Maintaining Your Cold Saw

Tips for keeping your sawing process up and running

April 11, 2011

Proper cold saw maintenance techniques.

As with any piece of machinery, the general daily or weekly maintenance of a cold saw is very important. Keeping the machine clean and well-maintained by adhering to the preventive maintenance schedule will prevent the machine from having a major breakdown that can cause expensive repairs and lost production time.

Canadian Industrial Machinery asked Scotchman® Industries President Jerry Kroetch for his advice.

CIM: What are the first steps in cold saw maintenance?

Kroetch: Chip removal from the machine’s vise area will greatly increase the vise’s moving parts life span. Also, it’s very important to grease the machine daily where needed. By checking the gear lubrication level often, you will ensure that the saw will last for a very long time.

CIM: How do you deal with worn parts?

Kroetch: A cold saw is a precision saw. So, if there are parts that are worn, they should be replaced so that the machine will continue to be precise.

CIM: How does proper maintenance relate to alignment of the saw?

Kroetch: Proper maintenance plays a very large part in keeping the machine aligned in order to create square, burr-free cuts. If chips build up under or around the vise area, material will not sit in the proper place, causing a cut that is not square.

CIM: What is the relationship between maintenance and safety?

Kroetch: A clean and well-maintained saw should also mean that the safety guards are always attached and in their proper places.

CIM: How can blade life be maximized?

Kroetch: The proper coolant mixture and proper blade selection will maximize the machine’s blade life.

CIM: Is cold saw cutting a good candidate for incorporating material handling?

Kroetch: Yes. Scotchman, for example, offers several options for material handling from a simple go-to-stop system that allows the operator to manually move the raw material to a stop, to an inline bundle loader that automatically loads bars to the saw.

CIM: Does shop size matter when adding material handling?

Kroetch: There are automated options available for both large companies and the one-man shop.

CIM: How is maintenance affected when the saw is part of a larger production cell?

Kroetch: This may be the most important time to have a good maintenance program in place. When a cell is comprised of several machines and one machine goes out of production, it generally shuts down the entire cell.

For more information, visit www.scotchman.com.