Technical What has happened to Milwaukee Tool Company?

I've been trying to find 32 tpi Sawzall blades and their web site and full line .pdf catalog are masterpieces of obfuscation.

The .pdf catalog is approx 112 pages and there is no Table of Contents - you just have to sift through every page to find what you're looking for.

The website looks like it was designed for a doofus looking at new cars on their cell phone.

Sawzall blade filter consists of "Blades" and "Blade Sets"
Then you get to choose what Type of blades you want. (Torch, etc.)
In many cases there are no specs for the blade sets - just glitzy pictures.

They appear to be in competition with Lenox as far as quality goes, but I'm guessing M has sold it's soul to the box stores while Lenox has no interest in them.

M still has some awesome tools but if I was their owner, I would line up the marketing/advertising managers against a wall and ..... (It seems that "they" sold their business to some conglomo... )

 

Online catalogs typically are awful, you have the option of sorting by "most popular", A to Z, or price.
A printed catalog had to be organized in some rational fashion, but I guess that cost money, so companies don't bother.
And of course sorting by size doesn't work with fractional sizes. Well it probably could work, but again, the company often doesn't put the time and effort into it.

 

What are you cutting that you need 32tpi?

That is what I use on auto body sheet metal that I need an accurate cut in, and that is with an air body saw, not a Sawzall.

For bulk/demo cuts, 18tpi works just fine.

 

Ii couldn't find a Milwaukee 32 tooth sawzall blade on the net and did find where they dropped their 32 tooth hack saw blade Dec 31, 2021. It may be like a lot of outfits cutting down on slow selling items.

 

I always liked Lenox better anyway.... just harder to find. Try an electrical supply house, that's a useful tooth count on some stuff they do.

 

If you use any kind of word processor to make a catalog, a TOC (Table of Contents) is automatically generated if you use any form of Outline organization. Indices are automatically generated for every word and phrase. Once you learn how to use the software, TOC and Indices are free.

I have no idea what the full line catalog is supposed to be. It's "organized" like porn: a random sequence of attractive young ladies except in this case, they are cool tools. The catalog is more like a marketing tool to be handed out to investors which being tool doofuses will flip through the pages and be impressed.

I cut body parts from Upull junkyards and with sheet metal around .032" a 24T blade doesn't even have 1 tooth per thickness so you have to run the saw fast which wears out the blade and also have to deal with the saw jumping about if you are unable to put the foot on the panel.

I still have a few old Milwaukee short 32tpi blades and they cut smooth like butter without any bulling the saw around. Now they market special 32 tpi as HVAC Ductwork blades.

It's sort of ironic that the 32 was common when 18ga panels were typical. Now panels are crazy thin and the blades have gotten coarser. Could be the only market is doofuses like me that saw out body panels in Upull to weld repair because I'm too lazy to form complex shapes. Which of course NO ONE DOES because autobody guys replace panels and sheet metal welding is almost a lost art - especially oxy-acetylene which I am fairly good at. And the only guys doing are doing serious restos where there is nothing in the Upull to harvest - so no one needs the 32 tpi blades.

I had a 32" throat antique Crescent Wood Cutting Bandsaw that a machine shop made a worm drive to cut metal. I ran 32 tpi 1/4" Disston carbon blades and it worked great. 32 tpi has always been the choice for sheet metal work.

With tool diversity exploding, you'd think there would be 48 tpi nowadays.

 

Anyone have an Aviator Jet aircraft oxy-acetylene torch? On my bucket list.

 

Not sure what site you are on but the PDF catalogue I found on their site has a table of contents.
https://www.milwaukeetool.com/PDFVi...dia/PDFs/2021_Accessory-Catalog_Printable.pdf

 

I have not seen anything worth cutting in a self-service yard in more than a decade.

 

I was looking at their Tool or Power Tool catalog. Had all the box store stuff and some real pro stuff too. I didn't look at the Accessory Catalog. I'm going through your link now - at least they have TPI in plain view (!)

....done sifting.

They don't have 32 tpi in their selection guide or any 32tpi blades listed that I could find.
And yet, they sell a 32tpi HVAC/Ductwork blade.

I'm going to see if I have a 32 Mil blade that I can read the # from. Maybe people sell NOS on eBay. But I'm going to call Mil and talk to someone - I'll probably get some new hire that hasn't learned the catalogs yet.

 

McMaster-Carr shows them in stock. Part #4073A32

 

The Upull places are last stop before the crusher. And the SUV's are the closest to the office.

Here's the Diablo Duct blade: https://diablotools.com/products/DS0332BF5
They are pretty good about showing what they make.

LOL Dewalt may be worst. NO mention of tpi:
https://www.dewalt.com/products/accessories/sawing-accessories/reciprocating-saw-blades#product-list

 

Those blades are everywhere but are for Air Body Saws - they do not have the Sawzall end.
Fastenal has a pretty good blade filter too.
I'm thinking the 32 has been dropped from conventional blade lines.
Starrett does not have any.

(wonder if could fab some from bandsaw blade stock....)

NOTE: Speaking of Air Saws, you'd think someone would have made a Cordless Chisel Hammer

 

Lenox has no qualms about being sold in the big box stores. Tons of their products at my local Lowes stores.

 

I have an Aviator Jet torch

 

In my machinist apprenticeship I was taught that there should be three teeth or more in the cut.

Yeah, coarser does work, and it's pretty tough to observe the "three teeth" rule in sheet metal. But the blade is hopefully fine enough that the sheet metal doesn' fall into the gap between each tooth as it's being cut. That makes it hard to control, and more likely to strip off teeth.

 

20ga is 0.036".

Three teeth in the material would necessitate that each tooth be 0.012".

I believe that would be 83.333tpi. Not sure that would be possible to create with any functional strength.

I just rendered a entire car body with 4 6" 18tpi Milwaukee Sawzall blades. The only reason that I used 4 was that I was in a hurry, and kept striking the tips on inner layers, bending the blades, and I hit the Boron steel rails a couple of times. That does not cut with a toothed blade.

It was whatever moden German car makers use for thickness. In any case, pretty thin.

It went quickly, and that shell is now at the scrapper.

 

There're several factors that control how well a given blade will cut. You can get away with a coarser blade if blade angle is right by angling the cut to a small angle. Holding the blade at 90 degrees to the material is when you'll have issues. The more teeth you can engage the easier the cut.

Low tooth count on sheetmetal means a raggy cut, is harder to control and generally causes more broken blades. Years of modifying sheetmetal enclosures in electrical installations taught me that.

 

As I have mentioned, I only use a Sawzall when doing demo work.

As far as I am concerned, that is the only place it is appropriate to use one in the automotive world.

I can do an entire roof chop on a '50 Chevy with 2-3 32tpi air body saw blades.

 

The Chi-Coms bought Milwaukee tool about 15 years ago...

 

Oops, didn't realize Lenox was carried by Lowes - HD is just closer to me.
Cutting up a car with a 6" blade is dodgey - the 12" make life easier.

The Milwaukee 32 tpi 4" is 48-00-1178 which is marked "Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation"
Some places still list it but out-of-stock. Most sold in pack of 10.

I guess the argument for 32tpi are the air body saws that are all over the place.

 

I just want to commend you for the obscure culture reference in your name.

 

The following page has the intended usage for blades but I don't know if it is from Milwaukee or Anderson.
The 24 tpi is recommended for "Metals lighter than 18 gauge sheet, trim and tubing."
and 32 tpi is for "Very light gauge metals, sheet trim and tubing."

Maybe they meand "Metals as light as..." and the catalog editor "corrected" the awkward working. (That's my final answer and I'm sticking to it. .... Alex)

https://shop.andersonrentals.com/products/blades-sawzall-reciprocating-saw

I also have Two Sheds (!) (Wink, Wink.... Nod, Nod)


EDIT: UPDATE: Finally got my 5 pack of 12" 24tpi Milwaukee blades. I should be thankful they make the 24 in 12". So that will do it for 12's. NOTE: they are 1" wide so I have to find my big step drill bit (the 3/4" step bit worked great with the 3/4" wide blades - what was nice I could totally blow through the metal with the 3/4")

 

"But Sir, it's wafer thin!"

 

Well, since we’re on the name thing now, I’m allergic to creosote. I can’t be around it. Is it still available?

 

Thanks for the list.
Hoping to find something, I checked them all (next to last was not found).
There were some jigsaw blades and the rest although called "reciprocating" blades I believe are actually "air reciprocating" blades which have a square end and are quite popular - the Sawzall recip blade has that tang and the blade is wider than the end that sticks in the chuck.

Other than Mil's Ductwork 32tpi blade, neither Mil or Len make 32 tpi Sawzall blades. (I think Diablo still does.) Oh, and someone makes a 30 tpi something - go figure.

 

Use two 16 tpi blades; hasn't been said yet?

 

Actually that's a pretty clever idea - if you could affix them side by side, half a tooth off, they would act pretty much like a blade twice as fine.

 

I figured you was going to bash the quality of tools their putting out these days. I switched back to dewalt and makita. The fuel cordless are just not holding up good for me.