what makes one bandsaw blade better than another
materials
manufacture
blade thickness
tooth design
have there been any innovations in bandsaw blades in any of the above in the last 10 or 20 years
which criteria sets the different makes apart
Electric Comet wrote in news:o17nct$f79$1 @dont-email.me:
When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter if your blade is made out of sewing thread. All that matters is the way it cuts the wood. Does it leave a good finish or cut through the material in an efficient manner?
I've used both the Wood Slicer and Wood Turner's blades from Highland, and both do a fine job. I don't always get the best finish from the Wood Turner's blade, but that's ok... I'll further refine the shape of the wood later.
Puckdropper
#1 is a good weld. This is the last step in production and unless the weld is straight and true, it doesn't matter how wonderful the blade is.
The rest is specific to the cutting task. Nail the details here and you get a better cut versus the competition, but the old adage "cheap, good, fast, choose two" applies.
-BR
I have used olson, timberwolf, highland, delta and I think Lenox.
The Highland and Timberwolf seem to be close to each other. I like both, and rate both high.
The delta.. not so good. The Olson not so good on the 1/2 3-4 tpi. And not so great on the narrower blades.
The lenox was a bimetal so I'm not going to compare it, as I think of bimetal as metal working blades, more than ww blades.
have never seen how they make the blades
you say they do the weld after the teeth are cut and as the final step
i wonder if that is true for all makers because that could be a significant decision
it seems like automating a weld like this would be easy to do
but maybe some of them have found a way to still do it poorly
Looong strip of blade steel, runs through a tooth cutter then a tooth set device, possibly followed by some heat treatment. These are then rolled up and boxed. When you order a non-stock blade length (I use
144"), they uncoil and cut to length.
Cut to length, butt the ends and weld. The weld is then ground flush.
I'm sure most, if not all larger suppliers have automation and common blade lengths are most probably cut/welded completely automatically. I have never experienced a bad weld (over maybe 15 or so blades). Since mine are all built to length, the person who jigs up the blade and welds probably has done thousands of these and is watching the process while it happens and catches any errors.
Ya think? 8^)
I imagine QC (or lack thereof) is the culprit. Welding jigs should hold the blade square and straight, but there is still room for errors.
-BR
all band saw blades are made as a coil of blade.. then cut to length... it just makes sense to produce it that way.
The welds are machine welded.
Think about it.
Since half the group are lost figuring out what you say w/o punctuation, and whilst I've wasted a lot of words on the clueless, but haven't run out of words yet, I'll tell you a short story on blades.
I've always bought my blades from Damon Saw, an "industrial" blade supplier. Once, a long long time ago I went to them for a blade I needed (they stocked only bulk, and weld anything as ordered) The lady in the office said the guy that does the welding was sick or on vacation, and recommended I wait till he comes back. I said I couldn't wait and she indicated the guy she had to weld it was not too good, or something like that, and if I had a problem, or it broke, I could bring it back for a re-weld.
Well, the blade worked, but it had a noticeable THUMP as it turned. I knew immediately the weld was the culprit. I had purchased plenty of blades from them w/o a problem, and just let the blade thump away. It did break eventually, and I never bothered to take it back. The blades were industrial quality, which means to everyone but KRW, high quality.
An aside, I recall watching the woodworking idiot, Scott Philips using his band saw (for a task clearly better suited to a TS) and the saw had the same exact THUMP my bad blade had.
Not sure if anyone can buy from them, they are an industrial supplier, but all the blades I bought from them were top notch. They have 9 guys in the shop, and sell $10-20 million in gross sales, so they probably know what they are doing.
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