Band Saw Blade Recommendations

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Permalink Reply by Roosterman on November 11, 2010 at 9:39am

Get one with as more teeth per inch! Generally metal cutting blades are about right.

I find that with normal wood blades, your cut is more prone to wandering, especially on hard wood. Obviosuly a deeper blade helps this, but save yourself the hassle.

Plus you can swap from cutting your timber to your aluminium / brass etc without the hassle of changing blades! :o)

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Permalink Reply by Michael R Cossey on November 11, 2010 at 9:41am

About all I can say ,(others will be of more help)....is the smallest for scroll type cuts bigger for rough cuts....I have a cheapo 9 in Rayobi? and I cant get it to cut even/straight ......Have fun!....Mike

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Permalink Reply by Strolling Tone on November 11, 2010 at 3:01pm

Thanks Ben & Michael - good advice, much appreciated :)

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Permalink Reply by carverman on November 11, 2010 at 3:12pm

Band saw blades are a comprimize depending on what you are using them for. The smaller the blade and
the more teeth per inch means that you can do a finer cut around tighter curves, but it's not going to
do a straight line without wandering. If you are thinking of ripping stock lumber, then you need an
adjustable rip fence and a ripping blade which is typically 6 teeth per inch vs the standard crosscut
blade which is around 10 teeth per inch. You can rip stock with a fine tooth blade, but you have
to go extremely slowly because the blade will basically burn it's way through the cut.

The other thing is blade tension and blade guides. Most standard guides are steel and it's harder
on the blade than self lubricating "cool blocks"..blade tension, blade guides and the type of blade
is the key to good bandsawing. A 3/8 blade is good for ripping but may have difficulty around
tight corners. A quarter inch blade accomodates tight corners but wanders in the cut.

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Permalink Reply by Strolling Tone on November 11, 2010 at 4:26pm

Thanks for the advice carverman. I expect to be using it for finer work more than ripping so I'll probably do what roosterman suggests and get a fine tooth metal cutting blade and see how I get on. Thanks again for the useful info :-)

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Permalink Reply by Artist Formerly Known as Matt on November 11, 2010 at 4:54pm

Also google " how to set up a bandsaw" and follow the instuctions ... this will help greatly.

Matt

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on November 11, 2010 at 6:22pm

I agree with Matt, set it up corectly. I got a freebie band saw and couldn't cut staight or 90 degrees up and down. I googled set up and now it cuts fine, even with the blade it came with. : ) Good luck band saws are great to have.

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Permalink Reply by Strolling Tone on November 12, 2010 at 3:14am

Cheers MichaelS and Matt. Good tips - I'll definitely be looking into how to set the saw up when it arrives. Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Mitchell on November 19, 2010 at 1:31pm

Hey Lost tone, sorry for the late response I have been away for a while. About a month ago there was an article in one of the woodworking magazines (Popular woodworking, I believe) recommending blades from "SuperCut Bandsaw Co. www.supercutbandsaw.com or 800-356-9918. I have two bandsaws one is the new style Craftsman 10 inch and the other is the Laguna 16hd. I use a blade from Sulfolk Machinery on the Laguna mostly for resawing (very expensive). However they are a great company. But for the Craftsman I decided to try out the new blades. They are cheap and worked great. One other comment is performance is greatly impacted by set up. There are a number of resources on setting up bandsaws some of the better articles are by Michael Fortune and Mark Dugenski (sp). A friend of mine actually took a class with him Fortune, he told me that Michael can make an inexpensive machine do all the things we would ask of a bandsaw. The folks at Fine woodworking are a pretty good resource for instructional information. Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on November 19, 2010 at 2:27pm

Buy two blades, so you'll have a backup when the first one breaks - which it will invariably do right in the middle of an important project. Ask me how I know this - lol.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on November 19, 2010 at 6:52pm

Hah, mine just broke part way thru cutting a neck profile. I snagged an old one from my dads shop, it was from my grandfathers tools so its really old. Nice to have a new blade, now I can even cut a straight line! Would not trade my bandsaw away, what a great tool to have.

Skeesix said:

Buy two blades, so you'll have a backup when the first one breaks - which it will invariably do right in the middle of an important project. Ask me how I know this - lol.

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Permalink Reply by Strolling Tone on November 20, 2010 at 6:54am

Cheers Jim, Skeesix and Michael -
Some good advice there. Much appreciated.

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