Thread: Stupid beginner mistakes :-)

It is always good to know why and even better to be able to fix it.

I would tend to put the experience down to a good lesson rather than a stupid mistake.

I turned mine on the other day with no tension on the blade because i forgot.

It's not a stupid mistake. Just a lack of experience. When you do it again, then that's a stupid mistake....

Hi all,
I've had a 14in Bandsaw since 1997, & have Never Released the Blade Tension Ever, & my Saw has never missed a beat. If you could see all my wood, you would know what I mean.
I also make up my own Blades & go through a Blade approx 5 - 6 Months.
A blade cost me approx. $7.50, & I use a 3/8in. x 6TPI. Skip Tooth.
My Silver Soldered Blades never seem to break, but just wear out.
100 ft. of Blade cost me $81.50, & I get 12 Blades from the roll.
If a mug like myself can do it, so can you, Or buy a roll between a Group of you Woodies.
all the way.
Regards,
issatree.

Originally Posted by issatree

I also make up my own Blades & go through a Blade approx 5 - 6 Months.
A blade cost me approx. $7.50, & I use a 3/8in. x 6TPI. Skip Tooth.
My Silver Soldered Blades never seem to break, but just wear out.
100 ft. of Blade cost me $81.50, & I get 12 Blades from the roll.

I bought a bimetal blade for some ridiculous price, its still in the bag - had it since before christmas but the blade that came with the saw is still going. I am interested in getting cheaper blades, how about a demo at lara wood workers of making a new bandsaw blade!

Pellcorp, thanks for sharing your experience.

It's good for learning and helps to make us (this) real amateur more aware of good bandsaw operational procedure. In this case I think also a safety issue.

Originally Posted by The Bleeder

It's not a stupid mistake. Just a lack of experience. When you do it again, then that's a stupid mistake....

Love it! Would apply to so many things in life.

Glad to hear you resolved the issue.

Cheers,
Dave

As long as you learn from the mistake and all fingers are in tact, then all is good

Originally Posted by pellcorp

....... how about a demo at lara wood workers of making a new bandsaw blade!

The trick is we wait until we have a bunch of broken blades and then get Issatree to fix them all in one night!

thought i might chime in with my own stupid beginner mistake....


...loaded up a brand new blade recently and immediately she began to smoke as i attempted to cut 2 inch stock


...black gritty carbon bits flying off everywhere with that awful burning coffee smell


...of course i proceeded to do my cut anyways

took me maybe 20 times longer than i had anticipated and after it all ...there were burning charred scraping bits throughout the surface of the cut

I was even worried tht bandsaw might catch fire but since i don't use dust collector i threw caution to the winds anyways



...well....after some time of googling the problem ....


...it was prob the stupidest mistake there is




...i putted the blade on INSIDE OUT (teeth pointing up when it SHOULD be pointing down ...grrr)


...so this morning after maybe 30 mins of metho cleaning the blade of cruddy stuck carbon bits and turnin it inside out ....


...she cuts beautifully again like butter




....i learn something new everyday with this amazing tool ....

Originally Posted by R3R

...i putted the blade on INSIDE OUT (teeth pointing up when it SHOULD be pointing down ...grrr)

Took a lot of perseverance to keep cutting with all that smoke - I'm impressed

But seriously if you don't think about it, it would be quite easy to stick the blade on the wrong way. Tell me did you have to really hold the work down while cutting? I would think it probably wanted to continually lift it up...

Originally Posted by pellcorp

Took a lot of perseverance to keep going after all of that.

...perseverance is about the only strong suit i have in ma hand....

Originally Posted by pellcorp

I bought a bimetal blade for some ridiculous price, its still in the bag - had it since before christmas but the blade that came with the saw is still going. I am interested in getting cheaper blades, how about a demo at lara wood workers of making a new bandsaw blade!

I can get carbon blades made for my 12 inch Triton for about $15 for most of the general width/tooth configurations, made to order by my local saw doctor.

They strenuously reccommend against bimetal blades for smaller saws (under about 18inch) because the combination of available thickness and stiffness don't cope well with the bend radius required for the smaller wheels. As a result the blades get metal fatigue, develop micro cracks, and ultimately break long before they are blunted.

I read recently (possibly on Fine Woodworking Knots Forum) about problems someone was having cracking and breaking bimetals on an 18 inch saw which was ultimately tracked to the blades being too thick for the bend radius, which tends to support the sawdocs position. In this case the user had broken a few new blades in a very short time, all well clear of the weld where the blade would have been annealed and hence was more protected from metal fatigue.

Malb, are you sure they were talking about bimetal blades, or the new ones with TC tips? I use bimetal on my N4400 and have never had one break, but was warned against using the TC tipped ones for that reason.