The Zen masters of the sawing world.

 

They don’t wear white robes. They don’t sit high atop a snow-capped mountain in a yoga position and meditate with their eyes closed. What they do, is to answer tough sawing application questions. They are: the people of the SAM hotline.

SAM is DoALL’s acronym for its Solutions and Applications Manager. SAM is not a real person, however; it is a unique service for the sawing industry, and there’s nobody more appropriate to offer it than DoALL — the only manufacturer of all sawing components: blades, machines, cutting fluid and material handling systems. Callers use the SAM hotline as a single point of contact for solutions to all types of sawing problems. The hotline is normally staffed by five people: Bob Kuna, Al Terronez, Ed Nichols, Rick Miller and Nick Victorov. While Kuna and Terronez field about 90 % of the questions, Miller, Nichols and Victorov — who collectively have almost 100 years experience in the sawing industry — handle the overflow. We wanted to find out exactly who these people are and what types of sawing questions they receive, so we chatted with Kuna and Terronez one sunny, spring morning in DoALL Sawing Product’s headquarters in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

Both men have a solid background in the sawing field. Bob Kuna taught industrial arts for 11 years in various junior high schools and high schools in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In 1985, Kuna left the teaching profession to join DoALL and has since become a permanent fixture. Al Terronez has held many positions related to sawing with other manufacturers since 1986 before arriving at DoALL in 2004.

On an average day, each man fields from 20 to 25 phone calls and each answers an additional 15 questions sent via e-mail.  Although they receive sawing questions sent via e-mail from all over the world — Australia, Africa and Europe to name just a few — most phone calls usually come from within North America. However, Kuna has received several cell phone calls from US Navy sailors aboard ships out at sea. Whether the questions are phoned in or sent via e-mail, most of them fall into three categories: blade application for cutting metals from carbon steel to super alloys; type of blade needed and cutting speed to use based on the metal’s machineability; and the tooth pitch of a blade based on the size and shape of the metal.

Although 90 % of the calls received deal with cutting metal, the most exotic material Kuna received a call about was cutting germanium crystal. The crystal was to be used in the solar panels of the Hubble space telescope. Following a review of the caller’s needs, Kuna recommended using a diamond edge band to cut the crystal. But there was another problem: the caller lacked a band saw of any kind. Kuna suggested that the caller send the crystal to DoALL and Kuna would make the initial cut free of charge. The caller said that would not be possible because the crystal was valued at $30,000.  The caller paused for a moment and asked if he flew to Chicago with the crystal would Kuna’s free offer to cut the crystal still be good. Kuna replied that it would. The arrangements were made and Kuna set up the band saw to the dimensions of the crystal given to him by the caller. About a week later, the caller showed up as scheduled at DoALL’s front door carrying a padded briefcase with the crystal inside it. Kuna successfully made the cut to the caller’s specifications and several hours later the caller, now a happy camper, was on his way back to O’Hare Airport to catch a flight back home.

Terronez is receiving more and more inquires about hard metals with high melting temperatures, like stellite. Stellite — an alloy of carbon, cobalt-chromium and sometimes tungsten — is a lightweight yet hard, nonmagnetic, noncorrosive metal that resists wear. And stellite’s high melting point makes this metal an excellent choice for the aerospace and automobile industries. While stellite has been in existence since the early 1900s, some new, super alloy metals are unknown even to these whiz kids of the sawing world. Some callers can’t reveal the name of a newly developed metal, either because the patent is pending or the metal is classified top secret by the government, explains Kuna. “I get phone calls from NASA about six times a year asking about blade application, but NASA cannot reveal the name of the metal. I suspect these metals are being used for rocket motors,” says Kuna. Because these metals are so new, knowing the name wouldn’t help. The only information that these callers can reveal about the metal is its shape and hardness. The metal with the highest number on the Rockwell C Scale that Kuna has received a call about is in the mid 50s. “For these metals, I generally recommend a carbide-grit blade,” says Kuna.

Leaning back in his chair, Kuna states he sees another trend emerging; after Hurricane Katrina, he began  receiving more phone calls about blade application from the US Gulf Coast area. “It appears that the US oil industry is creating super alloy metals that are more corrosion resistant so they can be used in the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. I usually recommend a bimetal blade with positive rake teeth and wave length tooth height variation to cut these super alloy metals,” says Kuna.

Terronez opens his notebook and begins poring over it like a studious school boy. “If a tough problem or situation arises that I can’t visualize, I may travel to the location and see it for myself,” explains Terronez. After studying his notes, Terronez cites one example involving a Midwestern manufacturing company who is currently developing a fully automated work station that speeds up the process for just-in-time delivery of special-ordered components. This one-of-a-kind work station requires the operator to simply load the bar stock onto the machine and then enter commands into the machine’s computer control to cut the necessary blanks. The company needed Terronez’s expertise to determine which DoALL band saw, saw blades and cutting fluid would be best integrated with this new system, so Terronez made a trip to the company’s manufacturing site to see how everything would work together.

Sometimes Terronez doesn’t have to visit the location to solve a tough problem. Randal Locke, manager of Parkinson’s Building Materials, which is located in Redway, Calif., called the SAM hotline after being totally frustrated with trying to find a blade that wouldn’t break in his unique band saw. Locke designed, built and uses what he calls “the only three-axis band saw in the world.” The one thing he didn’t foresee was not being able to find a band saw blade that would be able to withstand the high amount of stress placed on the blade by his unique machine. He had tried almost every band saw blade maker in the world, but the blades would break long before getting dull.

Locke told Terronez that he needed a carbon-steel blade ¼ in. wide by 0.025 in. thick, a relatively thin and narrow blade, with a custom set of 0.062 in. instead of the standard set of 0.043 inches. Terronez then contacted DoALL’s manufacturing facility in Toronto, Canada, where DoALL’s carbon-steel blades are made. To determine if the DoALL blades would succeed where all others failed, Terronez requested if Canada would make just 10 blades for Locke. Canada gave the nod, something that is unusual in the industry because of the prohibitive cost of running such a small order.

Locke called Terronez several months after receiving the order of DoALL blades. Locke had only good news for Terronez. The DoALL blades were the first blades that held together long enough to get dull, exclaimed a happy Locke. He immediately ordered another 50 blades.

The next time you have an unusual sawing situation or tough sawing challenges — whether cutting a known or exotic material — call the Zen masters of sawing at the SAM hotline where the people from DoALL are ready and able to resolve your sawing problem. With about 150 years of combined sawing experience, they are the closest you can get to sawing enlightenment. You can reach the SAM hotline by dialing 1-888-DOALLSAW (1-888-302-5579), or on-line at www.doallsawing.com.