Bandsaw Blade Advise

[DarrenW]

Hello,

I am just about to purchase my first bandsaw (Record BS250) and was wondering if anyone can give me advice on the type of blade I should use. I have already found the suppliers people recommend, but its more the tpi, skip tooth,etc which I need advise on.

Obviously its more of a hobby saw so it won't be in constant use and will mainly be used for rough ripping, some re-sawing, cutting tenons and the like. Mainly straight cuts so I assume I go for the maximum width (1/2" in this case). Will be used with a mixture of soft and hard woods.

I have already read Bandsaw Blade Information which gives details of the types.

So...
What type of blade? (regular, hook, skip, variable)
Tpi?
Set?

Cheers

Darren

 

[woodbloke]

Darren - I usually use 1/2" 6TPI 73" skip tooth blades from Axminster, which are good for general purpose use. The standard blades in the catalogue though are too thick for my liking so I over the 'phone I order 14 thou steel, much thinner. They cost a fraction more but seem to work better in my bandsaw. Others on the site have different preferences so its quite interesting to see what other people use - Rob

 

[Scrit]

Hi Darren

For general ripping I'd go for a hook or skip tooth blade (these are normally raker set). Hook tooth blades cut more aggressively than skip tooth at the cost of a slightly coarser finish, i.e. you can feed a lot faster. The number of teeth per inch really depends on how thick the timber is that you'll be cutting - the thicker or more resinous the stock the coarser the blade set should be to prevent clogging of the gullets. For example I generally resaw using a 2 or 3 tpi hook tooth blade, but I'm generally doing timber 6 to 12in wide using a 1 in or 1-1/4 in wide blade. In narrower blades likwe yout 1/2 in blade you may find that the range offered is something like 3, 4 and possibly 6 tpi in hook or skip types. This varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. So, if you are not doing incredibly thick stock a 4 tpi or even a 6 tpi x 1/2 in hook or skip blade might well suit your needs. Incidentally, if you find that a sharp blade is clogging in the cut then you either need to slow down the cut rate or go to a blade with less teeth. As woodbloke says, specify thinner blades for smaller saws - they'll be a lot easier to tension

Now that I've made things as clear as mud.....

Good sawing

Scrit

 

[DarrenW]

Thanks for the advise. The waters a lot less muddy.

Cheers

Darren

 

[Fred Page]

I have been most impressed by blades from Dure-Edge of Woodley, Stockport. (0161 430 2647). It was certainly somebody on this forum who suggested this supplier to me and from thereon I have been greatly impressed by the products and advice from this source.
Fred.
Herefordshire.

 

[cumbrian]

Useful stuff - thanks. I have a question to add (probably dumb, but I'm new to this!) - is there such a beast as a bandsaw blade designed to cope with wood and nails? I have a feeling I heard of something, but can't locate anything.
I have some four inch thick old oak from an old barn (would you believe this was used as the framing for the cattle stalls!!) which has the remains of nails in it - completely rusty and nothing to grip to pull them out, they just crumble. So - is there a suitable blade, or is the bandsaw the wrong tool for the job? Does anyone have any tips on how I might be able to remove said crumbly metal, as it defeats me?
Thanks in advance

 

[Scrit]

I have a question to add (probably dumb, but I'm new to this!) - is there such a beast as a bandsaw blade designed to cope with wood and nails?

Not really - which is why saw mills generally won't saw hedgerow and recycled timber. You can get blades for portable circular saws which will handle nails, but they're not normally available for saw benches and they appear to work on the basis of having a relatively soft TC tip. Similarly there are "demolition blades" sold for use on recipro saws, and there is perhaps the clue. Demolition blades use a "Cobalt steel blade", i.e. a high speed tooth edge welded onto a more flexible carbon steel backing. This is in effect the same construction as the bimetallic blades you can buy for bandsaws, however the tooth form is buttressed and looks more like a standard bandsaw blade tooth and they are quite coarse (low tpi). So I suppose if I were going to attempt this on a bandsaw I'd look for a bimetallic saw blade with a very coarse standard tooth form (8 to 10 tpi?) with a standard set (not wavy) on the grounds that the high speed steel blade edge is capable of sawing mild and even tool steel, and that the a hook or skip tooth might prove too prone to breakages. Such a blade would cut fairly slowly as the gullet size is too small to carry away much waste. One point about bimetallic blades is that they are generally a lot thicker than carbon steel blades so there may be difficulties in getting enough tension on a small hobby saw.

I'm also aware that the metals recycling industry use variable pitch hook tooth carbide tipped blades to saw up aluminium and even cast iron engine blocks - but they require at least a 24in bandsaw and a huge amount of tension to work properly, so probably not a realistic approach.

But once you've sawn it what are you going to do with it? It certainly wouldn't be possible to plane or thickness ir without taking chunks out of your planer blades - be they tool steel, high speed or carbide - the blade edge on a planer is too fragile to handle the shock of hitting a hard inclusion like these corroded nails.

Scrit