4X6 Bandsaw Blades

[JeepJohn62]

What blades are best suited for the 4X6 horizontal bandsaws?

I recently purchased a Morse M42 blade with a thickness of .035. Most of the blades at 64-1/2" are thinner at .025. It seems to run fine and my thought is it is a stronger blade. But flexibility is reduced and the wheel diameter is only maybe 6" (guesstimate).

Thoughts and experience?

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[Old Man Roger]

Ive had good luck with the HF blades, not the cheaper of the two though, those snap in minutes..lol

 

[dvo]

Back in the days when I had a 4x6, I noticed the thicker blades did not last very long. Upon inspection of the broken blade I found tons of cracks on the blades from the tight radius of the machine. Went with thinner and never had a problem after that with premature broken blades.

 

[tdkkart]

Morse or Starett variable pitch wavy style. They cost more, but last much longer.

 

[JeepJohn62]

Back in the days when I had a 4x6, I noticed the thicker blades did not last very long. Upon inspection of the broken blade I found tons of cracks on the blades from the tight radius of the machine. Went with thinner and never had a problem after that with premature broken blades.

I guess I'll be running that same test. I've read that elsewhere which will probably bring me back to the .025 blades.

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[xman_charl]

Use these in my bandsaws...

Titanium 6Al4V: Lennox p/n 12897D2B51638, 6-10 variable tooth bi-metal, 0.025"


Charl

 

[BD1]

I get mine from Farm and Fleet . made in USA for $10.00

 

[Stephenw]

I've been running the Bosch blades from Lowes with good results. I've had my saw for about 16 years and have cut miles of steel with it. A few months ago, I lost a lot of teeth off the Bosch blade and went to Lowes to buy another. They were sold out. I went to Harbor Freight and found they had 4 different options. The 2 higher priced ones were made in the USA. I purchased the most expensive one and could not get it to stay on the saw. I spent hours fiddling with the tracking and finally gave up. I went back to Bosch blades and bought some spares to have on hand.

 

[JeepJohn62]

I've been running the Bosch blades from Lowes with good results. I've had my saw for about 16 years and have cut miles of steel with it. A few months ago, I lost a lot of teeth off the Bosch blade and went to Lowes to buy another. They were sold out. I went to Harbor Freight and found they had 4 different options. The 2 higher priced ones were made in the USA. I purchased the most expensive one and could not get it to stay on the saw. I spent hours fiddling with the tracking and finally gave up. I went back to Bosch blades and bought some spares to have on hand.

Thanks! I have one Bosch blade. But my local lowes only carries 24tpi in the 64.5 length. I cut 2" diameter material for my lathe stuff.

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[sqznby]

I like Bandsaw Blades Direct.

 

[toplessHO]

Does Harry P carry that size?
just bought a package of 5 Morse,made in USA,$19,for my 44inch portaband.

 

[Bigbandguy]

I've used the HF replacement blades, the higher priced option. If the blade tries to run off the saw you have to tighten the hell out of the blade tension. From what I read in the old Yahoo bandsaw group, you cannot tighten the tension too tight by hand so give it your best shot. Usually it can be tightened enough to track. I have had my 4 x 6 for over 20 years and it still does a great job.

EDIT - I did a little scrounging around the net. The old Yahoo group appears to be here:

https://groups.io/g/4x6bandsaw/topics

There is a HUGE amount of info about the saws, mods and yes blades there.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I've used the HF replacement blades, the higher priced option. If the blade tries to run off the saw you have to tighten the hell out of the blade tension. From what I read in the old Yahoo bandsaw group, you cannot tighten the tension too tight by hand so give it your best shot. Usually it can be tightened enough to track. I have had my 4 x 6 for over 20 years and it still does a great job.

Yup, I used mine commercially for years, with the blades I posted above. Sometimes I had that saw running 8 hours a day. Mostly 4 or 5 stacked pieces of 3/8 plate at a time.
I loved to set it and forget it while I was welding.lol

 

[62civa]

I buy mine form McMaster Carr. They ship Starett brand. They last about 10x as long as the HF bands.

 

[JeepJohn62]

I buy mine form McMaster Carr. They ship Starett brand. They last about 10x as long as the HF bands.

I've got a few of the Starrett ones from Little Machine Shop. But I sheared off a few teeth for some reason. I'd like to blame my teenager and his buddy, but it could have been on my watch. I've found I can silver solder sections together to make use of the good parts. I hate to toss a whole blade for 1 to 2 inches of bad teeth.

Anyway, at $28 - $35 a pop for these, I have tried a few different types. I have a Morse M42 .035 gauge from Grainger. Seems to run fine.

The best deal I've come across is that I can buy these Starrett blades on Amazon in long lengths for about $18. I can make almost 3 blades out of 1. If I buy the 64-1/2 blade alone, they are around $30. Crazy.

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