bandsaw blade repair -LV kit?

[Ken Platt]

Folks -

I have a couple broken BS blades. They both have some life left in them, both 1/2, 3 or 4 tpi, and sharpenable. I see LV has a repair kit. Anyone used this, or similar? Does the repair last? The kit runs $33, but if I can repair these two and some subsequent breaks that surely will happen, might be worth the money/time/effort.

I tend to be one of those who wants to repair everything, so feel free to tell me it's not worth it....

Ken

[Paul Atkins]

I silver braze most of my blades. I get a box of stock and make up my own length. I have had more problem with the 'factory' welds breaking than my joints. I also like to tension my blades tight. I fix friends blades too. Go for it.

[Kirk Poore]

Folks -

I have a couple broken BS blades. They both have some life left in them, both 1/2, 3 or 4 tpi, and sharpenable. I see LV has a repair kit. Anyone used this, or similar? Does the repair last? The kit runs $33, but if I can repair these two and some subsequent breaks that surely will happen, might be worth the money/time/effort.

I tend to be one of those who wants to repair everything, so feel free to tell me it's not worth it....

Ken

It works well to keep the blade ends aligned, and the instructions are pretty good. I've used it a few times, on both narrow and wide blades, and I've been quite satisfied.

Kirk

[Tom Walz]

Price isn’t bad. Jig is a little flimsy.

By ‘silver solder’ they should mean ‘silver braze alloy’ that melts around 1300 F. Not sure now well that jig will stand up to that heat.

The difference between solder and braze alloy is that solder is generally a material that melts over 800 F.

From the picture it looks like a braze alloy with white flux. If they offer it, a black flux will work better. (They really are just called white and black flux.) It has a higher working range is more forgiving and has extra cleaning properties.

Low temp solder might work. I wouldn’t use it but all our stuff is heavy industrial work.

You should put a scarf joint on the ends of the band saw blade.

There was a really good discussion about this recently on practicalmachinist.com