At the risk of splitting hairs my guess is that the problem might not
actually be with the weld but with the annealing of the joint after the
welding process. Pesonally I've welded Lenox blades on factory equipment and
I can tell you that on a 3/16" blade the weld is like glass until it is
annealed. If the guy doing the welding doesn't have the anneal settings
dialed in right the first time then he is just as likely to screw 'em up the
second time.

Right after the blade is butt welded there is quite a bit of flash that must
be ground off the weld. The physical appearance of the finished weld tells
you something about the operator skill and/or equipment used. As long as the
ground area isn't more than a coupla' thou thinner than the blade it should
be okay but a poorly finished weld might be a hint that guy doing the
welding isn't up to snuff.

Bottom line is even a perfect looking weld that isn't annealed can snap if
you just look at it the wrong way. If you want to do a little post mortem
investigating you can compare the hardness of the weld area to the rest of
the blade by testing with a file.

Steve P.

Greg G. wrote in message
...
FOW said:

You just got hold of some bad blades / welding thing.
Maybe check the tension of the bandsaw. I tension mine by sound, i.e.:
plucking the blade with the guides not set to the blade Furthest away
from
the guides to my left.
|---| ................The blade should have a high pitched ring tone.
Sing
,....like tone. Jack up the tension a little ,run the blade for a few
mins.
then jack up more tension.

I've not had any problem with other blades, just these.
I, too, pluck the blade and watch blade flutter to tension blades with
guide released. And I check before each 'run'.
I think it's just a case of extremely crappy blades.
Thanks, D


Greg G.