Any tips on soldering a new bandsaw blade?

Re: Any shtips on soldering a new bandsaw blade?

Kernbigo said:
A friend gave me mine, but i see it is listed on ebay. The thinner the better and a very small amount. You first flux both sides of the angles ground on the blades, then insert the silver solder between the blade ground angle. Then heat up tell it melts, let it cool then heat back up tell it is blue, to draw it back and then grind tell the thickness it around the thickness of a blade or a little larger.
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So you put the silver solder between the parts and not heat it up and let it wick in like soldering copper pipes?
 
yes just put the heat to the blades and it will flow to both pieces
 
Cadillac STS said:
I got a Wellsaw 46 on Craigslist for $40. The man had it since new. It came with a blade on it and a roll of uncut blade material and he had a jig and a life time worth of silver solder to put them together. He gave me a quick run down on how to do it, use a bench grinder to narrow half inch of each side put it in the jig and silver solder it. I tried that but couldn't get the splice to be small enough. Blade needs to end up 59 1/4 long.

I did see a youtube video on a way that someone uses but thought I'd throw the question out here to see if anyone else has any suggestions.
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I would cut the blade stock 60". Use the side of the wheel to grind away about half the thickness of the blade and 3/8" long.Repeat for the other end. The hard solder I use is .004 thick, so the finished blade when held together should ideally be less the thickness of the hard solder tape. I rarely get it perfect but works anyway.
Install in your jig,flux both sides of the half lap joint,insert a 3/4" length of tape and heat til the solder flows.
After the solder has hardened,maybe a couple of minutes I heat the joint to temper the steel.Being somewhat color blind I guess how long to hold the heat on the blade. Probably at least half the time it took to get the solder to flow the first time.I do not have a fancy jig,just a piece of angle iron with a 10" long straight piece of aluminum I milled to allow the blade to be clamped in a straight line . The joint is held tightly with a 10/24 screw tapped in the aluminum.Hard solder won't stick to the aluminum.
If you have a problem grinding the blade,try a file instead.First hot glue or wonder glue the ends to a scrap metal.
Clamp a guide half the width of the file to the jig. This way you will remove metal from both sides at the same time.
File away til it looks like you are done.If you file a few thou undersize it's better than not enough.I have not used a file myself but have seen others use it.

mike
 
I am still a bit confused. Wondering if these are lap joints or butt joints ? If butt joints are you grinding the ends on an angle like a V ? If lap joints then we you are thinning the blade to lap and solder. Guess I just get this mixed because it sounds like both ways are suggested in the post. Want to learn to do this. The jig looks easy to make and can understand the importance for it to hold well soldering. Where do you but the solder and flux?
 
I have found I have better luck using a file to taper the blade. I don't use a guide, I just file a long taper(1/2 inch or so) on both ends. My silver solder is 1/16 round. I flatten it out with a hammer till its about 5 or 10 thousands thick. Put a tiny piece between the joint. When clamped, I bend each end of the blade in the direction to keep them tightly together. Flux the joint before clamping. I use the angle iron jig every body seems to use. Heat with propane torch till solder flows, clean up joint with Dremel and use. I never temper. I haven't had a joint fail.
 
This is a simple jig i made to solder blades. You need blade material,sheet silver solder, flux and a touch. Grind a bevel on the blade material around 45 degree, place in jig, flux between blade and place a small amount of silver solder in there also. Heat up tell in melts, let it cool back down and re heat tell it turns blue to anneal it. Grind down both side tell they are close to the blade thickness.

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Chip Maker said:
I am still a bit confused. Wondering if these are lap joints or butt joints ? If butt joints are you grinding the ends on an angle like a V ? If lap joints then we you are thinning the blade to lap and solder. Guess I just get this mixed because it sounds like both ways are suggested in the post. Want to learn to do this. The jig looks easy to make and can understand the importance for it to hold well soldering. Where do you but the solder and flux?
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Lap joints. The usual way is a scarf joint, I do better with a half lap myself. SRI ( Stan Rubenstein Industries ) is my supplier, they are on the web. Order narrow silver solder strips ,3/8" wide .004 thick is fine. Also order the correct flux for the solder. Heat from the bottom with a propane torch til the solder runs. I never reheated the joint after soldering to temper. Haven't had any issues either. The different jigs other posts show all will work fine. If you will use the blade within a few days after soldering no need to clean the excess flux off. If not remove any flux you see with a scotch brite pad. The flux is brushed on both ends of the blade ,the solder tape is sandwiched in between. I use an acid brush like you use for glue or even an old artist brush if you want. One other thing, It is easy to over heat the joint, use a propane torch not Mapp. The metal will turn red and the solder will flow. Only takes a very short time to heat the joint, usually about 30 seconds.
mike
 
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