Band saw blade for ripping

[bracspin]

Hi All

I have a SIP 14" bandsaw. I am trying to rip 8" high 1" wide oak in half as I need it thinner. The blades I have been using are giving too much drift. Could you recomend a blade that will do the job effortlessly.

Thanks

 

[Ttrees]

Sorry I can't be of assistance
I've been trying to find a narrower band for my saw, say 5/8" to 3/4" max, as my lower tire is
unable to handle anything wider.
I was looking for a 1 to 1.3TPI ripping blade, but unable to find it from two places ...
Looking forward to seeing what other folks have to say ....
Only need one blade as lots of stuff on my plate ...Custom length if possible with decent postage rates ...
I might be asking a bit much, with that hungry of a tooth requirement though

 

[skipdiver]

Contact Ian at Tuffsaws. Just bought my first couple of blades from there, one for general ripping that i haven't yet used and a narrow 1/4" one for doing curved parts, which i currently have in my bandsaw and is cutting beautifully. He will advise as to the best size and tooth pattern.

 

[loftyhermes]

I use Tuffsaws ½" Supertuff Fastcut blades on my Charnwood W730 and it'll rip 8" Oak with no problem at all.

 

[Ttrees]

I'm not sure that's an aggressive enough tooth pattern for my needs.
It might suit OP though

I've a lot of iroko to rip and need to do it in a hurry, with as little dust as possible .
then I need to evacuate my shop for about a week or more ( alergic to iroko )
Looks like I need to get a new tire for my lower wheel, and then buy one of Ian's ripper blades .
Thanks for suggestion though

 

[Beau]

I use 5/8" 3tpi for most work. Shallow enough for reasonable curves and course enough to clear when ripping.



Various reasons for blade drift.

Blunt blade

Wrong angle of feed

Poorly tightened blade won't help either.

 

[bracspin]

Thanks all. Will contact Tuffsaws today.

 

[sunnybob]

dont know how much bandsaw experience you have, but the biggest cause of drift is feeding the wood too fast.

Cutting 8" of oak would need the same kind of patience as watching slow drying paint to go solid.
Try it again with almost no pressure and let the teeth do the work before buying more blades.

 

[Glynne]

+1 for what Sunnybob said.
I think it may have been Custard in a similar thread sometime ago who explained how slow "slow" was - and it's very slow. Just be aware of not going for too wide a blade as your bandsaw may not be able to tension it properly.

 

[CHJ]

I've been trying to find a narrower band for my saw, say 5/8" to 3/4" max, as my lower tire is
unable to handle anything wider.

In my opinion you don't need a Wide Blade for ripping, just because it's wide does not give you better cutting and it will just bind in the kerf if the teeth are not sharp and cutting true. If you are relying on the width of the blade for support against the cutting pressure you are supplying then the blade is either not sharp enough or your feed rate is too high.

I regularly slice and slab logs to the full height of my 14" machine with a narrow 1/4 or 3/8 blade, (3-4 TPI.).
I do chose blades with extra set on the teeth though as kerf waste or surface finish is not significant for me to ensure that there is adequate kerf clearance to go with the tooth count debris handling.

 

[Ttrees]

I have a few new 3TPI blades ...
Their just not fast enough for my needs ..
Lots and lots of lengths of iroko to cut the profiles off, to convert into square stock for heavy Klausz, Scandinavian, Cosman, style workbench .quartersawn stock only for top ...a few 100kgs of it
Have to sift through to find it.
That's where my need for the hungry blade comes into play, because I need to do this fast and get outta there.
You know more about this than I do about the iroko .
I don't think its possible to get 1.3tpi blade in 5/8" to 3/4" width.
After the iroko comes about 200+kg of afrormosia ....
I do hope I'm not allergic to that stuff too ...similar wood, from Ivory coast/Ghana aswell .
And I'm allergic to the red meranti too 100kg , same place I believe it's sourced from aswell .
I would probably be dead if I went on holiday, with the amount of toxic stuff over there :lol:

 

[RobinBHM]

The only way to achieve fast cutting on a bandsaw is by having a large gullet to clear sawdust quickly enough. Wide band resaws usually have a a tooth spacing of about 1 1/2" on a 3" blade.

On a narrow blade bandsaw, the limiting factor is the strength of the bandsaw frame and its ability to fully tension a blade. Most small band saws wont be able to tension a blade bigger than 1/2" and you may find a better cut is achieved by using a narrower blade fully tensioned than a wider one under-tensioned.

Iroko often contains large amounts of tension in the boards before cutting, if you are cutting wide boards down in half say an 8" board into 3 pieces, there is a serious liklehood of significant movement as the rip progresses. A blade with as wide set as possible is advisable to limit risk of binding. Ive had circular saws and cross cut saws stopped by this issuse. Once it happens a hamme is the only way to get the timber back off.

 

[bracspin]

Have installed a SuperTuff Fastcut 3/4" blade based on Ian's recommendation. Sails through the 8" oak. Shows me how poor my previous blade was. Thanks for the advice.