Band saw blades

[Fender1325]

My HF stock blade on my horizontal band saw snapped after maybe 20-30 cuts. It also somewhat often jumps off the wheels despite my trying to dial it in.

Love the saw otherwise. If it keeps acting up though I'll return it before the 30 day and get a JET.

Anyhow, I need a new blade. HD doesnt carry them in the store and the Lowes one has 24 teeth per inch. Probably too fine and slow a cut Im thinking.

HF actually has a bi-metal for $30 and claims its made in USA!

Whats the difference between a carbon steel blade and a bi-metal?

http://m.harborfreight.com/64-1-2-x-1-2-bimetal-supercut-bandsaw-blade.html

 

[JoeFin]

HF blades are ****

Moorse if you can find them Starrett if you can't

 

[HMCFab9]

I can't answer your blade type question (I know there are hard-back blades also) but I had a HF bandsaw & couldn't get it to cut straight no matter what I adjusted on it.

I dumped it back off & bought a JET & it works great.
I bought blades from ENCO or Menards & always look for MORSE blades.

 

[rsanter]

Bi metal is better
Teeth are hard but the blade back is soft

Bob

 

[Ozwelder]

Generic 4 x 6 horizontal band saws are notorious for this.
Not knowing what you may know or not know I'll go through the adjustments.

Some of them do take quite a bit of fettling to get them adjusted to the point where the band will stay on the wheels.
All this is impossible without a decent bandsaw blade to begin with - ie bimetal which is basically a carbon steel blade tipped with tool steel teeth.

The link gave the blade as a 10/14 tpi which is a skip pitch blade- 1 inch of 10 tpi and 1 inch of 14tpi which gives a cutting ability over a wider range of thickness.

Once fitted the saw blade is left in position and alignment of wheels to each other should be checked with a straight edge just long enough to measure from the outer edges of the wheels while in the vertical position.You need to measure from inside the projection of the blade over the driving edge of each wheel

The straight edge should indicate that the outer and inner edges of both wheels are parallel with each other.
Wheels often need shimming to be level with one another across the faces.

Another check to make is the circularity of the wheels.I have seen wheels .020" out of circular both radial and axially. Those wheels may have to be trued in a lathe.
Once the wheel faces are true the other roller bearing guide adjustments are relatively easy.

 

[Fender1325]

Thanks guys. I'll try the bi-metal and see if I can get that tracking trued up. If not, away she goes!

 

[spongerich]

Starrett blades are cheap enough. Don't waste your money on the Harbor Freight ones.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I last had Olson blade and it was great, I just bought(don't kill me) a bimetal blade from china ebay for $15 only used it once, but will see how it last so far great. but even the cheapy blade last for a short time. I will see what happens, My boy gave me a metal cut of say non abrasive so the band saw is not used as much, but the Olson blade lasted through the entire build of a class 5 baja bug build and there was a lot of tube cutting. so I may be a fool to try to save money.