Thread: 14" bandsaw

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Ill be honest, I have no idea, since Ive never owned a band saw. I honestly think I will just use the bandsaw when I need to rough cut random bits of wood and I dont need it to be absolutely straight or need a bit of a curve. Maybe I should just keep the stock blade until I figure this out

I will tell you a little story. Make of it what you will.

I believe that somewhere in China there is a factory turning out cheap useless bandsaw blades which they sell to bandsaw manufactuirers to supply with new saws.

I own three bandsaws, 21" timber, 14" timber and a small floor standing metal bandsaw. Each one came with a blade. Not one of the blades that came with the saw have ever been used. I cannot think of a single reason that I am ever likely to put them back on the saw.

I think that if I had tried to use the useless blades that come with the saws I would have lost interest very quickly.

Maybe Rikon package their saws with a good general purpose blade. Maybe not.

Just saying - if you get poor results from the supplied blade it might not be you.

What do you use as your general purpose blade or you leave on all the time?

Eg have a bit of scrap I want to use on a quick and dirty jig and need rip it down the middle and then another piece I need to cut in half and then need a bit of scrap to reinforce the garden bed so gotta cut it down a bit - what blade do you use for that?

I dunno if this is because the stock blade is no good, but I had to have the rear bearing quite far away as i noticed there seemed to be bit of play in it

Originally Posted by qwertyu

What do you use as your general purpose blade or you leave on all the time?

Eg have a bit of scrap I want to use on a quick and dirty jig and need rip it down the middle and then another piece I need to cut in half and then need a bit of scrap to reinforce the garden bed so gotta cut it down a bit - what blade do you use for that?

I dunno if this is because the stock blade is no good, but I had to have the rear bearing quite far away as i noticed there seemed to be bit of play in it

On my 21" saw I have a 1" 2tpi tct blade, which stays on the saw all the time. Mainly used for breaking down recycled hardwood into project size parts.

On my 14" saw I usually have a 1/4" blade for cutting curves or a 1/2" blade for straighter cuts in thicker stock. I also use 1/8" blades when doing tight curves

TPI is important and is dependent on the thickness of the stock you are cutting. Small teeth won't have a deep enough gullet to clear the sawdust out of the cut.

Have a look at these links if you haven't seen them before. They will answer a lot of your questions.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7n7Gg4QOkc&t=4s