Bandsaw Cutting Fluid & Bandsaw Coolant for Metal Cutting

Bandsaw coolant or dry cutting?

For steel and stainless, run coolant. A band saw blade has small teeth and shallow gullets, and in a long cut through solid bar the heat stays at the tooth tips. Dry, the teeth soften and round over, and the blade that should have lasted weeks is done in days. Coolant takes the heat out, lubricates the chip as it forms and washes the gullets clean before the next pass.

Grey cast iron is the one material many shops still cut dry: the graphite in the iron lubricates the cut, and the fine dust turns into sludge in the sump. If you do run coolant on cast iron, filter the tank and clean the chip tray more often.

What a bandsaw coolant problem looks like

Teeth strip or the blade dulls fast. Usually heat — too little flow, flow aimed at the wrong place, or concentration that has drifted down.
The cut runs off square. Most often a dull blade, low tension or too much feed. Good coolant slows the wear that causes it, but it will not straighten a worn blade.
Chips weld into the gullets. Not enough lubrication or flushing. Aim the flow at both sides of the blade where it enters the cut.
Rust on the saw table and the parts. The mix is too lean, typically because the sump was topped up with plain water.
The sump smells after a weekend. Bacteria, fed by tramp oil from the saw's hydraulics and gearbox. Skim it off and keep the concentration up.

How to mix bandsaw coolant

BASE201 is mixed at 7–10 % for sawing and machining steel and cast iron, and 4–6 % for grinding. Always add the concentrate to the water while stirring, never water to the concentrate — the other way round gives an unstable, creamy emulsion.

Check the mix with a refractometer. The refractometer factor for BASE201 is 1.6: multiply the Brix reading by 1.6 to get the concentration, so a reading of 5 means 8 %. Top up with premixed coolant at the working concentration, not with water. Our coolant calculator works out how much concentrate a top-up needs.

BASE201 mixes stably in water from 5 to 30 °dH (roughly 90 to 530 ppm hardness). If your tap water is harder than that, use softened water for mixing.

Band saw cutting oil or water-soluble coolant?

Many shops ask for band saw cutting oil, and what they mean is usually a soluble oil — a concentrate that is mixed with water. Neat cutting oil is rarely the right choice for a band saw sump: it costs far more per gallon of working fluid and carries heat away worse than an emulsion. That is why a water soluble cutting fluid for bandsaw work is the standard in production sawing.

Why BASE201 for sawing

BASE201 is a semi-synthetic emulsion with about 20 % mineral oil, made in Germany. It is built for light and medium cutting — band saws, lathes and mills — on steel and cast iron, and for grinding. It protects machines and parts well against corrosion, keeps the saw clean and contains no boric acid and no formaldehyde.

It is not recommended for aluminum or for heavy-duty machining. For those, see our CNC coolants.

Pail, drum or tote

The 5-gallon pail suits a single saw. If the same coolant also runs in your lathes and mills, the 55-gallon drum gives a better price per litre, and the 270-gallon tote the best. Unopened, BASE201 keeps for 12 months, so buy what you will use within a year.

Keeping bandsaw coolant in service

Check concentration with the refractometer once a week, more often in summer.
Skim tramp oil and empty the chip tray before chips start rotting in the tank.
Top up with premixed coolant, never with plain water.
When the coolant smells, foams or stains parts despite the right concentration, drain, clean the sump and refill.

FAQ

Looking for cutting oils, way oils or other coolants? See all metalworking fluids.

Bandsaw coolant or dry cutting?

What a bandsaw coolant problem looks like

Teeth strip or the blade dulls fast. Usually heat — too little flow, flow aimed at the wrong place, or concentration that has drifted down.

The cut runs off square. Most often a dull blade, low tension or too much feed. Good coolant slows the wear that causes it, but it will not straighten a worn blade.

Chips weld into the gullets. Not enough lubrication or flushing. Aim the flow at both sides of the blade where it enters the cut.

Rust on the saw table and the parts. The mix is too lean, typically because the sump was topped up with plain water.

The sump smells after a weekend. Bacteria, fed by tramp oil from the saw's hydraulics and gearbox. Skim it off and keep the concentration up.

How to mix bandsaw coolant

BASE201 mixes stably in water from 5 to 30 °dH (roughly 90 to 530 ppm hardness). If your tap water is harder than that, use softened water for mixing.

Band saw cutting oil or water-soluble coolant?

Why BASE201 for sawing

It is not recommended for aluminum or for heavy-duty machining. For those, see our CNC coolants.

Keeping bandsaw coolant in service

Check concentration with the refractometer once a week, more often in summer.

Skim tramp oil and empty the chip tray before chips start rotting in the tank.

Top up with premixed coolant, never with plain water.

When the coolant smells, foams or stains parts despite the right concentration, drain, clean the sump and refill.

Bandsaw Cutting Fluids

Bandsaw coolant or dry cutting?

What a bandsaw coolant problem looks like

How to mix bandsaw coolant

Band saw cutting oil or water-soluble coolant?

Why BASE201 for sawing

Pail, drum or tote

Keeping bandsaw coolant in service

FAQ

Bandsaw coolant or dry cutting?

What a bandsaw coolant problem looks like

How to mix bandsaw coolant

Band saw cutting oil or water-soluble coolant?

Why BASE201 for sawing

Pail, drum or tote

Keeping bandsaw coolant in service

FAQ