Bahco Easy Cut "Universal" Bi-Metal Bandsaw Blades

[darkzero]

Anyone have any experience with these? I had no idea Bahco even made bandsaw blades. They claim their tooth design allows you to cut various shapes, sizes, & materials with the same blade. They don't specify a tooth count.

Kind of sounds gimmicky to me but Bahco usually makes decent stuff. I'm guessing maybe it's a finer variable tooth count that will allow you to cut thin material at the expense of speed for thicker materials? If you're not familiar with Bahco, their tools are more popular in Europe than in the US with many of their tools not available here. They are owned by Snap-On.

Was looking through the Travers mailer I got for this month & they are on sale. They are made to order, drop shipping from Bahco is free till the end of the year. Sale price is $10 cheaper than what I pay for Lenox bi-metal blades. I normally use 6-10T the most on my 7x12 but I also use 5-8T, 8-12T, & 10-14T. I'm good on blades for a while but for $30 I'm thinking about buying one just to kill my curiosity if no one has tried them.



Brand: BAHCO
Problem: Different materials and cutting jobs require a wide variety of specialized blades in the shop.
Solution: A patented tooth design works across nearly all materials so you can save on storage space and decrease downtime.
More Cutting Time With Less Blade-Changing

Spend more time cutting and less time changing blades thanks to the revolutionary and patented tooth design of this highly versatile, general purpose band saw blade. Now you can quickly cut through metal, steel and even non-ferrous materials like copper, aluminum, brass and plastic, all without any time-consuming interruption. The incredible blade strength allows cutting of shaped materials like bundles, pipes, profiles and castings, and even contours, all without worrying about the teeth being stripped of their cutting power. M42 tooth design is heat-resistant to ensure optimum performance job in and job out.

BENEFITS
Save time and money by reducing blade inventory, operator labor costs and machine down time

APPLICATIONS

• For general purpose sawing in tool rooms, machine shops, maintenance rooms, fabricating shops & welding shops.
• Cut tool steel, mild steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass, wood, plastic, sheet metal, tubing, solids & bundles.
• Also cut pipe channel, angle iron, I-beams, H-beams & drill rods.

FEATURES

• Available in the following widths: 1/2", 3/4", 1" & 1-1/4"
• Number of teeth per inch is considered universal.
• Free factory direct shipping charges in the continental US only until December 31, 2019.

 

[Nutfarmer]

Lenox have been one of the best i have run. If there is equal out there at a better price i haven't found it.

 

[mikey]

Never knew Bahco made blades, either. I have Bahco sockets and ratchets and they are quality tools. If you do go for it, do let us know what you think. I'm a Lenox fan, too, but its always good to keep an open mind about stuff.

 

[darkzero]

Yup, I love the Lenox blades, great performance & last me a long time. I used to use Irwin blades on my old 4x6 but only cause they were always on sale at Enco. I have no reason to change what I've been using but I'm curious about these blades. I don't understand how a bandsaw blade can be considered universal.

If I do decide to try one I'll be sure to report back here. Sale is good till the end of the month so plenty of time to decide or be convinced otherwise.

 

[Dabbler]

I consider their screwdrivers unmatched in the world. I'm sure their blades are at least in the 'best quality' category.

 

[darkzero]

Well I bought one. Went to Travers today to get me a new drill sharpener. It was on sale for $150 off so I couldn't resist.

I asked about the bandsaw blade & they actually had it in stock so I picked it up. Didn't look like anything special until I got home & had a closer look. Just looks like a typical raker type blade, no variable pitch, looks to be about 10 TPI or so. Every third tooth is at an offset angle with the leading 2 teeth straight. However the teeth don't have a straight profile like my Lenox blades, they have more of a curve to give them more rake. I think they call these hook teeth?

Not sure if I will ever buy another one but to be fair I haven't tried it yet. I'll report back after I have used it for a while.

Lenox 8-12T on top, Bahco Easy-Cut on bottom



Lenox 5-8T on top, Bahco on bottom








Sneak peak of my new drill sharpener.



And I got a free T-shirt with my order!

 

[Refuse1]

I am anxious to hear how you like it.

 

[darkzero]

I played around with the Bahco blade today. I measured it & it's 9 TPI, not sure if that varies with different blade sizes. The most comparable blade I have is 8-12 TPI but I also used a 6-10 TPI blade for comparision as I mainly wanted to see how fast the Bahco blade cuts.

I tested with 3.75" dia 6061 & 2" dia 1018. I cut dry & I used the same speed for all the cuts (bandsaw was set to 135 fpm so that's what I tested) & I used the same down feed pressure for each material. I know that's not a good way testing but that's all I had time for today. I didn't bother try cutting Ti or brass cause those materials are worth more to me than to just be wasting for tests. I don't have much 303 or 304, I only buy that as I need it.

Initially I'm not impressed with the Bahco blade. Seems like the Bahco blade needs to run fast. It cut's straight & cuts fairly well judging by the chips but it didn't cut smooth on my bandsaw. It made my bandsaw vibrate & make funny noises. Not severe vibrations or noises but non of my different pitch Lenox blades makes my bandsaw do this even with any of them all running at the same speed or whether too fast or too slow for the given material & size. Also with the 1018 & the Bahco I could see circles in the cut which reminded me of my old 4x6 that didn't have a hydraulic down feed cylinder. IIRC this is caused by the saw head bouncing/vibrating.

For these reasons I think the Bahco needed to run faster & is more sensitive to sfm probably due to the more positive rake of the teeth. Again none my Lenox blades do this & seem to care if ran too slow.

Of course my tests today weren't very good ones, just quick tests while I was working on something else in the garage. I was mainly testing to see how fast it cuts larger materials that calls for coarser blades. I'll do some more tests if you guys want me to try anything specific.

Due to the vibratiing I don't think I will keep this blade in use much, I still rather use my good ol Lenox blades & take the time to change blades when needed. But to be fair I need to test it more at different speeds & feed rates.

I took some pics of the chips but since this forum compresses photo attachments they don't show up very clear. I'll just post these.

 

[mikey]

Will, are those figures on the discs the time it took to cut them? If so, that's pretty slow compared to a Lenox 10-14 T variable pitch blade. I am now on year 5 on the same Lenox 10-14 T blade running on a Jet 5X6 HV bandsaw so I probably won't be switching blades - Lenox blades are difficult to beat. Thanks for the followup - that was helpful.

 

[darkzero]

Yes, they are the time it took to cut, 11 mins for the Bahco to cut 3-3/4" aluminum & 6 mins for the Bahco to cut 2" cold rolled steel. But FPM should have been faster for what I was cutting, speed was set to the 2nd slowest of 4 , I didn't feel like changing speeds. Again my main test was to see how long the Bahco would take to cut larger diameters since their claim is a universal blade. Regardless, I'm sticking to what I use.

Agreed, Lenox is still my go to & the next time I see a blade with better performance claims I'll ignore them so I guess that means there won't be a next time that I see something.