bandsaw blade help

[Brandon Speaks]

Hey guys, the trusty old blade on my grizz 14 inch saw went from great to barely cutting in an instant. I believe it was a 3/4 inch which I primarily used for rough cuts and recently some resaw of 3-4 inch stock. I am very certain that I did not hit anything to toast the blade, but it has served a long life so might just be done.

I am planning soon to invest in a few new blades but ideally after I add some riser blocks this winter. Right now I need something that can work for resawing 3-4 inch walnut.

Any tips on either trouble shooting my current blade or an affordable resaw blade for that saw to get me through until January.

[Van Huskey]

Hey guys, the trusty old blade on my grizz 14 inch saw went from great to barely cutting in an instant. I believe it was a 3/4 inch which I primarily used for rough cuts and recently some resaw of 3-4 inch stock. I am very certain that I did not hit anything to toast the blade, but it has served a long life so might just be done.

I am planning soon to invest in a few new blades but ideally after I add some riser blocks this winter. Right now I need something that can work for resawing 3-4 inch walnut.

Any tips on either trouble shooting my current blade or an affordable resaw blade for that saw to get me through until January.

There is some basic info on bandsaw blades in the sticky thread "Let's talk about bandsaw blades".

Standard carbon bandsaw blades can give up the ghost pretty quick but chances are it encountered something hard in the last cut.

I suggest staying away from 3/4" blades on 14" cast saws, they have limited tensioning abilities and while one can get decent results with a 3/4" blade usually a 1/2" will perform better. Since you are looking for something cheap to tide you over just get a Lennox Flexback 1/2" x .025" 3TPI Hook blade. While there are tons of sources for a single blade woodcraftbands.com is probably the most economical. They are about $10 plus shipping for your saw with no riser.

When you get the riser the best resaw blade for those saws is one of the induction hardened spring steel blades sold under various names Woodslicer/Blade Runner/Kerfmaster. They are not as cheap as the Flexback but still are inexpensive in the full world of bandsaw blades. There is more info in the sticky thread about these as well as the sources and relative prices.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Van about avoiding 3/4" blades on the smaller saws. Honestly, I rarely use them on my bigger saw...1/2" or 3/8" is what I typically have on the machine for general cutting including some resaw work.

[Mike Cutler]

Brandon

A 1/2" Timberwolf, or Woodslicer, will have you up and running pretty quick.

3/4" is too wide for a 14" band saw to tension properly, with few exceptions. It's highly doubtful that the stock spring in your bandsaw is capable of more that 9-10,000 psi,and even a Carter Cobra Coil will top out, actually "bottom out the spring", at about 12.5-13,000 psi. You need to start at the "theoretical" 15,000 psi, and go up from there for a 3/4" bandsaw blade. A 1/2" blade will require 8-9,000psi to be within the proper tension band.
If you have a carbon steel blade, they are great one moment, and gone the next. It's just how it is.
If you have a Dremel tool you can try to "touch up" the one you have, but it won't last long. A real good cleaning may help too.

[Doug Garson]

Lot's of youtube videos out there on resharpening bandsaw blades, if you just want to get a few months more use out of it might be worth a try. I know Matthias Wandel aka woodgears has done one.