Bandsaw blade sizes

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lwalper

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Mar 16, 2014
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Lancaster, TN
I've just refurbished an old Craftsman 10" bandsaw - probably 40-50 years old, but it's been stored in the barn for most of those years. Put a new capacitor on the motor and it runs great. Have new urethane tires on the way. Someone had set it up geared 1:1 with the motor running at 1725 RPM (something like 4500FPM) --way too fast, so am changing pulleys to bring it down to about 1000FPM. Anyhow ...

What blade should I put on the machine? I think I'd like something fairly thin for doing some tight radii cuts on these little pen blanks. And what TPI should I be looking for? Will probably also need something wider for the longer straight ripping cuts. Any suggestions?
 
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I use a 3/4 3tpi Timberwolf blade for ripping and resawing. And a 3/8 6tpi for other work. If you are wanting really tight you might go down to 1/4 or 3/16. I have a Grizzly and have found that the smaller the blade the harder it is to get them to track good.

Mike
 
I get Timberwolf blades from Suffolk Machinery. They are very helpful and knowledgeable. I call and tell them what saw I have and what kind of cutting I will be doing and they suggested what blades I would need. Their suggestions have proved to work fine. I really don't know what the blades I use are. I do know that the blade I use to cut logs into bowl blanks is close to a 3/4 inch blade with 3 tip. The other two are smaller (1/4 or so) with 6 or 8 tpi, maybe more. The labels are long lost but I just call and have them send the same blades as my last order.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 
I would be hard pressed for putting more than a 3/8" blade on a 10" band saw. Think 1/4" blade with different TPI will handle almost anything you want to cut. A blade with less TPI will leave a rougher wood surface than one with more TPI. You do not want to force the cut wood species & thickness adjustment of rate you feed wood through the blade.

Mark Duginske," Band Saw Handbook," author used ¼" blades on his smaller band saw to do all kinds of cuts.
 
I own a 14" saw, this is own guidelines ;For Resawing use the widest blade that will fit in your saw, for a 14" band saw

that will be 1/2 - 3/4" For small radius turns use a narrow blade, generally 1/8" is the smallest for a 14" saw.
 
I use 1/2" 3 to 4 tpi for ripping and I also use 1/2" 6 tpi for all other work. With that said I make almost all straight cuts. If I was to do more tight work I would use a smaller blade maybe on the order of 1/4" or smaller. I also use timberwolf blades. I would use the largest blade you can get for the straight stuff and something smaller for tighter. The more teeth per inch the cleaner the cut. The less teeth per inch the better for larger work ripping. The nice thing about the larger blades is they cut a straight line easier.. I have a 14" professional Rikon saw so I could use much larger blades but have not really needed to use them? I have cut with the full 14" of resaw that this saw offers..
 
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