Thread: Bandsaw blades for resawing

Hello
Can't answer you question about pitch build up on carbide vs regular blades,
Just a few things worth noting, should you not be referring to the Trimaster blade which is easier tensioned, and not the Woodmaster CT blade,
as guessing your saw is around 200kg or a tiny bit more, and not built for that wide of a blade, nevermind carbide which are even tougher to tension again, specs on any saw won't mention gauge thickness, that's a dead giveaway,
not to mention no claims on gauge thickness referring to PSI.
John TenEyck has posted about this should you look. he tensions his CT to 25000 PSI if neseccairy
and mentions they don't work well at low tension, should you value your machine,
be that the wheel bores should it have smaller bearings, and your tensioning spring, it's food for thought.
Narrower blade and more tension is likely a much safer solution.

Does your machine have flat tires that you want greater overhang off the edge,
or should it be a case of more overhang off the camber?
Not many brands doing true flat tires apart from most of the larger Italian machines.

Another thing, to add that relevant quote from John, hope he doesn't mind me pasting...

"Using this gage I found that the difference between applying 25 ksi to a Woodmaster CT and 42 ksi is surprising little. At 25 ksi the arrow on the saw's tension indicator was just below the 1" blade mark while at 42 ksi it was just above it, less than 1/2 a turn on the tension wheel."


Saying that, and you really want to try carbide, then have a read of Tai Fu's posts on what's available
"Chinese carbide bandsaw blades" on sawmill creek, and you will find info how to buy from Ali express or Taobao,
in whatever gauge, width, and TPI, seems cheaper than buying the in-between M42 blades localish.

All the best
Tom

I have an 18" Carbatec bandsaw fitted with a 1" (27mm) TCT blade. I suspect that the frame of the saw is really not quite strong enough to properly tension the blade, which means there's a bit of fiddling around to properly adjust the tracking of the blade. Regardless of this the combination does an excellent job of resawing timber up to 300mm high. IMO you would be well advised to not run a blade that is the maximum capacity of your machine and stick to a 1" blade.

I bought my blade from Henry Bros. and it was A LOT less than $350, comfortably under $200 delivered from memory.
BANDSAW BLADES TIMBER |

Resin build up is exacerbated by heat which increases the mount of resin "sweated" by the wood. On the big water cooled bandsaw mill I use I never see any resin build up, this mill uses a water spray direct onto the blade. On the smaller Woodlander bandsaw mill which uses water drop/dribble cooling (a few drops a second) there is more resin build up than the water spray cooled mill, and the blunter the blade the greater the greater the resin build up.

Of course upright saws are not good candidates for water cooling but the next obvious thing then is to make sure you run sharp blades. TCT blades stay sharp for longer than conventional blades so that should have less resin build up but just like TCT circle blades if they are pushed hard they will get hot and you will get more resin.

When I get resin build up on chainsaw chains I sometimes spray diesel on the chain and let it soak for a while (ON is best) and the resin will usually slough off when I next cut with the saw. Thi works on bandsaw bands but they usually have to be removed from the saw to be treated and the diesel has to be wired off before use because diesel may damage the tyres. There are plenty of other things that remove resin including smoking in oven cleaner and strong detergents but they also have to be removed before use. On some resins plain old hot (preferably boiling) water works but you will need to find a container big enough to hold the bands while its boiling

If you want a cheaper AUS supplier of TCT blades try McDivens (McDiven Saws P/L specializes in all types of bandsaws) There not much info on the website but there is a phone number and email address that you can use to ask for a quote. I find they are usually about 25% cheaper than other suppliers.

From my observation a lot of users think wider blades make for better BS performance and the opposite is the case and sometimes it is best to listen to the experts who make and sell BS blades and see what they say. There is no way on God's earth that my Minimax 18" machine would tension the 1" blade that Minimax reckon it will and I have found that a 3/4" Trimaster carbide blade gives excellent resaw performance and it was cheaper. A Laguna carbide blade is thinner and tensions better than a Trimaster and also can be resharpened where the Trimaster cannot be according to Henry Brothers but I have had mine for four years and it still cuts well despite the odd collision with nails and screws.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

From my observation a lot of users think wider blades make for better BS performance and the opposite is the case and sometimes it is best to listen to the experts who make and sell BS blades and see what they say. There is no way on God's earth that my Minimax 18" machine would tension the 1" blade that Minimax reckon it will and I have found that a 3/4" Trimaster carbide blade gives excellent resaw performance and it was cheaper. A Laguna carbide blade is thinner and tensions better than a Trimaster and also can be resharpened where the Trimaster cannot be according to Henry Brothers but I have had mine for four years and it still cuts well despite the odd collision with nails and screws.

Agreed, I wish I'd gotten a 3/4" blade for my machine. The OP's saw should have no trouble tensioning a 1" blade though. There can also be a significant difference in price between the various brands of TCT blades so it pays to have a good look around at what is available.

Thank you everyone for your replies. The comments are appreciated and I will now do some research on blade availability.
I have had my suspicions about the 32mm blade due to the fact that the machine vibrated more than what I thought was reasonable. I do have a 16mm 6tpi blade that I use which I am sort of happy with though I think that it had become dull.
I guess that the next consideration is learning how to tune the machine properly. Of course there is quite a lot on the net, with suggestions such as adjusting the blade to run with the bottom of the tooth gullet in the centre of the Tyre rather than the whole blade centred on the tyre. My tyres are dome shaped and therefore not flat by the way.
Thank you once again for making the effort to comment.
Bill.

Originally Posted by BILLOJ

. . . . I guess that the next consideration is learning how to tune the machine properly. Of course there is quite a lot on the net, with suggestions such as adjusting the blade to run with the bottom of the tooth gullet in the centre of the Tyre rather than the whole blade centred on the tyre. My tyres are dome shaped and therefore not flat by the way.

Maybe not right on centre but pretty close to it - certainly closer than you think.

Originally Posted by BobL

Maybe not right on centre but pretty close to it - certainly closer than you think.

I have had a look for previous posts on this forum for bandsaw tuning and have not come up with anything to date.
Can you offer your thoughts on tuning please.
Bill.

Pretty hard to go past the Snodgrass method, he certainly seems to know his stuff. Band Saw Clinic with Alex Snodgrass - YouTube

"The Snodgrass method" i.e all of which he has demonstrated so far that I've seen, (Alex has a channel called bandsaw life)
has so far been concerned about little machines.
There's much more to tuning a larger saw than that, as you can cause damage to both wheels and motor bearings,
And should one be a skrimper, then they may well indeed have a life what's concentrated around mainly bandsaws

On pretty much all welded frame bandsaws, the top wheel is the datum point as it's not adjustable for yaw/skew call it what you want, not talking about wheel depth nor left/right adjustability of the carriage on the Italian machines for instance.

Whether that top wheel is in the right location in the first place, is likely individual to the machine,
as nothing is guaranteed in that regards,
Steel moves once welded, and evident on many a machine, and as of yet I'd guess no one has sorted good jigs for this
as we can see a tippy machine from nearly all brands out there.
I could go on all day about tippy machines, the hassle of levelling them accurately, I've actually set about sorting this out ATM, bit of a head scratcher so it is...
My point being that if the machine won't stand plumb, then one would have to presume that it's a bit of a gamble as to
how spot on the location of the wheel(s) ends up.
I took an absolute gamble on the correct location of the carriage, (as my saw was very much abused)
so I have to stick to my guns now!
SAM_4463.jpg


Right or wrong, you can't adjust the top wheel on any machine to suit the bottom wheel either!
(well not on any machine I've seen)

so it must be that the bottom wheel has to suit the top.
(do we need to see damage of wheel bores?)
and check that the motor pulley is certainly and surely in-line with the wheel hub,
and sort that out if it isn't, as you can damage motor bearings in all of 5 seconds,
I learned that the hard way before doing work on this machine.

Testing machine without blade and with a real loose drive belt is advisable, once sighted down beforehand.
One would hope that the motor would line up,
not so easy to adjust on many a machine, since most saws have flange mounted motors,
which if pulley on shaft is as far as it will reach, then one has a bit of a pickle.
My motor seems(ed) to line up, but awaiting some more work, as I have other work needing doing on the machine before I can do that as precisely as I can get things by now.

SAM_5280.jpg


I have yet to hear anyone who's interested in bandsaws disagree with me on this,
but many seemingly are reluctant to have an opinion, but suggest questionable practices.

Tom

Eager to get my wheel back on the machine, but have to wait until bearing spacers made.
This will make the wheel solid


and combined with my new level should get even more accuracy.
Didn't have one at the time to level the machine to set it up,
Some plumbobs to level the column, it took a set of them to do the job, some wooden blocks taped on or magnetized
and suitable "mood" lighting as your eyes can be fooled otherwise.

SAM_4964.jpgSAM_4959.jpgSAM_4960.jpg
Could also check for plumb wheels if you have Italian flavour or wish to setup machine with differing tire thickness
you still can have the table 90,
and check for wheel protrusion using the wheel bolts, which is likely do-able even if there's no adjustment of the shaft.
SAM_4977.jpg

Block taped to a beam to get co-planar and in-line with column
SAM_4633.jpgSAM_4630.jpg
After which checking lower wheel for alignment to the top wheel, this can take a while since any adjustment causes a domino effect,
and one needs to go through all adjustments again, (blade needs to be tensioned as it's used to keep top wheel from tilting,
and I'm reading Centauro's suggestion of using a hefty blade for alignment...now that one can get blade tracking in the location one wants, and not foul
the block on the beam.
SAM_4595.jpgSAM_4568.jpg
And cross ones fingers that the motor pulley aligns, since its no fun replacing bearings in a motor!


Eager to try out me new dual milled edge beam for the job, which may likely get used today, trying seeing if I can do this without total disassembly.
Probably unlikely though
Maybe I should have took Riverbuilder's suggestion of getting a laser!
but I'm sticking to old skool, as battery's don't last for long in an un-insulated workshop in Eire.
SAM_5298.jpg

All the best
Tom

TT your two posts above are worthy of their own thread.

Best not to side track another's thread with an allied topic but not really pertinent to the OP's topic.

@Mobyturns, sorry for sidetracking, been revving myself up for todays bandsaw work.
Just keen to see if any of ye have been looking at the cheap carbide ones Tai-Fu has been using.
Should someone find some Chinese person to read the details on the website, maybe you guys have found them on Ali express,
no horse in this race as I have plenty of blades, and will likely sort sharpening and setting them when the time comes,
but I do have some uber dense timber which just might toast anything less.

Regards
Tom

Don't know where all this co-planer wheels stuff comes from. If the wheels were supposed to be co-planer surely the manufacturer would have set the machine up that way in the first place? Once you adjust the blade tracking on the top wheel the chances of the wheels being co-planer is virtually nil.

As far as the Chinese blades go I went to Sawmill Creek and checked the posted link to Aliexpress. A blade of the size that I currently have on my saw is considerably more expensive from there than the blade from Henry Bros. was. Only difference between the blades is the Henry Bros. one is 1.3 tpi and the Chinese one is 3 tpi. I note that the guy talking about the Chinese blades on Sawmill Creek is based in Taiwan, you know, only a short ferry ride from China not the other side of the world like us.