Can or will surface rust on a blade affect a bandsaw's efficiency?

[Stadler le Roux]

I've been looking at buying myself a proper BS for some time now to replace the little one in my Emco-Star combination machine and went to look at a 2nd-hand one today. It's not a brand name by any stretch of the imagination, but it's got quite a lot of capacity and seems to be in very good condition. Looking at the prices of new saws, I think I would've had to be happy with a 14", but this is a 16" selling at more or less the same price as it's 14" sibling new, ie 42,5% cheaper than its own price new, which is pretty tempting indeed!

It has a 2 hp motor and herein lies the reason for my question: I stupidly only tried one cut with it, ripping about a 1 1/2" or so thick piece of meranti, but I was honestly less than impressed with the difficulty I was having to push that little piece of wood through. I thought the blade, with that much power behind it, would go through the wood like butter! I now regret not trying out more cuts; cross-cuts and maybe even curved ones, because maybe that would cleaned the blade up somewhat and it might've needed less effort to get it through the wood? I don't really know how sharp or dull the blade was, but the saw in general seems to have seen very little use, so I can't imagine that the blade alone could've been that dull to have made much of a difference already, so while thinking about it tonight I thought about the extra friction that could perhaps be caused by surface rust. Any ideas?

[Lee Schierer]

The first thing you should do with a new band saw or a used one is replace the blade. Factory blades are notoriously poor quality and you don't know if the last cut on a used saw was to cut apart a cast iron stove.

[Brian Tymchak]

Agree with Lee. That blade has probably been abused.

Regarding your original question though, my experience with a brand new blade with rust on it was that it caused no degradation in performance.

[mike calabrese]

If the saw ran smooth and relatively quiet and looked as good as you said buy it.
Blades are replaceable and relatively very inexpensive, buy the saw ditch the blade, go make something.
calabrese55

[Bill Dufour]

Unless the rust is thicker then the saw kerf no effect at all. Possible minor effect in a very tight curve.
Bill D

[Mel Fulks]

The band (not the music one ) could have too many teeth per inch . I like no more than 2 or3 per inch.

[Stadler le Roux]

The first thing you should do with a new band saw or a used one is replace the blade. Factory blades are notoriously poor quality and you don't know if the last cut on a used saw was to cut apart a cast iron stove.

OK, I did try to respond last night when your post was still the only one here - maybe I should've mentioned that I'm in South Africa :o - but somehow my response never appeared in the thread, so here goes again: I looked for the correct length blade for this saw online, and could find only two places supplying it off the shelf; the chain of stores selling this particular no-name brand, and a German company with a local presence by the name of Knuth. That's not to say I wouldn't be able to have it made up, of course, as there are several companies here who'll make up blades to any length you may require, and they're the preferred supplier of blades for many woodworkers, professional and otherwise, but I'm concerned about the size of the wheels, in case I should want to fit new tyres as well. I understand they can also make quite a difference to the stability of the blade while running? I haven't found anyone who makes tyres to order yet, but maybe I'm just looking in the wrong spots? Or do ALL BS wheels come in a variety of standard sizes? I don't find the size of this saw's wheels anywhere in the manual or store advert.

[Lee Schierer]

Tires for sixteen inch wheels are available as a standard product. Carter Products, Sulphur Grove, Rockler, Amazon and McMaster Carr in the U.S. and, Desert Cart (https://www.desertcart.co.za/search/16%22%20band%20saw%20tires) and Wantitall (https://www.wantitall.co.za/tools/urethane-band-saw-tires-fits-16-x-1-1-4-walker-turner-16-super-duty-bandsaw-wheel-tires-made-in-the-__b08fzg5n8b) in your part of the world. I'm not sure which suppliers would ship to your location.

[Curt Harms]

Tires for sixteen inch wheels are available as a standard product. Carter Products, Sulphur Grove, Rockler, Amazon and McMaster Carr in the U.S. and, Desert Cart (https://www.desertcart.co.za/search/16%22%20band%20saw%20tires) and Wantitall (https://www.wantitall.co.za/tools/urethane-band-saw-tires-fits-16-x-1-1-4-walker-turner-16-super-duty-bandsaw-wheel-tires-made-in-the-__b08fzg5n8b) in your part of the world. I'm not sure which suppliers would ship to your location.

Another thing to consider is if the wheels are really 16" or the 'about' 16" ' metric equivalent. I don't know but wouldn't be surprised if machines not made in or sold in the U.S. use metric dimensions.

[Richard Coers]

The teeth touch the wood, the rust doesn't. Blade is likely very dull.

[andy bessette]

If mentioning the actual brand name is too embarrassing, don't buy it.

[Stadler le Roux]

Tires for sixteen inch wheels are available as a standard product. Carter Products, Sulphur Grove, Rockler, Amazon and McMaster Carr in the U.S. and, Desert Cart (https://www.desertcart.co.za/search/16%22%20band%20saw%20tires) and Wantitall (https://www.wantitall.co.za/tools/urethane-band-saw-tires-fits-16-x-1-1-4-walker-turner-16-super-duty-bandsaw-wheel-tires-made-in-the-__b08fzg5n8b) in your part of the world. I'm not sure which suppliers would ship to your location.

Oh, woe is me...! :o:p:o It finally dawned on me while reading your comment earlier today that obviously all saws with a certain capacity ito width of the table would probably have the same size wheels, right! Duh... :p

[Stadler le Roux]

The teeth touch the wood, the rust doesn't. Blade is likely very dull.

Might very well be, but I've also come to realise that it probably wasn't a ripping blade at all. :)

[Stadler le Roux]

Another thing to consider is if the wheels are really 16" or the 'about' 16" ' metric equivalent. I don't know but wouldn't be surprised if machines not made in or sold in the U.S. use metric dimensions.

You know, it's strange, but just about all saws' capacities sold here are indicated in inches, while many will also list both inches and millimetres. Could be because we've only been metric since the early '70s.

[Stadler le Roux]

If mentioning the actual brand name is too embarrassing, don't buy it.

:D I didn't mention the name, because I didn't think it would mean anything to anyone here. Apart from the really highly regarded brands such as Jet, Laguna and Felder/Hammer, ito larger machinery, we have names here such as Martlet (sort of nearer to the top of the bottom of the pile), Toolmate, Eurasia and Mac-Afric, this last one being the brand of the one which I've just let the seller know I'd like to buy.