Thread: Max blade size.

Originally Posted by eskimo

Was at carbetec the othef day looking at Luguna bandsaw. The wheels appear to be similar size to my Elektra Bekum 450.
The max blade size on the laguna was 1-1/4"

Besides blade guides and hp and speed, I gather wheel width must be a factor?...so how does one figure out what is max size that wheel can handle.

That's what I would have though but some Bandsaws like the 14" Hitachi resawing bandsaw use a 3" wide blade!

Perhaps more important than wheel size is whether your bandsaw can generate enough tension to hold a wide blade straight in the cut. Also many lighter weight BS don't have guides that can adjust far enough, or the clearance path through the saw cabinet, to support really wide blades

Let the price be your guide. I think bandsaw manufacturers went to the same marketing school as dust extraction sales people, halve what they say and be happy.

Originally Posted by BobL

That's what I would have though but some Bandsaws like the 14" Hitachi resawing bandsaw use a 3" wide blade!

Perhaps more important than wheel size is whether your bandsaw can generate enough tension to hold a wide blade straight in the cut. Also many lighter weight BS don't have guides that can adjust far enough, or the clearance path through the saw cabinet, to support really wide blades

Oh yeah...forgot about tension

There is another issue with bandsaws and that is the thickness of the blade, which tends to increase with the width.: Not a precise rule but a general trend. As the band increases in thickness the diameter of the wheel needs to be larger. A thick band around a small diameter wheel will lead to premature metal fatigue and resultant breakage.

Regards
Paul

what Bushmiller said I have experienced blade breakage because of wheel size not being compatible with blade gauge and the wrong advice from my ex bandsaw blade provider.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

There is another issue with bandsaws and that is the thickness of the blade, which tends to increase with the width.: Not a precise rule but a general trend. As the band increases in thickness the diameter of the wheel needs to be larger. A thick band around a small diameter wheel will lead to premature metal fatigue and resultant breakage.

I thought the same thing but my MW bandsaw (uses a bimetal blade) only has 200 mm wheels and uses 0.65mm thick blades which on the Hare and Forbes Website is the same as wood working saws from 255 to 355mm. Above that WW saws tend to use 0.8 mm thick blades. The 0.65 mm thick blade on my MW bandsaw is a bugger to fit as it definitely does not want to bend round the 200mm wheesl. Perhaps even worse, in between the wheels the blade is (deliberately) twisted by the guides by 45º. I've broken a few carbon blades for teh MW BS over the years but none since switching to bimetal. The tension on these blades appears to be somewhat higher than what ww bandsaws can generate.

I use bi metal blades always and from memory they are as Bob said 0.65 on a fourteen inch bandsaw

On our PortaMill horizontal bandsaw mill we switched from 50mm blades to McDivens bi metal 1.5TPI that are 0.65mm x 27mm and they are so much better to use especially so in regard to tension and tracking. With my own Hammer N4400 I use bi metal 2 TPI x 0.65 x 27mm exclusively for all resaw work. We also recently fitted a McDivens Tungsten Tipped blade to a Carbatec 17 inch bandsaw that is used for resaw work and so far the tension is fine and it cuts true and straight especially for thin sections.
Cheers,
Paintman

When this thread was first started I went to the Simonds site to view their booklet on bandsaws, but it was no longer there. However, it appears I down loaded it and I found it tonight.

This is an extract from the thickness of blades and bear in mind that .040" is 1mm.

Simonds band saw booklet.PNG


Most of our workshop bandsaws will have wheels less than 24" diameter.

Regards
Paul

Unfortunately, I have found out the hard and expensive (bi-metal) way that some high quality, wide, hence thick, bandsaw blades are not suited to my Woodfast BS500 (20").

The blade/s performed very well, tensioned well, but had a relatively short service life developing body cracks then failing. I guess its like most tools, there are always pros & cons, and we have to decide what performance / economic benefits best suit our application/s.

The "one size fits all" or will perform most / all tasks adequately certainly does not apply to bandsaw blades. Like having a range of saw blades for the table saw, some are far better at rip, or crosscut , wet or dry, etc.

Hi Mobyturns,
I agree it is not expected that on a 20 inch wheel you should get such an outcome. Over many years of trying several different blade suppliers I have also had a few similar outcomes that I feel related more to the blade stock different suppliers use as well as some differences in blade gullet depth etc Since switching to McDivens blades have not had any issues over the last three years. We also use a Dina Saw bandsaw blade sharpening unit (Locally made in Qld) to reset and resharpen blades.
Cheers,
Paintman