this thread, I'm too tired to Google. Can someone explain what a float is?

It is a simple chisel looking thing that anyone can make with a minimal amount of common tools. :ph34r::ph34r:

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On 4/20/2016 at 0:33 PM, mds2 said:

I see these guys are using hacksaws to get rid of the bulk of the waste. Is there any reason you couldn't do this with a bandsaw and a metal cutting blade?

Using a wood cutting bandsaw with a metal cutting blade is completely the wrong way to approach it. Given that I'm sure if he has a bandsaw, it's not a metalworking saw. Wood cutting bandsaws often owned by members on a woodworking forum move the blade at roughly 3000 feet per minute, for a metal cutting bandsaw they move the blade at around 100-150 feet per second. In addition to this, you don't want metal cuttings getting in your woodworking bandsaw, it's a horrible mess to clean up and the saw isn't made for it. Lastly, DO NOT hook up your dust collector to a metal cutting bandsaw, hot metal starts fires in a bed of saw dust. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On April 20, 2016 at 5:42 AM, Janello said:

Why would you want to make a joinery float when quality ones are sold for $60 bucks at Lee Valley?

I doubt you can make them for less.

I know what you mean, even Lie-Nielsen floats aren't very expensive...I just wanna try.  

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1 hour ago, Bud said:

I know what you mean, even Lie-Nielsen floats aren't very expensive...I just wanna try.  

And thats a perfectly reasonable honest answer that I certainly respect. Cool that we were able to get past all that without even talking. :)

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  • 1 month later...

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