4x6 blade life mystery

[homebrewed]

Call me cynical but I'm having a hard time giving a rat's arse what the blade life is when not following the guides that make it square to the work and not cutting anything. A previous post mentioned no tension spring but my HF 4x6 has one. I have no real way to measure the tension other than seat of my pants but I keep it set on the heavy side for narrow materials and just add weight to have the proper tooth load when cutting a larger footprint.

Since the blade guides add their own twist to the situation (pun), presumably blade life is a bit adversely affected by that. Presumably blade life is also a little bit affected by being used. If the blade life is not so great under the best-possible conditions, why wouldn't you be concerned?

 

[epanzella]

Since the blade guides add their own twist to the situation (pun), presumably blade life is a bit adversely affected by that. Presumably blade life is also a little bit affected by being used. If the blade life is not so great under the best-possible conditions, why wouldn't you be concerned?

I've been using these saws for 40 years and never had a problem with blades breaking. When the teeth turn into gums I replace the blade. I just don't care how long it takes to break a blade under conditions that don't exist in my shop.

 

[Navy Chief]

Call me cynical but I'm having a hard time giving a rat's arse what the blade life is when not following the guides that make it square to the work and not cutting anything. A previous post mentioned no tension spring but my HF 4x6 has one. I have no real way to measure the tension other than seat of my pants but I keep it set on the heavy side for narrow materials and just add weight to have the proper tooth load when cutting a larger footprint.

I'm with you. I am not sure what value this "data" is with the blade being tested in completely unrealistic conditions compared to real world usage. This is like a tire manufacturer claiming that their tires are good for over 100,000 miles as long as the tires are not used while in contact with the road.

 

[brino]

This is like a tire manufacturer claiming that their tires are good for over 100,000 miles as long as the tires are not used while in contact with the road.

....... but here it's the opposite; it's like the tires fail after 56 hours of "spinning in the air".

Why bother adding more compounding affects (blade guides and blade load for band-saw or vehicle weight and road surface for the tires).
We can fairly safely assume those extra stress conditions will not extend the life of the blade or tire.

It sounds like they are in the investigation stage where you remove potential causes until you're down to the root-cause of the failure.

Brian

EDIT: I gotta wonder about the grooves in the band-saw wheels. This is fundamentally different than most band saws where the wheels are crowned to help maintain the blade on centre.

 

[Navy Chief]

......

Why bother adding more compounding affects (blade guides and blade load for band-saw or vehicle weight and road surface for the tires).
We can fairly safely assume those extra stress conditions will not extend the life of the blade or tire.

It sounds like they are in the investigation stage where you remove potential causes until you're down to the root-cause of the failure.

But they are also adding variables by having modified wheels on the saw, the numbers are interesting but they don't tell us anything useful.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[mikey]

The second: the blade life vs. tension had an inverse relationship -- the higher the tension, the longer the life.

I find this interesting. I have a Jet 5X6 and my Lenox bimetal blades last well beyond 5 years. Some go near 10. I cut stuff only as needed so that might explain why my blades go for so long but I only use enough tension to keep the blade in place and cutting well. I definitely do not crank up the blade tension. It cuts within a thou or two of dead straight and has done so ever since I bought it.

I suppose this sort of blade tension info has some application somewhere but in a hobby shop, I think having a good chip brush is more important for blade life than cranking up the tension until the blade sings. Just an opinion, of course.

 

[homebrewed]

....... but here it's the opposite; it's like the tires fail after 56 hours of "spinning in the air".

Why bother adding more compounding affects (blade guides and blade load for band-saw or vehicle weight and road surface for the tires).
We can fairly safely assume those extra stress conditions will not extend the life of the blade or tire.

It sounds like they are in the investigation stage where you remove potential causes until you're down to the root-cause of the failure.

Brian

EDIT: I gotta wonder about the grooves in the band-saw wheels. This is fundamentally different than most band saws where the wheels are crowned to help maintain the blade on centre.

You are correct in that we ARE in the investigation stage. Removing components and observing the result is a fundamental part of troubleshooting. This is very common when you have a relatively complex system where all manner of malfunctions can occur.

When I performed failure analysis on integrated circuits I looked at signals in a blockwise manner -- does what's coming out, relative to what's going in, make sense? As a part of that I often fed a known signal into a circuit block. NO that is not how the part is used, but so what.

The grooves were added by the owner for an experimental purpose. Suspicion naturally falls there, but the fat lady hasn't sung yet