Thread: broken bandsaw blade!!!!!

I've found a Place in Campbelltown I have not purchased any yet but price was good $15 for a blade 6 tpi and the length 2350 plus postage.
it annoys me though as the other place I go to charge $13 to sharpen them
Carbatec sell a kit to braise/weld Back together but really I think it's cheaper to buy a new one

Originally Posted by smiife

hi guys,
not too sure if this in the right place,but,today i broke the
bandsaw blade ,does anyone know if they are worth fixing
or would it be better just to buy a new one,if so where
can they be purchased / fixed,any help would be appreciated
cheers smiife

If you have some silver solder and can file the ends square it well worth fixing. If not, you can buy new ones of any saw doctor or the place that it came from.

Have a look at the blade under a good light. If your thrust bearings have gotten loose and backed off, or if you don't lower the blade guide down close to the wood, you can have stress fractures where the blade breaks from the back side. If there is one crack, there generally are others and it is time to scrap the blade. Also, you can carefully run your fingers on the sides and back of the blade and feel for more cracks.

robo hippy

I always get mine from Henry Brothers Saws in Sydney, Great range, good prices and service

Henry Bros Saws - Bandsaw blades & circular saw blades No connection etc. Phil

Originally Posted by hughie

If you have some silver solder and can file the ends square it well worth fixing. If not, you can buy new ones of any saw doctor or the place that it came from.

Never heard of filing them square I've always used a scarf joint.

I've repaired and made several blades with a home-made jig, first it holds the blade ends side by side and you dress the ends on a linisher at an angle of between 30 to 45 degrees. then you put the blade ends in the jig, apply a tiny amount of flux onto the joint and an equally tiny piece of silver solder; just enough to fill the joint but not enough to overflow. Then just heat gently until the solder flows.

I made the jig many years ago having seen the one sold by Carbatec and Timbecon and thinking I could make that for a fraction of what they're asking for.

Hello Chief,
I would appreciate very much if you could provide some information on your jig?
regards, Ned

I'll dig it out tomorrow, dust it off and take some pictures of it in use. I've got plenty of blade material and silver solder but I'm a bit lacking in flux; I'll have to see what I can come up with.

Originally Posted by smiife

does anyone know if they are worth fixing

Depends on a few factors:

• if it is an old (blunt) blade then possibly not;
• if you have a blade supplier near by they can reweld blades and it would be worth checking the price;
• if you need to post your blades to get rewelded it possibly isn't worth the additional cost.

The last supplier I was using charged about $5 for a reweld. New blades were between $15-$20 so if the broken blade was fairly new then I found it was worth while dropping it off when placing an order in person for new blades, and they just picking them all up together. When I was doing mail order it wasn't worth sending them back to be rewelded.

To have them rewelded you will loose a little length so if the initial fit was tight then it may not fit back on your saw when you try again. Most machines have some flexibility in the length of blade that they can accommodate but you want to be careful that they do not shorten it too much. I have tried to weld my own but I have never had great success and whilst I know others have had success I haven't been able to master the skill yet.

hi guys,
thanks for the replies,i think i will go with a new one,
just in case the old one has more damage [never thought of that]

cheers smife

Lets see how these pictures turn out then...

These show the jig dismantled. The slot in the middle is where all the hot work will take place; the commercial ones have a much wider gap than this but I found 20mm adequate. The raw material is 40mm ally angle 5mm thick. There is a groove cut into the two "caps" and a corresponding raised area on the jig itself. I cut this with a mill but a router table will work too as the depth of cut is very shallow, only about 1/2 mil. Just be gentle.... The purpose of the raised section is to give a flat surface for the back of the blade to index against. The bolts are epoxied into place.

DSCF2523.jpgDSCF2524.jpg

The blade ends need to have a chamfer ground on them to give a scarf joint. Cut the ends square and try to align them so you don't get half a tooth; it doesn't really make much difference but I'm mildly OCD... As you can see I've used the jig to hold both ends of the blade with identical protrusion, a much wider blade would need to be held one end at a time. I used to grind the chamfer using a linisher, but today realised my disc sander would be even better as it can square off the edges first and eliminates the tendency for one end to be ground further.

DSCF2527.jpgDSCF2528.jpg

Now you need to coat the ground surfaces with flux and place the two blade ends in the jig. I prefer to flatten a stick of silver solder and cut off tiny pieces and lay them on the joint, then heat from below and allow capillary action to draw the solder through. If you want to use a stick then use the thinnest you can find. The more solder you put on the joint the more you have to remove afterwards. This would also probably be a good time to mention that if you don't have at least some rudimentary soldering skills and a half decent heat source this may not turn out too well . I used a Primus torch for this but an oxy torch would be better.

DSCF2529.jpg

Finally remove any excess solder, I use a 1/2" drum sander in a Dremmel-type rotary tool. You want the joint to be almost undetectable by touch as it's got to pass between the guides of your bandsaw without catching. The last picture shows the whole blade coiled up with a tape measure for scale. The blank was 2240mm long and coiled down to about 10".

DSCF2530.jpgDSCF2531.jpgDSCF2532.jpg

Now I just wish I still had a bandsaw to put in in..... Anybody want a free 3/8" 6TPI 2240mm blade?

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Lets see how these pictures turn out then...

These show the jig dismantled. The slot in the middle is where all the hot work will take place; the commercial ones have a much wider gap than this but I found 20mm adequate. The raw material is 40mm ally angle 5mm thick. There is a groove cut into the two "caps" and a corresponding raised area on the jig itself. I cut this with a mill but a router table will work too as the depth of cut is very shallow, only about 1/2 mil. Just be gentle.... The purpose of the raised section is to give a flat surface for the back of the blade to index against. The bolts are epoxied into place.

DSCF2523.jpgDSCF2524.jpg

The blade ends need to have a chamfer ground on them to give a scarf joint. Cut the ends square and try to align them so you don't get half a tooth; it doesn't really make much difference but I'm mildly OCD... As you can see I've used the jig to hold both ends of the blade with identical protrusion, a much wider blade would need to be held one end at a time. I used to grind the chamfer using a linisher, but today realised my disc sander would be even better as it can square off the edges first and eliminates the tendency for one end to be ground further.

DSCF2527.jpgDSCF2528.jpg

Now you need to coat the ground surfaces with flux and place the two blade ends in the jig. I prefer to flatten a stick of silver solder and cut off tiny pieces and lay them on the joint, then heat from below and allow capillary action to draw the solder through. If you want to use a stick then use the thinnest you can find. The more solder you put on the joint the more you have to remove afterwards. This would also probably be a good time to mention that if you don't have at least some rudimentary soldering skills and a half decent heat source this may not turn out too well . I used a Primus torch for this but an oxy torch would be better.

DSCF2529.jpg

Finally remove any excess solder, I use a 1/2" drum sander in a Dremmel-type rotary tool. You want the joint to be almost undetectable by touch as it's got to pass between the guides of your bandsaw without catching. The last picture shows the whole blade coiled up with a tape measure for scale. The blank was 2240mm long and coiled down to about 10".

DSCF2530.jpgDSCF2531.jpgDSCF2532.jpg

Now I just wish I still had a bandsaw to put in in..... Anybody want a free 3/8" 6TPI 2240mm blade?

thanks for your explanation chief,
looks like you have done a good job there
if it was 2375mm i would take it off your hands
cheers smiife

I hate it when I broke my band saw blade. I didn't repair it . I bought new type of blade instead.

Lol I just had a 3/4 break and found this thread. I'm going to see if I can get it joined because it was a $50 blade. Also 2240mm on my machine. I wonder if blade breakage is more likely on smaller machines or larger ones.

Originally Posted by eisbaer

Lol I just had a 3/4 break and found this thread. I'm going to see if I can get it joined because it was a $50 blade. Also 2240mm on my machine. I wonder if blade breakage is more likely on smaller machines or larger ones.

$50 bucks sounds like a big hit for a 2240 x 19mm blade, maybe you need to shop around before committing. Saw doctors are generally a very good place to start, and generally not hard to find locally unless you live in a desert area.

Re big machines or small machines being more prone to breaking blades, for equally competent efforts at setting guides etc, generally a small machine is more likely to break blades as they induce fatigue sooner due to running the blade at tight radiuses over the smaller wheels. Blade stock is supplied as rolls of bulk material in cartons clearly labelled for minimum bend radius, and my saw doc will advise customers if a particular stock is not suitable in the length requested,based on 40+years knowledge of blade lengths v wheel diameter.

Of course, the greatest causes of breakage is probably improperly set up equipment and incorrect use by the operator.