Olson Band Saw Blades

[Doug Whitson]

Here is an email I sent to Olson after two of their blades failed at the weld.

"
I am a home hobbyist with a Grizzly G0555 14" Band saw with a riser. I recently bought two 105" - 3/16" - .o25 Ga. - 10 tpi - AP22429 - Scroll blades in anticipation of using them for my coffee table and end tables projects. I'm using 12/4 black walnut that is clear and has been rendered into 3x3x19" pieces for the cabriole legs. I installed one of your blades at the beginning of the project making sure to track, adjust the guides and properly tension the blade. I made templates out of 1/4" hard board, one leg from cherry and one from redwood. Satisfied with the results I was able to produce two legs from the walnut when the first blade broke at the weld. I installed the second blade, checked the tension, tracking and guides. Four legs later your blade broke at the weld. "


And here is their response : "

Hello,
If the saw was set-up correct as you had written then the only thing I could think could be wrong was the weld still brittle after annealing?
We bend test all bands at the welds after the welding and annealing (to soften the weld) process to catch any potential brittle welds and possibly a couple got through? What is your address and we’ll send out a couple replacements.
Thank you


I'd say that was pretty good service. No affiliation, just thought I would pass along some good news for a change :)
Later,

Doug in AZ.

[Eddie Darby]

Interesting. Probably a few others have the same blades, since two broke back to back. Nice to know that Olson stand behind their product! Thanks for the post.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Most manufacturers gaurentee the weld for the life of the blade. It is nice that they sent replacements without having to return old / failed ones.

[Mark Singer]

In my smaller BS , I am using the MVP Olson....excellent blade!

[Morton Heller]

By your smaller saw - what size do you mean?
I have a 14" Jet. Will the MVP work in a saw with 14"wheels, and what sort of cut does it give you?

[glenn bradley]

I love good CS stories.

[J Simpson]

How common is it for bandsaw blades to break at the weld?

I broke the blade that came with my Sears 22401 (14") bandsaw a couple of weeks ago, and assumed that it must be normal and due to wear and/or my over-tensioning. The blade had seen a lot of use, including cutting many bowl blanks from rough green logs with bark still on.

[Mark Singer]

How common is it for bandsaw blades to break at the weld?

I broke the blade that came with my Sears 22401 (14") bandsaw a couple of weeks ago, and assumed that it must be normal and due to wear and/or my over-tensioning. The blade had seen a lot of use, including cutting many bowl blanks from rough green logs with bark still on.

I think many people over tension...it is not necessary! A lot of the fancy gauges give incorrect info...

[Jim Grill]

I think many people over tension...it is not necessary! A lot of the fancy gauges give incorrect info...

I think that's quite true. Especially the spring type gauge that comes stock on a BS. They are useless for accurately tensioning the blade.

Several manufacturers (TW & Olson both) provide good information on proper tensioning.

Basically you loosen the tension until the blade starts to flutter and then tighten a little at a time until the blade stops to flutter. Tighten one full turn after that and you're done. Ignore the spring gauge. I've found I need very good lighting to perform this task accurately.

TW has this information on their web site and they also recommend backing off all the guides before performing the operation.

It helps to have a quick release since going through this operation takes time and pretty much all manufacturers recommend relieving tension when not in use.

I'll admit that I tend to use more tension than is probably necessary for resawing. I was taught to do it that way and bad habits are harder to break than a band saw blade! :D