Which bandsaw blade

Variable Pitch blades have alternating sets of different sized teeth to provide a fast cut with a smooth finish, ideal for joinery and cutting curves. A raker tooth set has one tooth going to the left, one to the right, followed by a straight, or unset, tooth, which is called a raker.

An alternate tooth set has one tooth going left, one going right, then left, right, etc. There is no raker tooth. The double alternate plus raker has an unset raker tooth following two left-right combinations. A wavy tooth set has groups of teeth set left and right, separated by unset raker teeth. Wavy set blades are made primarily with the small teeth recommended for cutting thinner metal sections, tubes, pipes, thin sheets, etc.

Choosing an appropriate set provides a balance between sawdust and air in the space between the body of the saw blade and the material it is cutting. The sawdust should be warm to the touch, not hot or cold. This creates hot, packed sawdust and leads to short cutting times and premature blade breakage. This is about the worst thing you can do for your bandsaw blade. Knowing the SFM for the various settings of your bandsaw allows you to select the proper speed for the material you want to cut.

You should find the SFM settings in your owners manual. Using the correct size blade is essential to the performance of your bandsaw. More accurately, this should be called flutter setting. The objective is to set the correct tension in a more dynamic way, while the bandsaw is running. Blades get hot from cutting.

They expand and contract and, over time, can even over tension themselves. Like getting a flat spot on your tires from sitting in one spot for too long, leaving your blade under tension, strapped around the drive wheels, creates a memory in the steel that could lead to premature failure from metal fatigue.

Leaving the band tight on the saw also distorts the crown and flattens the drive tires, making them very hard. Tension also stresses the motor, shaft V-belt and drive pulleys. Never use water as a lubricant on bandsaw blades —or any other blades, for that matter. Water is not a lubricant. It can rust and damage the body and gullets of the bandsaw blade as well as the material being cut.

There are a number of products available that are designed to specifically to lubricate blades, bits and cutting tools. Bostik makes an aerosol called Dri-Cote, which lubricates and protects all types of cutting tools with its dry film technology. There are also solid compound cutting bars and sticks that you run against the blade to add lubrication.

Remember to always apply lubricant to BOTH sides of the blade. Re-apply about every minutes when the sound of cutting increases again. This concoction is reported to provide longer band life, as well as prevent rust, pitting and pitch buildup! The other interesting product used for band lubrication is PAM the spray-on vegetable shortening used in cooking. Unplug the machine, spray PAM on a rag and wipe both sides of the blade while turning the upper wheel by hand. Whatever method you use, lubricating your bandsaw blade body can increase its life by over 30 percent.

In each of the above cases, when applied sparingly, you can cut grade lumber with NO staining. Bandsaws are complex pieces of machinery that require periodic adjustments for wear of the bandsaw itself as well as the blade.

And if all else fails? Check out the great selection of bandsaw blades at the KMS Tools online woodworking department. Excellent way of explaining, and good paragraph to get data regading my presentation subject, which i am going to present in college.

Wish you had a store in Sydney. Australia, that is. Thank you! This will depend on the type of work you intend to do, i. Generally, a skip tooth blade is used for rip cutting, whereas a regular or triangular tooth blade is for cross cutting. The skip tooth is provided on coarse tooth blades, those with 3, 4 and 6 teeth per inch; it has a wide shallow gullet with plenty of space for waste to collect.

Please note that the quality of the cut can be adversely affected by sawdust packing between the teeth. Used for deep cutting especially rip cuts. This blade will leave a rough sawn finish although slow feed rate and high tension will improve the finish of the cut. Good for general-purpose use with a degree of cutting across the grain and with the grain. A reasonable finish can be achieved with slower feed rates and good tension. The ideal general purpose blade suitable for cross cutting up to mm and ripping in sections up to 50mm thick, although thicker sections can be cut using slow feed.

The regular, or triangular, tooth form is provided on blades with 10 or more teeth per inch where, because of the reduced material removal, there is less need for waste storage. Good for cutting plywood and MDF as well as non-ferrous metals and plastics.

The finish is good when cutting natural timbers, but the feed rate should be slow and maximum depth of cut should not exceed 50mm. When cutting metals, reduce the speed as much as possible especially when cutting ferrous metals or cast iron. A very clean cutting blade for plywood, plastics and MDF, although too fine for natural timbers unless they are very thin sections sub 25mm thick. The 14tpi and above blades are very good to use at slow speeds when cutting non-ferrous metals.

A slow feed speed should be used at all times with a blade tooth pitch this fine. Blades with variable pitch teeth tpi, tpi and tpi are also available for wider ranging applications see Premium Bandsaw Blades. Now you have made the three basic choices, we will guide you through the types of blades that we offer. Depending on the length of blade required, it can be an easy choice or a little more complex. This is because small machines need a highly flexible blade to accommodate small diameter wheels and relatively low power motors.

This newly developed material is designed for the production user with high feed rates of cutting and is ideally suited to the rigours of running on two wheels.

The GT range is designed for general purpose board and cross grain cutting work. Its sister range for rip cutting is the Freshcut The teeth are precisely diamond ground, before going through a hardening process, then annealed for flexibility and finally the stock straightened by a machine process. This produces a super sharp, hard tooth, with the benefits of a long cutting life and a smooth, quiet cut. The teeth have a light set which gives a narrow kerf and reduces the waste produced whilst the hook configuration provides maximum penetration.

These blades are perfect for ripping all types of timber, producing veneers and boards, the ground teeth retaining their edge far longer than normal milled tooth blades — a unique bandsaw concept. If you hit the occasional nail with your bandsaw blade, it invariably happens just after installing a new one! A minimum amount of heat is created when the blade cuts. Minimum feeding pressure is required. Minimum horsepower is required. The blade makes quality cuts for a long period.

There is excessive heat, causing premature breakage or rapid dulling. Unnecessarily high feeding pressure is required. Unnecessarily high horsepower is required. The blade wears excessively.

The teeth wear excessively. The band saw or blade vibrates. The thicker the band, the greater the tendency for the blade to break due to stress cracking, and the larger the bandsaw wheels have to be.

If your blade is too thick for your wheel diameter, it will crack. The harder the material, the finer the pitch that is required. For example, exotic hard woods such as ebony and rosewood require blades with a finer pitch than hard woods such as oak or maple. Soft wood such as pine will quickly clog the blade and decrease its ability to cut. Having a variety of tooth configurations in the same width will most likely give you an acceptable choice for a particular job.

The Resaw King will cut most woods, but it must be noted that when cutting woods with a high silicon content or very hard woods such as iron wood, ebony, etc. KERF- The width of the saw cut. The larger the kerf, the smaller the radius that can be cut. But the greater the amount of wood that the blade has to cut and the greater the horsepower that is needed, as the blade is doing more work. The greater the kerf, the larger the amount of wood that is being wasted by the cut.

The greater the angle, the more aggressive the tooth, and the faster the cut. But the faster the cut, the faster the tooth will blunt, and the poorer the surface finish of the cut.

Aggressive blades are suitable for soft woods but will not last when cutting hard woods. The smaller the angle, the less aggressive the tooth, the slower the cut, and the harder the wood that the blade is suitable to cut.

Hook teeth have a progressive cutting angle and take the form of a progressive radius. They are used for fast cutting where finish is not important. Rake teeth have a flat cutting angle and are used for fine surface finish of the cut.