Thread: bandsaw blade supplier for home made bandsaw mill

Henry Bros Saws

Make sure you get bimetallic blades. What size wheels are you looking at?

Bandsaw blades are made to order, so the length is not that critical

Thanks Pat - i'll give them a ring.

Hi Bob - Re wheels - i looked at buying bandsaw wheels but they were hideously expensive so I will probably use car wheels arouund 450 to 500mm diameter (inc tyre). Based on the 144inch band i mentioned earlier this will enable the machine to mill logs up to 600mm in diameter. I dont want to make the machine handle logs bigger than that as it becomes too unwieldy (machine and log), especially when i'll be milling smaller stuff half the time. I have heard that the Batemans Bay sawmill sell ironbark offcuts that are between 300 and 400mm in size very cheaply (in decent lengths). Im not sure if this is true or not but its a lead I will follow up to hopefully source the timber I need to make my sleepers.

Brendan
not being a knob or nasty, but do you have a plan for your proposed build?

A major issue with bandsaw blades is the diameter of the wheels in relation to the width and thickness of the blade. and how the blade tracks on the tire -- the saw teeth should be clear of the tire.

I don't think I have ever seen a vehicle wheel / tire combination that would be suitable.

Originally Posted by ian

Brendan
not being a knob or nasty, but do you have a plan for your proposed build?

A major issue with bandsaw blades is the diameter of the wheels in relation to the width and thickness of the blade. and how the blade tracks on the tire -- the saw teeth should be clear of the tire.

If a narrow enough tyre is used they usually will have enough crowning to clear the teeth for a 1TPI blade.
The teeth don't even have to completely clear the tyre and if they wear a 20"' deep groove in the tyre does it really matter?
There must be thousands of BSMs running this way out there.

my understanding was that blade wear was minimised if the teeth and most of the gullet was off the tyre.

There are two styles of bandsaw wheel. One has a crowned wheel, normally with a rubber cushion, and this is the type that the car tyre is attempting to emulate. The narrower the wheel the easier it will be for this to be successful. I think low profile wide tyres would be the worst and motorcyle tyres the most suitable. The other type is a flat profile wheel (normally metal) where the teeth up to the gullet are hung off the edge of the band wheel. This positioning is achieved by canting one wheel out of alignment very slightly by an adjustable mechanism.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by ian

my understanding was that blade wear was minimised if the teeth and most of the gullet was off the tyre.

I used to think that as well but in the Alex Snodgrass video of how to set up a BS he talks about and shows the bottom of the gullet located at the very top of the drive wheel crown. On a high or medium TPI band under tension the teeth then will still touch on the tyre. Only on my 1.3 TPI blade do the teeth tips not touch the tyre.

I've always run my BS blades this way and and don't see much wear on the tyres. I've change the tyres on my most heavily used BS once in the 10 years and that was because they went hard as opposed to anything else.

I don’t know much about what you are attempting but narrow wheels may include the new style space saver wheels that are rated to 80km/h or the old Renault/Citroen 3 stub wheels. Both have decent crowns on them. Motorcycle tyres and rims would be more expensive from the wreckers compared to car rims and tyres. It’s just a matter of whether the size of these rims would be big enough to reduce fatigue of the band?

Or another thought, you could use a slightly wider tyre than the rim is made for to induce a larger crown. Slight over inflation would do it too, just don’t go too far.

Originally Posted by ian

my understanding was that blade wear was minimised if the teeth and most of the gullet was off the tyre.

Originally Posted by BobL

I used to think that as well but in the Alex Snodgrass video of how to set up a BS he talks about and shows the bottom of the gullet located at the very top of the drive wheel crown. On a high or medium TPI band under tension the teeth then will still touch on the tyre. Only on my 1.3 TPI blade do the teeth tips not touch the tyre.

same thing?
with the bottom of the gullet at the very top of the crown, the teeth on a wide resawing blade will be clear of the tyre.

high TPI blades have little set (and typically are narrow) so inevitably the teeth are in contact with the tyre.

Originally Posted by ian

same thing?
with the bottom of the gullet at the very top of the crown, the teeth on a wide resawing blade will be clear of the tyre.

Sure.

In the BS mill I use the bands are 50 mm wide, and 1 and 0.66 TPI, the tyres are 20 mm wide Vbelts so the teeth well and truly overhang the side of teh belt.

Originally Posted by Cal

I don’t know much about what you are attempting but narrow wheels may include the new style space saver wheels that are rated to 80km/h or the old Renault/Citroen 3 stub wheels. Both have decent crowns on them. Motorcycle tyres and rims would be more expensive from the wreckers compared to car rims and tyres. It’s just a matter of whether the size of these rims would be big enough to reduce fatigue of the band?

Or another thought, you could use a slightly wider tyre than the rim is made for to induce a larger crown. Slight over inflation would do it too, just don’t go too far.

Hi Cal, Yeah this is exactly where I am at. My first lead will be to find space saver spares and see how they go, if they arent suitable I will have a look at the motorcycle wreckers for options. As noted though motorbike parts are more expensive compared to car parts though, and my local wrecker is notoriously expensive. I think i recall doing some googling of space saver spares though and they came in too small diam. Postie bike wheels will go close to what I need though and they shouldnt be too expensive.

Hi Ian, re the design - as bob said there are literally hundreds of these things running around the world. Ive seen vids on youtube where guys have carved a notch into the tyre for the band to run in - seemingly without effect. The designs all vary slightly but are mostly quite similar. I am pretty handy at welding and have a big lathe for making many of the specilist parts so I am confident i will be able to get somethign going. Time and money are the usual barriers though - it may take me a while.

Gday mate.
I have done exactly what you are looking at doing.
I went with motorbike wheels and swing arms.
You can use the chain tensioners as blade tensioners (works great).
Got my ideas from (mikefestiva) on youtube watch his videos there a great help.
There are lots of mistakes to be made so if you need any advice or help in any way let me know.
This was one of the most satisfying things ive built (sometimes drives me nuts) but still alot of fun.
I can fit a 1200 log on the bed and can fit 900 between the blade guides i wouldnt go any smaller if i did it again.
Use duct tape as a pretend blade while you build and get your blades made to suit what you end up with. Mine are 4700mm.
Ive had my mill going for a few years now and there are things i will be changing when i get time but have been happy with what i have accomplished so far.
Have fun.��
Tom.