In article ,
"Errol Caldwell" wrote:

I have been geting no more than a few hours use from the blades. I cut
mostly bowl blanks and usually from green wood. I have tried furniture band,
swedish silicon and other blades from R&D Bandsaws - usually Viking I
believe. I like 3/8 because I can turn smaller radii if I need to. I have
also tried a local supplier who does a good job on the welds but I don't
know where he gets his bands. Also tried blades from Starrat from a supplier
in Halifax. I suspect my problem is too low tension and not setting the
guides directly above the work. Sometimes I leave them a bit high and that
will add to blade compression. The ceramic guides are supposed to be even
better than cool blocks.
I am not familiar with any of the brands you mention except Starret We
use these at work on a 20" General and they take all sorts of abuse and
never break. This saw is used by 10 different people of varying skill
levels and none of them even think of changing a blade or even matching
a blade to the sort of work they are doing. Materials cut range from
aluminum to plexiglass, plywood, maple and pine.
Sometimes the harder guides like ceramic tend to case harden the blade
especially if there is unevenness in the weld or they are set too close.
As the case hardening occurs it causes the area around the weld to
become brittle and the constant bending around the wheels causes
failure. 3 wheel machines also tend to break welds because of the
smaller radii of the wheels.
If you take a coarse sharpening stone and gently round the back edge of
the blade with the saw running it helps when cutting tight radii. Lee
Valley sells a special stone for this.
I think the low tension is a factor and you should always bring the top
guides down to be almost in contact with the wood. Also do not forget to
correctly adjust the bottom guides when you change blades. Don't laugh I
see it all the time!
Good luck!

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