Bandsaw Blades

[TerryD]

I ordered one of Harbor Freight's little horizontal/vertical band saws and was wondering what kind of blade you guys use on your stuff. It'll be cutting a little of everything do I'll probably need a couple blades to get everything done.

I was looking at some Olsen and Lennox on Amazon but they didn't have many reviews on either.

 

[BadDog]

The most important thing is good blades, but when you get them, you usually still have to take a little time getting it working right. I get my blades from a local guy. Top notch service and quality, good prices, huge range of product, and he ships. I've bought lots of blades from him. These include bimetal (great all around for the little saw) multi-pitch blades, carbon steel skip-tooth, 1/2" width up to 1" width, never been disappointed. And he'll talk to you on the phone to make sure you get what you need. My basic setup for the little saw is 3 multi-pitch bi-metal blades from fine to coarse (don't recall actual tooth count, talk to him), and they have covered all manner of material cutting over the years.

http://www.echolssaw.com/

 

[wetoolowdingbangow]

In the machine shop i work in we run bi-metal blades. Theyll do pretty much anything you put through them. In fact with the band saw turned down in low gear it will chug through copper, stainless, mild steel and a a few other materials. There are several types of blades but when you stray away from bi-metal it starts to get specific and only work with a few materials (e.g. and diamond grit blade works well with carbon, and many plastics but wont do a damn thing to steel.

I highly recommend using mcmaster-carr for band saw blades. There good quality and last long.

 

[TerryD]

Thanks for the tips guys. Saw showed up today with the motor pulley broken and one of the brackets that holds the saw to the stand snapped off. Looks like it took a pretty good tumble at some point.

 

[wetoolowdingbangow]

Sounds typical for harbor freight. everything from there needs a little work but it will serve you a long time once it's fixed. best of luck also forgot to mention get some wax. they make wax for bandsaw blades and it works wonders for cutting metal and preserves the blade!

 

[TerryD]

I'll check that out! The saw is out of stock at the local store so I emailed customer satisfaction to see what they can do for me.

 

[cybrfire]

Lennox brand blades are what we use exclusively.

There is a short break in period for new blades. Ask your salesman about it. Basically amounts to running the feed speed slow the first couple times and then slowly increasing feed speed to the optimum.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Any GOOD BRAND NAME blade is a good blade. Lennox, Starrett, Do-All, lots of good brands out there. I will say the HF blades will do in a pinch but are junk blades that will not hold up under regular use like a good blade will.

If I had no access because it was sunday and I broke a blade but had to get something cut I WILL buy a HF blade as they are cheap. But for regular use buy good blades. I buy mine from McmasterCarr and I believe they are Lenox as well. I have a old Alltrade saw just like the HF saws. Have used the crap out of it, they work great for the crappy little saw they are. Built my buddies cage my cage and all the bumpers I've built and plenty of other projects with it. For home hobby saw it does the job.

 

[TerryD]

Well, I called my local store yesterday morning and the had a saw in stock finally. Alex was out of school so we all loaded up and headed to town to exchange my busted saw for a new one. Not wanting to put the horse before the cart, I didn't buy any blades while we were there. They have a Made in USA bi-metal blade in the store for around $22 that I was going to get but they only had two registers and the place was slammed with the sale paper old guys snatchign up $1 flashlights and tarps. I don't know how good that blade is but it HAS to be better than what came on this thing...

Anyways, I just finished putting it together and doing a little test run. I made a couple cuts with it and they came out pretty square. I think I'll run through the entire setup procedure again after I get a new blade though and see if it really makes a difference.

I read online somewhere that you should change the oil before you use it so I cracked the gear box open and it had alot of bronze shavings in it. I assume it's from test running it after assembly or possibly just leftovers from machining the parts. The manual said to use a 140 weight oil in it so I put in some Wal-Mart store brand 75-140 synthetic which was a lot closer to gear oil consistency in our current 30* weather than the molassas that came out of it.

So far so good! Even as it sits I much prefer the cut quality to that of my 4" grinder and a cut off wheel. I'm going to do some pricing on blades while I'm eating a bite of lunch then get back outside and hopefully drop the t-case out of the K5.

 

[TerryD]

Didn't think far enough ahead so I grabbed an Olson 18tpi wavy "hardback" blade from TSC yesterday. The difference in cut between that $18 blade and the original is night and day, I can't wait to see how much better a good bi-metal blade does.

Doesn't look like I need it today though. Found some issues with my t-case and I'm not sure how to proceed yet.