Thread: Unfolding bandsaw blades

Try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU

Fairly near the beginning he covers folding and unfolding blades safely......but the rest of the video is very good value too

I don't usually worry about small blades because occasionally I have to fold and unfold these suckers
Nearly 6m long, 2" wide, 1 TPI.
I can fold then bare handed and wearing shorts but usually wear leather gloves and tough long work pants when unfolding them.
The pants don't help all that much with the teeth but when the folded band snaps open and the back of the band hits your shins it can go straight through to the bone.
IMG_5995.jpg
Leather gloves

Hi All I'm back.
Well I watched all of that Video, & yes I learnt a few things, after 30+ years of using my B/S.
Wood love to have a set of Carter Guides, but there cost is more than I paid for my Saw when it was new. So I will put up with what I have.
Anyway, I don't do Precision cuts like Mr. Snodgrass was doing.
He really had the gift of the gab, not criticizing Him in any way, & I believe if you can't talk & work at the same time, you shouldn't be there demonstrating, & He does his Demoing superbly.

Thanks for the link to Alex Snodgrass, but he was doing a quick sleight of hand with the unfolding, showing off, I thought, without really teaching how to do it. And he was doing it with a narrow blade. The game changes with the wider 3/4" and 1" blades commonly used for resawing, as they have much less flexibility. And greater bite l

i wouldn't dare touch BobL blade. Even if you threw it on the grass and ran, it would still get you. You couldn't outrun that monster as it whipped open

Watched another video which explains the unfolding process better: https://youtu.be/sxJU4FsNS7g

Originally Posted by Dengue

Thanks for the link to Alex Snodgrass, but he was doing a quick sleight of hand with the unfolding, showing off, I thought, without really teaching how to do it. And he was doing it with a narrow blade. The game changes with the wider 3/4" and 1" blades commonly used for resawing, as they have much less flexibility. And greater bite l

i wouldn't dare touch BobL blade. Even if you threw it on the grass and ran, it would still get you. You couldn't outrun that monster as it whipped open

Dead right
That band comes from a horizontal cutting sawmill with a 35" wide cut.
We we first got the saw mill we ordered two new bands mail delivery and they arrived coiled up and wired together in an sort of multiple S shaped pattern and I could see that un-tieing them was an accident waiting to happen.
Wearing a full face shield and leather gloves I cleared the back pergola and lay the tied up bands on the outdoor table and slowly untwisted the wires holding them together.
When it was down to just two wires they suddenly exploded busting one of the tie wires and leaping up sideways into the air.
One of the blades swiped my right arm and left 5 parallel scratches like a big cat claw scratch.
This taught me major respect for them but now I'm fairly confident in handling them because I also have to sharpen and set the teeth.

When you get good at folding them into a 3 loop see if you can fold them into more loops.

As for un-looping a band i don't worry about it even with the big band, but try this
1) Get some PVC irrigation pipe that has an inner diameter larger than the band is wide.
2) Cut a length of pipe as long as you hand is wide and put a slot down one side so you can slide it over one loop of the coiled up band.
3) Hold the loops out in front of you with the loop with the the PVC closest to you at about mid torso height.
4) Holding onto the PVC with one hand let the 2 loops not inside the PVC fall away from you - if you have it the right way around the band will fully unfold.
Because you are holding the band by the PVC the rotation of the band during the unfolding won't bother you.
5) If you have the loops the wrong way around it will not unfold but hang out in front of you and you will easily be able to gather up these 2 folds.
6) Turn the whole loop around and repeat 3) now it should now just fall out.

OK Q&D video of this in my best shorts.

Dengue, my big saw runs a 4+M X 40MM 3 tpi thick kerf blade. I wear a pair of your previous employers gloves, stand on 1 ring of the blade and control it while it unwinds. If you want a demo, ring me.
Rgds,
Crocy.

I throw mine on the lawn to unfold itself, then pick it up, simple

I have been folding and unfolding medium sized blades since I was an apprentice.
Funniest thing ever was was the young 2 IC at Canberra School of Farts Wood ANU who demonstrated how not to set up a bandsaw and couldn't even fold the blade after.
The smaller blades of the 14" machines can be folded just using the momentum of the downward swing.
The 36" need the bottom on the floor for the first fold and similar for the next set to make them really compact.
If you want to play sillybuggers it's very easy to demonstrate in such a way that most people have no idea what you just did. Pretty much how most people demo how to do or find stuff on a computer.
H.

Watched another video which explains the unfolding process better: https://youtu.be/sxJU4FsNS7g

After watching the video several times, and practising ( without incident) on a smaller blade until I got the hang of it ( being left handed doesn't help), I opened my new 3/4" carbon steel blade from Henry Bros without any problems at all. The unfolding process was under control at all times, but you have to be careful of the last bit where you are holding two bits of the blade in one hand, and as you separate the two it flicks up into the fully open position.

One very happy chappy!

For folding, I still prefer to put the bottom of the blade on a rubber mat, put the foot on it gently just to hold it in position, then with two hands turn the blade inwards and down into the three coils.

Many thanks for all the help and suggestions and offers

Never do it naked.

Never do it naked.

Orrrhhhh ...that would take all the fun out of it

Originally Posted by Dengue

Orrrhhhh ...that would take all the fun out of it

Depends if you're doing the unfolding or watching it done.

Had trouble today, opened a new blade and it was inside -out or upside-down ( Travelling Wilburys anybody, with Tom Petty doing the lead?) , but on the wheel the blade teeth were facing upwards. Found this valuable demo here to show me how to turn the blade inside-out.

Didn't go as smoothly as this demo, as the lower section of the loop near the foot would not turn inside out, even though the foot was not touching the blade. Had to reach down and turn the lower part of the blade by hand, bit nervous, but turned out OK

just a thought, have never done it before myself. But if you're concerned about the blade hitting you, couldn't you unravel the blade whilst standing behind something?

eg if you stood behind the band saw stuck your arm through and unraveled on the other side of band saw you'll have something that projects your legs (lower bandsaw wheel) and something that projects your face (upper bandsaw wheel)

My preference has always been to throw it on the ground, quick and gets the job done.