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Sawzall FTW, Milwaukee blades FTL.

T

TitanDiddly

Guest
Took out a 300gal heating oil tank from my basement today. Rented a Milwaukee Super Sawzall from the local hardware store and got a $14 pack of Milwaukee bi-metal blades, 5 qty. Decided on the brand name because an HVAC friend told us all the rest were crap. Each one snapped after about 6-12 inches. Shortly before the last blade broke, we encountered some double thickness material(1/4", from 1/8") and the last one snapped. We took a break at this point because it was loud work and my mom was taking a nap upstairs.(I'm home for a short summer from university.) At this point, we called our neighbor who has an angle grinder, he didn't have it with him, but he would be going by his brother's house(where it was), and would bring it back with him.

After that, we figure that it couldn't hurt to get some of the cheapo blades and get where we could get before the angle grinder arrived that night. Picked up a 5-pack of Lenox, the next-down brand before the really crappy ones. You know what? They tore up. Before we had been getting about an inch or two per minute, with the lenox it was closer to 18" per minute. It even went through the double thickness stuff without problem. The best part? We only used one blade to do the entire rest of the job, where 5 of the Milwaukee ones had only cut about 20% of what we needed. The one blade we did use to still sharp, too.

Moral of the story: Milwaukee tools are good, their blades are crapola.
 
Perhaps they had a bad batch of blades? Call them up, I would venture a guess they might reimburse you.

Edit:

Originally posted by: BigJ
You sure you bought the correct Milwaukee blades?
Click to expand...

What he said too.
 
Originally posted by: PowerMacG5
Perhaps they had a bad batch of blades? Call them up, I would venture a guess they might reimburse you.

Edit:

Originally posted by: BigJ
You sure you bought the correct Milwaukee blades?
Click to expand...

What he said too.
Click to expand...

Yes, Bi-metal. They were 8tpi, so not ideal for steel, but the package said it'd work. The Lenox was 14tpi, IIRC. The biggest difference was sturdiness- the Lenox blades had much more material on them and did not bend, whereas the Milwaukee ones were thin and flimsy.
 
The rule of thumb is that you're suppose to have three teeth on the material you're cutting.

bi-metal are by nature more brittle and you could have been shearing off teeth with only a 8 tpi blade.
 
I doubt there was any problem with the blades..

I completely demolished two entire fiberglass shower enclosures (replacing with tile) in my condo with a single Milwaukee carbide blade (the RIGHT blade for the job).

Next up, OP complains that the hammer didn't put the screws in right.
 
Originally posted by: TitanDiddly
Yes, Bi-metal. They were 8tpi, so not ideal for steel, but the package said it'd work. The Lenox was 14tpi, IIRC. The biggest difference was sturdiness- the Lenox blades had much more material on them and did not bend, whereas the Milwaukee ones were thin and flimsy.
Click to expand...

Always good to blame your failures on the equipment. Makes you look like the true professional......
 
Originally posted by: TitanDiddly
Yes, Bi-metal. They were 8tpi, so not ideal for steel, but the package said it'd work. The Lenox was 14tpi, IIRC. The biggest difference was sturdiness- the Lenox blades had much more material on them and did not bend, whereas the Milwaukee ones were thin and flimsy.
Click to expand...

8 TPI? 8?! * is for wood, maybe wood with nails. Steel should be 10+ TPI. Remember, 3+ teeth in the material. The Milwaukee blades bend for a reason (tight spaces) I love 'em. If you are bending the blade, then in almost all applications, you are doing it incorrectly. There should be minimal side loading on the blade, which is why they broke. I have never EVER broken a sawsall blade. Wear them out, sure, but never broke. Jigsaw blades are a different story, I break thoes often.

However, I usually go with dewalt blades instead of milwaukee because they are almost as good and quite a bit less. If I had a project like yours, I would have busted out the milwaukee torch, they rock for thick steel, and it would have taken you one blade total for your project. I have used the torch blade to cut residential basement steel Ibeams and columns.
 
Originally posted by: Evadman
Originally posted by: TitanDiddly
Yes, Bi-metal. They were 8tpi, so not ideal for steel, but the package said it'd work. The Lenox was 14tpi, IIRC. The biggest difference was sturdiness- the Lenox blades had much more material on them and did not bend, whereas the Milwaukee ones were thin and flimsy.
Click to expand...

8 TPI? 8?! * is for wood, maybe wood with nails. Steel should be 10+ TPI. Remember, 3+ teeth in the material. The Milwaukee blades bend for a reason (tight spaces) I love 'em. If you are bending the blade, then in almost all applications, you are doing it incorrectly. There should be minimal side loading on the blade, which is why they broke. I have never EVER broken a sawsall blade. Wear them out, sure, but never broke. Jigsaw blades are a different story, I break thoes often.

However, I usually go with dewalt blades instead of milwaukee because they are almost as good and quite a bit less. If I had a project like yours, I would have busted out the milwaukee torch, they rock for thick steel, and it would have taken you one blade total for your project. I have used the torch blade to cut residential basement steel Ibeams and columns.
Click to expand...

It says bimetal right on the package. I'll double check. They were the only Milwaukee blades at the store, I'm told. I could be wrong.
 
If you paid $14 for a pack of 5 blades, you bought the cheap ones.

A good Sawsall blade costs $14 by itself.

I always buy the cheap ones myself and go through a few of them for each project.
 
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