band saw blade speed

[paul a rowsell]

My new 14" bandsaw has 3 speeds. I cannot figure out what speed to use. Is there something about wood thickness or type of wood or type of blade that sets up what speed you should run

Quebecnewf

[Glenn Vaughn]

From another forum:

For wood, run it at 100%
For non ferrous metals and plastics, run it at 75%
For other metals, run it 50%

[paul a rowsell]

so i should set the blade speed to the fastest speed and leave it there. All i will be cutting is wood. Correct??

[Van Huskey]

Yep, for wood, all wood just put 'er in high gear and roll!

[ian maybury]

Not 100% sure why, but when checking out wood cutting band saws of differing sizes recently it seemed that there is quite a range - with the larger/heavier 24 in industrial models running about double the blade speed (at about 1,650m/min) of your average 14in model.

This is clearly a big factor in the significantly faster cutting speed of larger band saws, but the required HP will increase in proportion. I'm guessing that the cost of a larger motor is a significant factor in smaller/cheaper saws not running higher blade speeds.

As the guys suggest cutting steel requires in comparison getting down to (from memory) ideally about 50 - 80m/min - far slower @ about 10% of the speed of a 14in saw.

ian

[Prashun Patel]

Perhaps this was (or I am) a fluke, but I've had better luck cutting thick green wood at lower speeds than at high. The blade slipped less. Granted, when I found the right type of blade to use, it worked at both speeds very well. However, I don't find the feed rate an issue at the low speed, and so that's what I've stuck with. I'm not sure what the downside of slow speed is.

[Josiah Bartlett]

If the blade is slipping you don't have nearly enough tension on your blade. If the blade is loading up with saw dust you either need a coarser blade or a different tooth design.

The actual blade speed is determined by the design of the teeth on the blade and what radius the metal can stand to be bent to around the wheels without heating up too much.