Using a Radial Arm Saw to Cut Tooling Board (Urethane Board)

[Jason @ CPM Industries]

Does anyone cut tooling board, foundry board, or urethane board with a radial arm saw? If so and have had success do you mind sharing your secret? Every 14"-16" saw blade we have tried has been unsuccessful. The blade runs and jams up the machine. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Machineguy]

Table saw, carbide blade for plastic. Never a problem. The blade is hollow ground, which means the teeth have a lot of side clearance. A lot less rubbing.

That might be the problem your having. Material is welding to the blade, guards, and the like.

Do you have a shop vac hooked up ?

 

Machineguy

[Jason @ CPM Industries]

Thanks for the replay Machineguy. Yes we have a vac. We can cut all day long on the table saw but we need to cross cut with the rip saw. We have had blade experts looking at this problem and they can't seem to figure it out. Someone out there has the secret and I was just curious if they might be on here to pass it along. We cnc this material once we cut from stock.

[crazy^millman]

What is the pitch of the blade? Are you using a air assisted Radial Arm? We had one I used over 20 years ago in a saw mill for cutting 12"x12" wet oak that you could not do by hand. The owners had put an air cylinder on it to keep it from grabbing and it would cut. I see the same thing later in other places for cutting composites and it did okay. I think the biggest things is no control is hurting you here. The Saw is meant to climb into the material and once it starts you have no good way to stop that action.

[Jason @ CPM Industries]

Thanks Millman, that is one thing we have not tried and will be doing. Thanks for the help.

[Rotary Ninja]

I was going to say the same thing Crazy^Millman did. I grew up in wood shops and did everything from cabinet making to running CNC routers. The radial arm saw is a tough one for this application. The climbing action is going to grab the material and pull the saw. Is it possible to pull the saw out first, slide the material into position, then feed the saw back toward the fence? As opposed to pulling it toward you, you would be pushing it away from you. Reverting back to a conventional cut. A fine tooth blade would probably work best.