lou sansone
09-03-2006, 4:29 PM
good afternoon WW's
I was wondering if any of you have tried to sharpen your bandsaw blades.
I have been pretty successfully in sharpening my band mill blades in the past, but I had not tried to sharpen my vertical bandsaw blades up until now.
I called timberwolf about sharpening them and they told me that blades under an 1" wide were disposable. So I figured "what the heck" and tried to sharpen my 1/2" tpi blade and low and behold it worked great( it actually seemed to cut better than when I get them fresh out of the box) . I lost a little kerf, but it is better than throwing the blade away. Due to the size of my saw, a single blade is ~ $48 direct from timberwolf. So if some of you are interested I can provide some photos to show how it is done with a dremel in about 20 minutes.
lou
ok ...... here are the photos and the method that I have used my band mill, and now on my shop band saw.
1. size the dremel bit so that it is just a scooch under the gullet diameter of the band saw blade. For what ever reason, the stones do not seem to last that long. I used 2 for a 20 foot blade, but they are only 75 cents each, so for $1.50 to sharpen my $48 blade that is not too bad
2. I keep the band on the saw while sharpening it. I use one hand to hold the blade and the other to run the dremel. Right or wrong, I keep the dremel at a right angle to all the teeth tips. I don't try to angle it one way or the other depending on which way the tooth is set ( unlike a chain saw blade where you do tilt the file )
3. I enter the gullet and sweep upward toward the tip of the blade. Basically as soon as you give the tip a good "kiss" with the stone you can drop back down and slide back down the gullet all the way down to the top of the lower tooth tip. I slide right off the lower tooth tip as if it was a "ski jump" for the dremel.
4. What you are doing is creating a new cutting edge for the tooth by sharpening the under side of the tooth tip and the top of it as well.
5. It sort of takes some rhythm to get going, but just keep in mind
"swing up till you kiss the top tip and swing down, and slide off the lower tip "
here is a quick and dirty cut with the blade after sharpening and cutting a bunch of other cherry stock. I free hand cut this board, without a fence, so it is a little wavy, but you can see the decent finish.
enjoy
Lou
I was wondering if any of you have tried to sharpen your bandsaw blades.
I have been pretty successfully in sharpening my band mill blades in the past, but I had not tried to sharpen my vertical bandsaw blades up until now.
I called timberwolf about sharpening them and they told me that blades under an 1" wide were disposable. So I figured "what the heck" and tried to sharpen my 1/2" tpi blade and low and behold it worked great( it actually seemed to cut better than when I get them fresh out of the box) . I lost a little kerf, but it is better than throwing the blade away. Due to the size of my saw, a single blade is ~ $48 direct from timberwolf. So if some of you are interested I can provide some photos to show how it is done with a dremel in about 20 minutes.
lou
ok ...... here are the photos and the method that I have used my band mill, and now on my shop band saw.
1. size the dremel bit so that it is just a scooch under the gullet diameter of the band saw blade. For what ever reason, the stones do not seem to last that long. I used 2 for a 20 foot blade, but they are only 75 cents each, so for $1.50 to sharpen my $48 blade that is not too bad
2. I keep the band on the saw while sharpening it. I use one hand to hold the blade and the other to run the dremel. Right or wrong, I keep the dremel at a right angle to all the teeth tips. I don't try to angle it one way or the other depending on which way the tooth is set ( unlike a chain saw blade where you do tilt the file )
3. I enter the gullet and sweep upward toward the tip of the blade. Basically as soon as you give the tip a good "kiss" with the stone you can drop back down and slide back down the gullet all the way down to the top of the lower tooth tip. I slide right off the lower tooth tip as if it was a "ski jump" for the dremel.
4. What you are doing is creating a new cutting edge for the tooth by sharpening the under side of the tooth tip and the top of it as well.
5. It sort of takes some rhythm to get going, but just keep in mind
"swing up till you kiss the top tip and swing down, and slide off the lower tip "
here is a quick and dirty cut with the blade after sharpening and cutting a bunch of other cherry stock. I free hand cut this board, without a fence, so it is a little wavy, but you can see the decent finish.
enjoy
Lou