Review of Tuff Saws blades on Aldi WorkZone

[devonwoody]

Pleased to report and review bandsaw blades supplied to me from Ian of Tuff Saws.

The three blades shown above were all fitted to the Aldi work zone bandsaw and in my honest opinion all worked and cut extreemly well. Not one of the blades was there any drift off of line using three types of hard wood. Maple, Oak and London Plane. This is the norm imo of Ian's blades I have used over the years since he started the business.
Blades used were 3/8" x 4 tpi for ripping. termed Premium blade
3/8" x 6 tpi for light working, (similar to blade fitted on Aldi saw at source) termed Hobby blade
1/4" x 6 tpi " " " and shaped cuts. termed Premium blade.

Another blade supplied by Ian was 12.5mm and was a very heavy grade blade but I did not attempt to fit, my opinion was too high a spec. for the saw specification quoted by Aldi and would possibly been very difficult to control when fitting to the mechanisms inside compartments.

Attached photograph of 12 pieces of timber mentioned above and honestly they never gave any concern during cutting operation and will all hand plane to my usual box constructions.

 

[ColeyS1]

Good to see you back making things !
Coley

 

[devonwoody]

Good to see you back making things !
Coley

Only a couple of hour spell is all I can cope with though

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Thanks for that John. it is useful to know that some of the machinery from Aldi, despite it's ludicrously low price is frankly, up to snuff for making modest cuts on smaller material stock. For under a hundred quid you can happily cut hardwoods and get making some fine pieces like your boxes. Coupling it with the Rolls Royce of blades is the perfect solution to make it all it can be isn't it.

 

[novocaine]

compared the aldi one to the titan unit I have. the aldi one looks to have a better upper blade guide and lowing mech design where as the titan has the better table and slightly larger throat and thus longer blade, fence and has a mitre slot. the aldi Key lock design on the doors is better than the flat head screw on the titan. both have the same issue with the tensioning arrangement but thats just something on smaller bandsaws. can't tell on the aldi saw but on the titan, against the post where the blade runs is a pain as it's capped to you have to finagle the blade in on that side when fitting and a 1/2" blade only just goes.

so they are the cheapest bandsaws on the market I believe, and whilst neither are going to beat a big saw, they can, with a bit of a fettle and a willingness to tweak be used to a passable standard. thats a win on both counts as far as I can tell.