Minimum Blade Thickness for Large Bandsaw

[Kenneth Casper]

I just purchased a used Bridgewood 540 bandsaw and am wondering if there is a minimum width of blade I can use on this saw. I have a nice 1 1/4" carbide tipped blade for resawing, but this saw runs so well and has such a big table, I'd also like to use the bandsaw for more general tasks. I have the manual, but it mentions nothing about a minimum blade width. The tensioner shows a recommended tension for 1/4" blades, and I know I can buy 1/4" blades of the proper length. Do you see any reason I couldn't use a 1/4" blade on this saw?

Thanks,

Ken

[Howard Acheson]

You could give them a call but I can think of no reason that a smaller blade could not be used. The limit on the blade size is on the large end. As long as the blade can be controlled by the guides, the size is not an issue.

[Stephen Cherry]

I just purchased a used Bridgewood 540 bandsaw



No pictures, didn't happen. But, hypothetically, I'm pretty sure the bridgewood had the euroguides, similar to the ones that are on my Agazzani, which are not too great for 1/4 inch. There have been threads about this, if you want to search. A little wider is OK though.

[glenn bradley]

If you do indeed have this theoretical saw (lack of pics jab), I would concern myself with the guides ability to run the blade more than the wheels, etc. Can your guides be adjusted properly with a theoretical 1/4" in place; thrust comes forward enough? Guides will hae enough material present (this is a diameter question) if positioned just behind the gullet of a 1/4" blade? You could run a piece of tape from the top wheel to the bottom through the guide area with a line 1/4" from the rear edge and estimate ;-)

[Kenneth Casper]

Sorry Gents, I'm new around here. I didn't know pictures were a requirement! I'll include some pix below. The upper guide is a Carter after market guide, which looks like it could certainly handle a 1/4" blade. The lower guide appears to have enough room for the thrust bearing to move forward for a shallower blade. I would like to get a 1/4" blade, but perhaps 3/8" is a safer bet.

Unfortunately Bridgewood is no longer around. I think the saw is similar to the modern Felder 540, but snooping around Felder's website didn't enlighten me much.

I have a Delta 14" that a gentleman wants to buy. I was going to keep it around with the smaller blade. But my shop doesn't have a lot of room, and this beast stands out like it is king of the place. The Bridgewood has such a nice big table and runs so smoothly that I would feel guilty using it only for the occasional resaws.

Thanks for insight,

Ken

http://www.casperguitar.com/misc/photos/IMGP0896-1.jpg

[Rick Fisher]

Well..

I cant say for sure, but I have an older 24" saw.. I bought a 3/8" Blade and could never get it to stay on the wheels.. I run a 1" Carbide and its no problem at all..

My wheels are flat and the blade hangs over the edge of the wheels.. The 3/8" blade wants to do the same thing.. which is a big part of the problem..

Always wondered if the arched tires where more suitable for smaller blades.. ?? Again.. no idea.

One day when I have more space, I figure I will just get a small saw for small blades, or at least a different saw..

[Stephen Cherry]

Sorry Gents, I'm new around here. I didn't know pictures were a requirement! I'll include some pix below.

Looks like a great saw! Can you say how much you payed?

The problem I see with this type of guide for really narrow blades is that the blade doesn't have enough of a flat side for the guide to support. There is at least one thread that goes in to this not too long ago, if you want to search. I think someone put together a guide that looked like it would work well for narrow blades.

[David Kumm]

It looks like the guides should have enough adjustability for the blade. You can get aftermarket guides relatively cheap. You have a good saw. The bridgewood was the heavier acm italian saw with a pretty good box frame support. I doubt the spring in the saw can tension the 1 1/4 blade very well. You can upgrade that but I would be careful not to bottom out the spring when tensioning that blade. It will cause it to break pretty quickly. The euro saws generally don't crown their tires so tracking can be more fussy. Dave

[Bill White]

A 1/4" general purpose blade is my go-to. You could also consider a 3/8", but the smaller blade will give you more versatility. A 1 1/4" blade will be fine if you're gonna saw cars in two. I'll stick with the 1/2" WoodSlicer for resaw work.
Bill

[Kirk Poore]

A 1/4" blade should work fine, as long as you can adjust your thrust bearings far enough forward. I use a 1/4" blade as my main blade on my 30" saw. If the blade won't stay in one spot, the tires probably need to be crowned.

Kirk

[Bobby Knourek]

Your saw has the Carter ''guide all 500'' and can handle blades down to 1/8''

But be carefull if your wheels are heavy the start up can do damage to the tires.
(due to the narrow bands footprint on the wheel, your tiny blades can snap and tangle.)

1/4'' blades will not be a problem.

[Kenneth Casper]

Hey you gents are great! Glad to hear I can get a smaller blade to work. My 14" Delta just left with its new owner! Thanks for all the feedback! Perhaps the thing to do is get a good, but not over the top expensive 1/4" blade and try it out.

>> David: Regarding tensioning the 1 1/4" blade, the tensioner gauge has a setting for this and even thicker blades. The previous owner ran the 1 1/4" for resawing and had zero issues with it. I resawed some 10" koa last weekend, and the blades sliced right through it. Man it left a smooth surface. I need to do some reading up on adjusting for the blade drift and resawing in general. I'm resawing some pretty expensive woods, and I want to maximize the yield as much as possible.

>> Bobby: I only have the nice Carter guide on the upper. I still have the stock guide on the bottom. Not sure why the previous owner didn't swap them both out. Maybe that really isn't necessary. You can see pix below.

>> Kirk: The tires are not crowned. I presume that most of these bigger saws that handle large blades don't use crowned tires.

>> Stephen: I searched through the forum and found a few threads on using smaller blades on bigger saws, but I didn't find them overly enlightening. I'll do some more poking around. I tell you what I paid for the saw, but I don't want any ribbing that I over paid! I dropped 1350 on it. It came with the Lenox 1 1/4" carbide tipped blade, which is in great shape and has never been re-sharpened. The seller was supposed to have had a brand new 1" carbide tipped Lenox blade, but he couldn't find it when I went to pick up the saw. The seller had the saw listed for 1800 for several weeks with no takers. He really felt that was right price for this saw. Given the saw hadn't sold, he offered to go down to 1500, but I felt that was still too high. He eventually came down to 1350, which was still more than I wanted to pay, but I figured another used saw of comparable caliber my not come up for weeks or months so we agreed on that price. The saw had been used, but apparently only lightly and hadn't been used for about 10 years. It really is in stellar shape for a 15 year old saw.

Ken

http://www.casperguitar.com/misc/photos/IMGP0898-2.jpg
http://www.casperguitar.com/misc/photos/IMGP0900-3.jpg

[Stephen Cherry]

Ken- these saws are few and far between. If you ever get the impression that you overpaid, check lagunas price on a similar size saw. My Agazzani guides are like your bottom guide. I've thought about upgrading the guides, but have decided the euroguides are pretty good enough for my purposes.

[Stephen Cherry]

Here's a narrow blade post
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?108511-Shopmade-Small-Blade-Guide-for-Bandsaws

[Eiji Fuller]

Ive got the Felder 540 which is pretty much the same machine I think. both made by ACM? I run a 1/4" blade often but instead of the ceramic guides I made some wood blocks with holes to attach to the laguna guide block and a shallow kerf cut in with a japanese handsaw with a blade which happenned to have the same blade thickness as the band. The band rides in the kerf about 3/32" deep and is free to make some tight turns.

I did this because all my blades run right at the very front of the tires with the teeth hanging over and there wasnt any way to adjust my guides that far to the front. didnt want to adjust the wheels either since I like how it runs with the big blades

[David Kumm]

Ken. you did really well. The carbide blades go for about 200 alone so keep the seller looking. Lenox recommends a high tension on those carbide blades-20,000 to 30,000 psi which is off your guide chart. The proof is that yours works so that says you have a good smooth saw. My old oliver 217 can't tension that high-due to the spring- not the cast iron frame- but it resaws well also. The carbide takes a big bite so it needs more power than a bimetal type blade. The varitooth gives a good finish. Well done. Dave

[Bill White]

Oh! Don't get "thickness" and "width" mixed up. Big difference there.
Bill

[Eric McCune]

It's all about the guides. Here's a photo from Jesse at Eagle Tools. This is running on an Agazzani B20.

file:///C:/Users/Eric/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.png186814