One of the top questions we get is whether or not there is such a thing as a "general purpose" cold saw blade. The short answer is no, but the technical answer is maybe. While there isn't a general purpose cold saw blade for any and all applications, there most likely is one for your specific applications. When customers ask this question they typically are either cutting many different shapes (round tubing, solids, square tubing, angle, etc) sizes, materials (steel, stainless, non-ferrous aluminium, etc) or they just are not sure about their applications and what cold saw blade would be best suited for their needs.
Most cold saw blades that are bought and sold are made to order. This is because each customer has a specific application or applications they need to use a specific blade for and therefore, each customer requires a different number of teeth on their blade(s).
The first thing we do when a customer asks this question is ask them a few questions in return to narrow down a few of their top applications. Once we do this we are able to determine if we could recommend a "general purpose" tooth count for their cold saw blade(s).
For example, a customer needs a 350mm cold saw blade to cut the following applications:
1/8" wall thickness x 3" OD round stainless steel tubing - 200 teeth is recommended
1/2" solid mild steel (any shape) - 220 teeth is recommended
3/16" wall thickness x 2" wide square aluminum tubing - 160 teeth is recommended
All three of these applications require a specific tooth count to get optimal performance and life from the blade. However, if the customer must only use one blade for all three of these applications we would recommend taking an average of the recommended tooth counts to get a "general purpose" blade. In this example, the average would be about 190 teeth. This would be an acceptable tooth count to use in all three applications giving good performance and a good life.
An issue that could arise would be when the customer must cut an application with a recommended tooth count that would be considered an outlier to the other recommended tooth counts - one that would be much higher or much lower than the rest.
For example, if we have an application that requires 280 teeth and one that requires 240 teeth but one that needs much fewer teeth such as 80, then we would not recommend you take the average because it would fall too far in the middle of all of the recommended tooth counts and perform poorly in all three applications.
The short answer is yes, it is possible to get a "general purpose blade" to cut your application, but each case will always be different.
Give us a call or email us for assistance!
Phone: (855) 729-7732
Email: info@coldsawshop.com