On 2013-04-22, Lloyd E. Sponenburgh lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:
Ignoramus12350 fired this volley in
:


When I make ships by the bucket, new problems and questions appear, I
had to redo the coolant nozzle so that the blade stays wetter, etc.


Yup... but despite EA's inane protestations, the Starrett bi-metal blades
are good. I go roughly a year between replacing them on the 8x24
Kalamazo. I don't make as much steel chips as you do, but still cut a
lot of stock.

I figure - at some point - time is as important as blade cost. I'm not
one to shirk buying a new cutting tool if one wears out; I HATE dull
_anything_. But after long enough, you figure a blade must be fatigued
from all the bending, that being just as much or more destructive than
the wear from actual cutting. My old blades break (usually) long before
they dull.

I find it fascinating how a blade that weighs, maybe, a pound, can
make multiple buckets of chips. To me, frankly, it feels like a
mystery. It turns out that there is a lot of ilttle secrets to
bandsawing.

Someone showed me a cool trick yesterday, in order to cut bundles of
rods, he would weld their backs together with tacks. I thought that it
was rather clever.

i