935 bronze

Someone in the States suggested using 935 bronze to make up a guide for a woodworking bandsaw, suggesting that 935 would be the best option.

It will consist of two small pieces of bar, one on either side of the blade, not quite touching, to stop it deflecting during cutting and held in a wooden throat.

I'm having difficulty finding an equivalent of 935?

any suggestions?

Edited By pgrbff on 24/05/2021 10:43:39

LB4 would be closest as it has the same 9% lead. More commonly available from ME supplies is 660 bronze which is 7%

LG2 would probably do the job too, and is commonly available. Not quite as much lead as 935 but has tin and zinc also and is pretty standard for making bearings and bushings from for general use. Many bearing factors sell it as bushing material.

M-Machine supply small pieces of stock as well by mail order

www.m-machine-metals.co.uk

Brian

I got various pieces of pb in stock , but unsure of specific grades . If you PM me your requirements l will check and let you know if l got anything suitable . Trevor.

I'm hoping to make something like this. For scale the blade would be a maximum of 30mm.

Looks nice, but I suspect there may be a tendency for it to rotate?

Rob

The hole in my saw is square so shouldn't be a problem. I'm not a metalworker, that could be the problem!

Excellent

Rob

660 is leaded gunmetal and is easy to get hold of and quite easy to machine.

At work we used to use CA104 aluminium bronze for parts that were going to be rubbed because it is very resistant to being rubbed away. It is more expensive though and harder to machine than brass.

If you are not a metalworker how are you planning to get them made? You may get a volunteer here if you give some rough idea of your location.

Martin C

Unfortunately, I'm in Italy. I have a friend, a garage owner, that has a rather large lathe, about 3m long, and a mill, but I'm not sure the mill works. I have used a mill for about an hour, but I'm very unqualified.

I'd be happy to pay someone to do it. I think it's too small to be of any interest here. I did manage to find a company that laser cuts steel to do a reinforcement plate for the motor mount. I'd done a cad drawing but they re-did the drawing and cut the plate for about £12.

Isn't Aluminium bronze used for fastners more than bearings? And valves? Harder and more resistant to corrosion.

The CA104 was not used for bearings but things that rubbed against each other in some situations but not all the time. One of the major uses was for the rubbing contact surfaces of pipe bending mandrels and wiper dies on pipe bending machines. Sometimes the mandrels had hard chromed bodies but follower balls made of CA104. Sometimes the mandrel was just a plug made of CA104. Someone in one of our machine shops made some £1 coin slugs out of it and fed them into a slot machine in a pub near the factory. They never found out who it was but they did an audit of all the material that was bought and issued out and I had to account for all the material that was in the tooling racks for the pipe bending machines. They changed the pound coins to two materials soon after that (don't think there was any cause and effect here) so that never became an issue again.

On some of the industrial bandsaws we used for cutting pipes the blade wipers were ceramic blocks. It would not be as pretty as nicely polished metal but may do a similar job if you can find some. We had Pedrazzoli machines in the pipe shop and they were Italian so maybe something from them may work.

Martin C

Is that ME supplies in Australia?

Ceramic blocks are often used in bandsaw guides. But as you say not quite as pretty.