skinny blades work well

[sunnybob]

Theres a lot of questions asked about bandsaw blades, and a lot of comments about 1" blades not tight enough to cut wide timber, so I thought I would show an alternative idea.
Being mostly lazy, I never change my bandsaw blade untill it breaks.
Heres what can be acheived with a 3/16" x 10 tpi tuffsaws blade. This blade has already cut a lot of bubinga and walnut including my last two bandsaw box shapes.

20 cm x 5 cm bubinga plank x 31cm long. It clears the guide bearings by 2 mm.
I brushed the dust off for the second pic. It might not be veneer quality, but its perfectly adequate for further machining.

 

[MikeG.]

Yep, most domestic scale bandsaws can't properly tension wider blades. However..........10 TPI? I certainly wouldn't use something that fine for resawing. Given that everything which comes off the bandsaw requires planing (or sanding/ rasping/ scraping etc), it doesn't much matter how rough the finish is, so I can't see any argument for using a fine blade. I'm quite happy to use a 3 TPI blade......and like you, I keep the same blade in all the time (unless I happen to want to cut aluminium).

 

[sunnybob]

Mike, I cut everything with that blade, right down to 4 mm ply. you cant do that with 3 tpi.

yes, the blade wears out quicker, but I accept that because it saves me so much time swapping bank and fore. Just recently on here I've seen two threads where the tension mechanism has been destroyed by people trying to get 3/4 and 1" blades tight enough to resaw, and even a bowed bandsaw!.

the point is those big blades are just not needed in a hobby situation.
You can see in the background all my rusty wide blades that I havent used in over a year (and even the contentious GRRRIPPER!) :shock: 8)

 

[MikeG.]

Mike, I cut everything with that blade, right down to 4 mm ply. you cant do that with 3 tpi......

:lol: Well, you can, but it's not pretty.

 

[sunnybob]

I tried it, making xmas tree shapes for the local youth club kids to decorate :shock:
Thats why I dont use them anymore :roll:

 

[Rorschach]

1/4" 10tpi blade is what I use 99% of the time on my bandsaw, works fine.

I don't find they wear out that quickly, there are a lot more teeth after all to spread the wear out.

I only swap blades when I am cutting sandpaper or doing a lot of stock prep but that is only once a year or so.

 

[sunnybob]

Mine take a beating because i only work with hardwoods. Bubinga, padauk, walnut, beech etc. I think Maple is the easiest job it gets. =D>

 

[MikeG.]

Mine take a beating because i only work with hardwoods. Bubinga, padauk, walnut, beech etc. I think Maple is the easiest job it gets. =D>

Walnut, surely, is the easiest of all those on any blade.

 

[sunnybob]

I always select walnut with knots and swirls, because they look good on the boxes, so the blade has to cope with a lot more. whereas the maple is always straight grain.
I find the walnut "sawdust" is very granular and falls to the floor straight away, where the maple is so fluffy its almost like softwood dust and floats around for ages.

 

[novocaine]

you are right, I do need to buy a new blade, thanks for reminding me.

oh and all the other stuff.