- Joined
- Oct 20, 2014
- Messages
- 159
A bandsaw may be a simple tool, but it can become a major source of annoyance and bottleneck in your work and your enjoyment of your hobby if its taking forever to cut through thick stock.
You may have read that using a bimetal, low tooth per inch blade helps. But unless you've tried it, I bet you don't know just how INSANE the difference is. Yes INSANE.
I got my 8 year old Horrible Freight horizontal vertical bandsaw (yes the famous one everyone has), and first thing I did after tuning it up was try to cut through a block of 6061 using the typical 14 tpi carbon steel blade on it.
It could not have been more disappointing. After 5 minutes it had barely gone through 1/2" of a 3" thick block of 6061.
Purely by chance, I happened to have a 14 foot, brand new, 5 tpi, bimetal bandsaw blade that was 1/2" wide and 0.025" thick. I decided to see if somehow it would improve things so I cut it up and TIG welded it together to make a blade that would fit the little HF saw.
Then I tried the cut again.
UM. In 5 minutes it had cut through the ENTIRE 3" x 4" 6061-T6 block!!!
That right there turned the saw from a nearly useless tool into something much better than I expected.
I then tried 1018 steel and it was the same deal. I used the fastest speed on the pulleys. It cut through it like nothing, not much slower than the aluminum.
Just for a lark, I then tried cutting through a 1.5" thick by 5" wide 6al4V titanium block I had. And yes, still at the full speed pulley settings.
It cut through it in about 15 minutes!!
The chip clearance and cutting style with this blade is AMAZING. I've used the same blade for about 8 months and cut dozens of huge blocks of aluminum. Its worth EVERY penny and I would never buy another carbon steel blade. And all those dozens of huge aluminum chunks I've cut during the 8 months was done after my tests on the titanium and steel, BTW.
In the picture is what I believe was the tag that went on the blade.
There is a blade on ebay that I have in my "watch list" for when I need to get a replacement blade. I would hope it has the same performance, its bi metal, the right length for this saw, and about the same TPI. First to try it and report gets a high five!! Here it is: http://www.ebay.com/itm/370800913134?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
It should be noted that the high tooth count carbon steel blades still have uses..for instance cutting thin wall tubing where a low tooth count blade would catch and pull the tube.
You may have read that using a bimetal, low tooth per inch blade helps. But unless you've tried it, I bet you don't know just how INSANE the difference is. Yes INSANE.
I got my 8 year old Horrible Freight horizontal vertical bandsaw (yes the famous one everyone has), and first thing I did after tuning it up was try to cut through a block of 6061 using the typical 14 tpi carbon steel blade on it.
It could not have been more disappointing. After 5 minutes it had barely gone through 1/2" of a 3" thick block of 6061.
Purely by chance, I happened to have a 14 foot, brand new, 5 tpi, bimetal bandsaw blade that was 1/2" wide and 0.025" thick. I decided to see if somehow it would improve things so I cut it up and TIG welded it together to make a blade that would fit the little HF saw.
Then I tried the cut again.
UM. In 5 minutes it had cut through the ENTIRE 3" x 4" 6061-T6 block!!!
That right there turned the saw from a nearly useless tool into something much better than I expected.
I then tried 1018 steel and it was the same deal. I used the fastest speed on the pulleys. It cut through it like nothing, not much slower than the aluminum.
Just for a lark, I then tried cutting through a 1.5" thick by 5" wide 6al4V titanium block I had. And yes, still at the full speed pulley settings.
It cut through it in about 15 minutes!!
The chip clearance and cutting style with this blade is AMAZING. I've used the same blade for about 8 months and cut dozens of huge blocks of aluminum. Its worth EVERY penny and I would never buy another carbon steel blade. And all those dozens of huge aluminum chunks I've cut during the 8 months was done after my tests on the titanium and steel, BTW.
In the picture is what I believe was the tag that went on the blade.
There is a blade on ebay that I have in my "watch list" for when I need to get a replacement blade. I would hope it has the same performance, its bi metal, the right length for this saw, and about the same TPI. First to try it and report gets a high five!! Here it is: http://www.ebay.com/itm/370800913134?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
It should be noted that the high tooth count carbon steel blades still have uses..for instance cutting thin wall tubing where a low tooth count blade would catch and pull the tube.
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