Maintaining Your Band Saw Blades

A band saw is an important tool for a wood worker. Its versatility is well-known, making it commonplace in industries such as metalworking, lumber yards and countless industrial facilities.  Its popularity also means that your band saw is worked hard on a daily basis. 

To keep your band saw running well, proper maintenance is as vital to it as correct usage of the equipment. Cleaning and maintenance of a band saw at regular intervals is essential for production and increased lifespan. The importance of regular maintenance of your band saw cannot be overemphasized. 

An important tip to remember: never limit the band saws maintenance to one part of the machine while overlooking the rest. All parts functioning together bring it to maximum performance. If you neglect a key part, such as the blade or a belt, there can be consequences to other pieces of the machinery. Regular maintenance with band saw coolant increase the longevity of the tool, enabling it to run smoothly and produce accurate cuts.

Keep your blades in peak condition by regularly following these care tips:

• Wear a new blade down before usage. This is a common mistake often overlooked. 
• Lubrication is a must, especially when cutting metal. 
• Release tension from the blade after every usage. When cutting materials, your blade heats up.  As it heats, it stretches.  As it cools, it shrinks.  This shrinking can cause tiny cracks in your blade if it is still under tension. 
• To get the most out of your blade it is important to sharpen it periodically.  With your band saw off, gently rub a sharpening stone along both sides of the blade.

The Importance of Proper Lubrication

Obviously, consistent lubrication is essential when working with heavy-machinery and equipment. Everything from heavy-duty construction machinery to small-scale contracting tools requires some degree of lubrication to properly function. It's invaluable to the life of those tools that the lubrication schedule for maintenance is followed closely. Failure to do so can have serious, and costly, consequences to your tools and your company’s productivity. 

While many systems come with a built-in lubrication system, they aren't necessarily the best option. So what is the right solution, you ask?  A minimum quality lubrication system, especially MagLube’s environmentally-friendly solution, is the answer.  Decreasing friction and heat are among two of the key components provided by our industrial lubrication systems. 

Increased friction can lead to damaged core components, which dramatically shortens their usefulness and overall life spans. Well-lubricated parts, on the other hand, rub against each other in a much smoother manner than components lacking in lubrication. Like friction, heat can be minimized by a reliable lubricant. The more friction, the more heat – and the more heat produced means the greater the chance of your equipment overheating.

MagLube offers a variety of lubricants, all at an affordable price. Rather than spending money on costly and unnecessary repairs, our minimum quantity lubrication products will help keep money in your pocket. Shop our inventory today at MagLube.com.

Making a Smart Business Investment

The right lubrication can make all the difference in keeping your tools and equipment in working order. As a smart business owner, you know that's key to your business' success. Without properly functioning equipment, you can't continue to produce at a profitable pace; not to mention the costs associated with fixing the equipment, while you’re taking a hit on production.

Your company’s heavy-duty industrial tools and machinery need consistent and reliable lubrication in order to properly perform their day-to-day functions. In the absence of regular lubrication, the core components of the equipment will begin to rust, overheat, and rub up against one another, causing considerable damage. 

Are you looking to make a smart investment for your company’s future? If so, keep your machinery up and running for the foreseeable future with MagLube brand lubricants, as well as our convenient MQL system.

We know that lube application isn't one-size-fits-all, which is why we have a large diversity of applications to offer.  Our MQL system strives to meet the needs of our rapidly-expanding roster of clients. Even though our mass-produced application systems satisfy the bulk of our client base, we realize that certain tools have highly specialized needs. For this reason, MagLube is happy to create custom-made application systems for clients with specialized machinery.

Lubrication plays an invaluable role in keeping your industrial tools in working condition. However, not all lubricants are created equally. Make the smart choice for your business, and your tools, by investing in our non-toxic, highly dependable MQL system.

Why Use MQL

When it comes to cooling your cutting machinery, coolant has been the traditional route to flood the surface and keep the heat at bay. But the better solution, for a number of reasons, is minimum coolant lubrication.

Petroleum or synthetic based coolants typically mix 10-20 parts with water to flood the work-piece and tool to prevent heat. These traditional machining lubricants, or metalworking fluid/flood coolants, have little lubricating properties.

One of the main downsides to the use of coolant is all the extra steps involved. It requires equipment to recirculate, filter, test, and treat coolant, with contamination from bacteria, tramp oil, and swarf being major concerns. Spent coolant is typically classified as toxic waste and its disposal is regulated. Therefore, the use of flood coolant requires additional fees of its disposal. Another consequence of coolant is that it’s messy. Machines, floors, and finished parts are often left wet from coolant, causing potential slip hazards and often requiring part cleaning before secondary operations can take place.

Our industrial lubrication systems are environmentally safe organic oils that are as much as 300-times higher in lubricity than conventional cutting oils. They work to prevent heat from occurring by eliminating friction within industrial lubrication systems. They are distributed directly to the cutting edge of the tool before the workpiece cut is made with our precision delivery systems. This eliminates the need for quenching due to the lubricating properties in which heat is displaced through the chip, no fumes or mist are emitted, and there is no cleanup because 99.9% of the lubricant is consumed in the cut.

The cost and negative effects of traditional flood coolant are exactly why MQL is the perfect alternative. For all of your lubrication needs, visit MagLube.com and shop our entire inventory of eco-friendly lubrication products.

Good for Business: Eco-Friendly Lubricants

At MagLube, terms like eco-friendly, non-toxic and biodegradable aren't just buzzwords we use to get our products sold. We have designed, engineered and manufactured superior industrial lubrication systems and lubricants that will not only help keep your production equipment running better with less downtime for repairs, maintenance and cleanup, but that will also save you money in the long run. 

Green initiatives in industrial lubrication manufacturing isn't only for the benefit of the products, but also for the overall health of the laborers who come into contact with the systems and lubricants day in and day out, as well as the reduction of waste output. 

Automatically, by virtue of being petroleum based, lubricants are classified as an environmental concern. We've all heard of instances where businesses have improperly disposed of such waste into the environment, which can have grave impacts on wildlife, waterways and humans. 

We believe that running a manufacturing facility doesn't have to put anyone’s health at risk - human or wildlife - which is why our lubricants, including liquid and solid block, are environmentally friendly, green, and require no hazardous waste handling or disposal requirements.

The other advantage to "green" goods; environmentally safe products offer certain performance advantages. When formulated with vegetable oils, lubricants exhibit better lubricity, which means reduced friction and wear, a high viscosity index and high flash points for improved safety.

As a premier lubricant manufacturer, MagLube.com lubricants are used in a variety of applications, include metal forming, wood and rubber processing, as well as environmental sensitive applications such as forestry and mining.

What is MQL Anyway?

At MagLube, our lubrication is specifically designed as a MQL application. The industry jargon may have you asking yourself, exactly what is MQL and why's in important enough to design and manufacture an entire product line around it? Allow us to fill you in on the details and better explain MQL and why we stand firmly behind it.

What is MQL?
MQL stands for Minimum Quantity Lubrication. At Mag Lube, we refer to it as MQL, but this technique goes by a variety of other names, including: Minimal Quantity Lubrication, Near-Dry Machining, or Micro-Lubrication. There are a handful of other names and acronyms commonly used in addition to those we've mentioned. Minimum Quantity Lubrication (MQL) is an alternative to the use of traditional metal working fluids in machining.

The concept of MQL is fundamentally different than that of flood coolant, which is still heavily used throughout the machining industry. Flood coolant is used to "flood" the interface of a cutting tool and workpiece, keeping the heat generated by machining operations at bay. One of the main downsides to the use of coolant is that it adds extra equipment into the equation. Equipment to recirculate, filter, test, and treat the coolant.

So how does MQL differ from coolant? MQL makes use of a lubricant, not a coolant, and does so in ‘minimum quantities’. Where coolants flood the interface in an attempt to cool things down, MQL coats the interface with a thin film of lubricant and prevents heat buildup through friction reduction. This lubrication and transfer of heat keeps the cutting tool much cooler and reduces tool wear. A tools’ life expectancy can be known to double with the use of MQL as opposed to flood coolant.

In a nutshell, MQL is a viable alternative which saves money, eliminates the mess, disposal, and negative aspects of coolant. To learn more about our MQL products, visit our website at MagLube.com.

The Basics of Our Industrial Lubrication Systems

When operating machinery, one of the most important things you can do is keep your equipment properly lubricated through industrial lubrication systems. Machining lubricants help to reduce friction when your equipment is functioning. Though some friction is important and necessary for operation, there comes a point where there’s too much and it can start to wear down your machine.

When your equipment surpasses standard operating temperatures you can wipe down your bearings or seize them after stopping the motor, but this can be costly and time consuming, especially when you’re on the clock. Lubricating your machine not only saves time and money, but also prevents new equipment from breaking down faster. Industrial lubricants have many different properties and types and though there are some that work for a variety of machines, other lubricants can be very specific.

At MagLube, we sell a variety of different industrial lubrication systems that are suitable for a variety of industries and applications. We’ve crafted the very best general purpose lubricant that can be applied to all materials, whether they are metal, plastic, wood, or rubber and are great for everything from heavy-duty machining to roll forming and stamping.

For all of your lubrication needs, visit MagLube.com and shop our entire inventory of eco-friendly lubrication products. Be sure to give us a call at 770-888-4470 if you have any questions or are looking for more information.