I bought a Craftsman 10" Band Saw yesterday.  Spent about 2 hours getting it set up last night.  Some things I like, some I don't, but what I would like to know is, what are the blades I should be looking for.  There are a lot of custom length cutters out there selling, Morse and Lennox blades at pretty good prices.  Should I buy bi-metal, carbon, or both.  What kind of tooth count.  Mostly I'll be cutting out MDF & plywood for forms, possibly neck blanks, and braces, also tops, backs and sides, also some laminated veneer for rosettes and purfling.  You all know the stuff.  I just don't want to buy a bunch of stuff that I won't use.

By the way, the saws are marked off $40.00 through tomorrow.  I thought $119.00 was a pretty cheap price to get my feet wet.  I compared it to the Rikon 10", and liked the Craftsman better because it has a cast iron table that is smooth, vs that grooved aluminum table on the Rikon.  Otherwise I think they are pretty similar.

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Waddy

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I use Timberwolf for most purposes. On your saw a 1/4" 6 tpi is a good general purpose blade. Maybe 8 tpi when cutting thin stock, but 6 shouldn't tear much if it's a sharp blade.

A lot of people leave bandsaw blades in the saw way past when they are dull. They should be seen as a disposable supply. Get a few of them.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Howard, there are so many choices.  Hook teeth or regular.  Standard carbon steel blades?

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Waddy

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Hook and carbon steel for almost all purposes. Timberwolf calls its blades "silicon" steel. I'm not sure what that means; they appear to be a kind of carbon steel. Order from Suffolk Machinery and let them advise you. The people who answer the phone their know their blades.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Thanks, all!  I did the unthinkable.  I looked in the Yellow Pages.  Low and behold, there is a place here in town "Charlotte Saw and Knife Company" (www.charlottesaw.com" that does custom length blades "Lennox", and I can pick them up this afternoon.  They guarantee the welds, and will sharpen the blades too as well as anything else with an edge - $15.00 for a 60 tooth carbide table saw blade.  Price for a carbon steel 70 1/2" x 1/4 or 3/8 x 4 or 6 tpi, hook, is in the $8.00 - 9.00 range each.  Seemed pretty good to me.  I have seen Lennox blades recommended somewhere, Schramm, I think.

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Waddy

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I bought my Timber Wolf blade from Woodcraft just a month ago and I haven't done that much cutting with it.  Grizzly blades I bought years ago still are cutting better than the TW.  TW claims that their blade needs less tension.  I wonder if this has something to do with it?  I cranked it up to 1/4" on my tension indicator then backed off a turn or two.  My Jet is 7 years old.  Should I need a new spring already?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I hope you aren't asking me.  

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Waddy

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Congrats Waddey, I don't think you will regret the 10". I want to upgrade later this year, but i will always keep my 10".

Yeah, I think it was the right thing to do.  I really do not have a good way to cut out stuff efficiently.  I made a jig-saw table, and it works, but you really have to fight it to keep things from getting eaten up.  I really don't have room for a floor model band-saw right now, unless I redesign my shop.  Probably not a bad idea, but it ain't gonna happen!  

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Waddy

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You should look at the Lennox site. They give a lot of information on blade application. If you are not doing wide resawing blades will last pretty well. Keep your blade clean, be sure to release tension when it is not in use, tension gauges are pretty much useless(they generally do not get a blade close to tensioned properly). If you get into a resaw situation then you will have to have fewer teeth per. inch. This helps the blade clear out the cut instead of clogging up and causing the blade to deflect. Wider set will help minimise blade deflection due to clogging, but translates to higher loss per. cut. The max size blade relates to wheel size, capacity to tension as well as guides and wheel width.

I would follow the advise given above. Get a blade that will be a good all around size for you. 1/4" 6TPI is a nice size. You really want to think about cost of the blade, resharp cost vs disposal, type of blade vs actual added longevity vs cost. You may find standard blades replaced(disposable) are cheaper than more expensive blades.

I can say my best value in the blades I use. Is the Lennox Woodmaster Carbide. It will easily maintain a nice "new sharp" 5 times longer than any other blade I have used. They are by far the most reliable in terms of tracking and feed rate. Down side is you need a fair sized saw to use them(they just released a baby 1" version, before they were only marketed for milling or very large industrial machines). These are also best suited to regular wide resawing.

Peace,Rich

Equal to the Lenox carbide in quality is the Starrett, and less expensive. First time I've ever said that about Starrett. They have a 3/4" with a .035 kerf!

Dean

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Dean

My little band saw will max out at a 1/2" blade.  But the Lennox blades are .025 and with an actual kerf of about .034 +/-.  What I'm now trying to figure out is how to know when the tension is right.  Anybody have a thought on that?

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Waddy

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The more tension the better to a point. Don't warp the wheels out of alignment ( easy to do on small machines). A good high tenor twang on the blade is a good sign. Make sure the blade is tracking at the high point on the upper wheel, (much less drift). I go with bimetal on my smaller blades as they last 5-10 times longer than standard carbon.

Dean

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Dean

Had a close look at the blade and I can see that it is dull.  I think cutting some Lexan did it in.  Must be really soft metal.  I am not impressed with Timber Wolf.  I've cut Lexan with my cheapo Grizzly blades and they still are sharper than the TW. One TW, one month and $30.00. Not good!

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Dean,
     The Blade I mentioned is the Woodmaster CT 1" X .035" x 1.3TPI(they run about .75cents an inch). The Lennox Trimaster in a similar size would run about $1.25 an inch. I would be really curious as to which Starret Carbide blade you like, price and where I can purchase them. From what I have found in the past carbide blades are kinda spendy, but I like how they really hold an edge. As far as a 3/4" blade with a .035" kerf , is that blade thickness or actual kerf. If the kerf is that small and the blade is say .025" wide that is a tight set(similar to blade runners and Woodslicers). I wouldn't mind having a couple Carbide tipped blades with those specs.

As far as tension. The best way to check tension would be with a gauge like this-gauge
Carter makes a diffrent style gauge for 14". I am not familiar with these, but Carter usually puts out a good product-Carters gauge
Most people that don't want to sink that much into a gauge use a deflection method(test by feel) or a flutter test.

Peace,Rich

There was an article in Fine WoodWorking magazine a while back about band saws. In it they described how to tension a blade using a digital caliper and a couple of small clamps (common equipment for most of us). The idea is to open up the caliper a certain amount and clamp the jaws to the blade. When the blade is tensioned, it stretches, and the calipers measure the stretch. There is a certain amount of stretch per inch that indicates proper tension. It doesn't matter what size the blade is.

I don't have the article handy but perhaps an on line search at the Taunton Press website would produce results.  ????

Mark

Mark, that sounds like a good article to find.  I probably have that magazine.  I'll see if I can look it up and find out which one it's in.
Thanks for the tip.

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Waddy

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It's

Shopmade Tension Gauge

Built-in bandsaw gauges are notoriously inaccurate. Here's an inexpensive tool that eliminates guesswork
by John White

Fine Woodworking #147

I'll look up the article tomorrow

Peter

Maybe one can tap tune a blade.  A G# for a 1/2" blade, etc. 

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

What are the odds?  My collection starts at 151, but I did a search, and came up with this little video HERE that gives a way to do it using a feeler gauge.  Surely you could do the same thing with a digital caliper attached to the blade in the same manner, as Mark described.  Going from .000 to .003" would put you near the mark.  .0025 would put you dead on at 15,000#, at the rate of 6,000 #/ .001" stretch.  I bet there is a way to do it using a dial gauge with a movable bezel, and using magnets to hold the stuff to the blade.  It should be a simple device.  I don't know if magnets would have an effect on digital gauges.  Someone probably does know around here.

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Waddy

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By the way, the Lennox blades I bought here in town are pretty good.  The difference in the cut smoothness, and the feel of feeding wood through the saw was significant, vs the blade in the saw (a Sears - 3/8 6tpi hook).  I have already dulled one though.  I cut a can in half with it, and then cut through a little piece of mahogany.  It burned the wood and had a lot of tear-out coming through the wood at the end of the cut as well as at the bottom of the cut.  So, dull, does not work.  Guess I shoulda been using a bimetal blade.  Live and learn. 

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Waddy

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Waddy, go and look on the Suffolk website, they have a fine article on how to set yout blade tension. I've found it works fine. My standard small saw blade (13") is a 3/8 6tpi, which I change out to a 1/4 6tpi for cutting out tops and backs etc. But the 3/8 is fine for roughing out necks and general wood chopping. My saw is switched off though at the moment as I'm on a hand tools only build.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

You can 'resharpen' bandsaw blades on the saw if you want to get a bit more utility use out of a blade.
This was the topic of a GAL data sheet (don't have the sheet, forgot the author, sorry..) back 'in the days'.
This is done with the saw not running.
Put a small grinder or sanding disk (not a cutoff disk) in your dremel and just touch the 'outside' of each tooth (ie not in the gullet, keep the grinder almost parallel to the length of the blade) until there is a small shiny spot showing. Move the blade by hand to work your way around.

This will get a few more hours out of a dull blade- handy if you don't have a new blade or just want to do some rough cutting. Obviously, this is for folks who aren't putting their time 'on the clock' and billing it to the business.
You can do a smaller blade in a couple of minutes.

Cheers
John

[QUOTE=Colin S]Waddy, go and look on the Suffolk website, they have a fine article on how to set yout blade tension.
Colin[/QUOTE]

Colin, thank you for that.  I assume you are talking about the floppy blade to tight blade test.  That appears simple enough.  I'll see, after I try it, if it is as easy as it seems it should be.

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Waddy

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Colin,

I looked at that and the only problem that I see is that you need to detension your blade after every use. With that tensioning method you will be setting up your guides top and bottom with every use. The other method using a gauge you only have to check the guides.