Bent a ¾” Lennox Tri-Master Bandsaw Blade Today!!!

[Chris Livingston]

:eek: I was trying to do things right with my brand-new carbide tipped Tri-Master today and I wanted to get the tension set correctly so I did what the other posts ( http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=22144&highlight=blade+tension+caliper ) and FWW talked about using the calipers clamped to the blade 5” apart yada yada yada.

Anyway had the tracking set for what I had been tensioning my blades to and after cranking it up as far as I could (which was only to .002 & I litereally could not get it to turn any more) I barely started turning the upper wheel by hand on my 20” saw (probably 2 or 3”and ping ping ping BANG PING CRASH!!! The blade shot off the wheel, bent in two places and broke off two teeth. Thought my saw had broke or at a minimum the blade had it was so loud.

Found out you have to track things a bit different when you get up to that kind of PSI; at least on my saw. Now I’ve got a blade that has about a 10” section that is wavy and it cuts like crap. Can a $166 blade be fixed? I bought it locally at place called Carbide Saw that does this stuff; can they cut out the bent section and re-weld it or am I out $166 plus another $166 for a new blade?

Thanks,

Chris

[Steve Clardy]

Wouldn't hurt to take it back and ask I guess.

Theres usually not a lot of hope for a bent bandsaw blade.:(

[Norman Hitt]

Chris, I agree with Steve, and while you're asking, if they don't recommend welding in a new short piece due to having two welds so close together, maybe they could just cut out the bad part and re weld it to fit a saw using a "Slightly shorter blade than your saw does. At least you could possibly sell it and put that on another new one for your saw.

Good Luck.

[Mike Cutler]

Sorry to hear that Chris. Those blades are expensive.

IIRC. Mark Singer was going to,or has had, a Tri Master repaired. You may want to PM him.

I like Normans idea to have the bent section removed and made into a smaller blade that you could sell to help offset your cost.

[Richard Wolf]

I can't help you with the blade, but why don't you try to explain what you think happened so other can avoid this.

Richard

[Mark Singer]

I had a 1" Trimaster re welded. If they are good, they should be able to cut out the section and add a piece and you will have 2 welds rather than one. I don't believe that much tension is necessary. I have had this set up for years and have resawed everything....hard exotics....maple...wenge ...Jatoba...teak..(still hate it:rolleyes: )...I don't have a tension gauge other than the one on the Agazzani saw...I look in the widow and set it to 20 or 25 and that is it. The reason the first blade broke was Trimaster was using a different steel tat was less ductile....now I detension each time. We have a local Lenox dealer , Industrial Blade and they can fix it I am sure.....unless the whole thing is tweaked. You will have to pay for the small section...by the inch

Industrial Blade & Product Co (http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&lr=&q=industrial+blade&near=Santa+Ana,+CA&radius=0.0&latlng=33745556,-117866944,4286093556780265914&sa=X&oi=local&ct=authority)
maps.google.com
2230 Ritchey St
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 557-4131

[Chris Livingston]

Called Carbide Saw today and they said they can definitely cut out the bad section and weld in a new one. Each new weld costs $5 and then $1.03 per inch they have to replace. The blade won't be as strong since it will have more welds but at least I won't have to buy a new one.

They did a great job on the welds on the two blades I bought so I'm confident they will do a good job again.

Wish I knew exactly what went wrong to warn people but all I know from testing other blades after this happened is the tracking adjustment has to be changed (at least on my Grizzly 20") as the tension gets higher.

[Roy Wall]

Chris,

I had a section of blade added to my trimaster - 154" to 171" from the folks at Industrial blade in Santa Ana (ref. Mr. Singer).

Smooth welds........so yours should be okay....

[David Rose]

Chris,

I would suspect that when you tensioned "until you could turn no more" that it was too tight. Very little out of round on the wheels would have to be absorbed by the band (and some slightly by the tires) as there would be no spring travel left! If the tracking was set for a lighter tension, that might have caused the band to jump the wheels.

I've had pretty good results with a little Delta 14 and a 1/2" Lenox carbide setting the saw to the "1/2" setting". And that is with the original spring. I do detension after each use. I think the high tension thing may be overplayed. Or maybe it is just that my 1/2" bands don't need as much as wider ones do. And I do use mostly rough wood, so resawing is often in the picture.

David


Called Carbide Saw today and they said they can definitely cut out the bad section and weld in a new one. Each new weld costs $5 and then $1.03 per inch they have to replace. The blade won't be as strong since it will have more welds but at least I won't have to buy a new one.

They did a great job on the welds on the two blades I bought so I'm confident they will do a good job again.

Wish I knew exactly what went wrong to warn people but all I know from testing other blades after this happened is the tracking adjustment has to be changed (at least on my Grizzly 20") as the tension gets higher.

[Todd Woodward]

My guess is that you were so worried about tensioning it properly that you didn't turn the wheels to check tracking as you tensioned it. This isn't a one time deal 9checking tracking). It must be done continuously when you are installing a new blade and tensioning it. Think about installing a new blade on your saw and just cranking up the tension. What are the odds that it'll actually stay on the wheel. All blades track differently, even from the same band material. You MUST check tracking, tension a bit, check tracking, tension a bit until you are sure that it will not track differently.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

What Saw is this?
Make Model?

[Chris Livingston]

Cliff it's the Grizzly G0507 20" 3HP saw. Was replaced a couple of years ago with the 21" G0566. Right after I got it home the new catalog came out with all the changes I wanted to see on my 20" and the same price.

Todd, I have used probably 6 or 7 different blades on this saw ranging from 3/8" up to 1" and never had to change the tracking but I had never tried to adjust the tension this much before. (I found that my tension scale never goes past the 20 mark on a 10-40 scale and actually moved backward as I got it up there).

Earlier on while cranking it up I was checking the tracking by turning the wheel but as it got really tight I stopped checking.

I'm almost thinking something did break or bend because when it happened the top wheel was out of whack but lifting it up put it back where it was but now things vibrate more. Guess I need to take the upper assembly apart and look for problems. Man I wish I had spent more and bought a MM. Have had too many problems on my "high end" Grizzly machines.

[Chris Livingston]

Well turns out about 1/2 the blade was bent to one degree or another and of course the original weld was in the section that was straight so it was not worth saving the whole thing. Had to spent another $166 on a new blade. Boy did I learn my lesson!

Anyone want to buy a slightly used 162" 3/4" carbide tooth blade that a little over 1/2 could be salvaged from?

[Steve Clardy]

Well sorry to hear that, but don't throw it away just yet.
Find you a knife maker and give it to him.
They love the material.
Mine here does the damascus thing with them.

[David Rose]

Steve,

I'll bet the carbide would add an interesting "flow" to the mix! :D

David


Well sorry to hear that, but don't throw it away just yet.
Find you a knife maker and give it to him.
They love the material.
Mine here does the damascus thing with them.

[Steve Clardy]

Steve,

I'll bet the carbide would add an interesting "flow" to the mix! :D

David


This guy grinds off all the teeth of the blades I take him.
Hmmm. Wonder if carbide would mix? Interesting.

[David Rose]

Naw, I doubt the carbide would melt at steel forging temps. It would make an interesting blade though. It might be a tad difficult to sharpen. :rolleyes: But most guys probably don't use their damascus blades anyway.

David


This guy grinds off all the teeth of the blades I take him.
Hmmm. Wonder if carbide would mix? Interesting.

[Norman Hitt]

Heck, I'd just keep the blade and then if you ever need a few inches to repair another Trimaster, you won't have to pay the $xxx/inch and all it will cost you is the welding fee.

[Frank Fusco]

Unlikely the machine can be blamed. From your own description of events, "too much" was simply too much.

[Chris Livingston]

Frank I agree, this was almost all user error on my part.

One of the things I found, and fixed, on my saw once I took the top assemble apart was the the bracket holder (#84) that sits in the slot welded in the frame of the saw had about an 1/8" of play side to side and about a 1/16" front to back at the top where it should only pivot.

The rest of these I haven't fixed yet. The blade tension shaft (#78) has a large washer welded just below the end of the threads and it was welded at an angle so the thrust bearing below (#79) doesn't ride smoothly and the threads on the shaft and the threads in the arbor bracket (#75) it runs through are very very sloppy. This combined with the slop in the movement of the arbor bracket as it slides up and down in the bracket holder make it so I ca rock the wheel in and out 1/4" or more when I grab the wheel on the side edges and move it.

Plus I can not get the tension gauge to show much of anything until I have the tension cranked way way way up there and I'm lucky if it will read 15.