Derek Andrews wrote:
George wrote:

Blade width is about the diameter circle it'll cut.

Or, conversely, how well it will cut a straight line.

Alun, have you tried the blade that came with the bandsaw and found a
problem? FWI, I am very happy with the Viking 1/2" x 3tpi blade I use on
my 14" Delta. It seems to work well for both straight cuts and bowl
blanks of any reasonable size.

I've not had any real problems, but then I've never owned, or even used
a bandsaw until two days ago when I got it, so I don't really have
anything to compare it with. I've managed to cut a 13" bowl blank out of
a big slab of 5" thick ash, so I guess it's working OK. The only problem
I have had is when crosscutting some smallish (4-5" diameter) maple logs
that weren't completely cylindrical when the blade appeared to pull the
log downwards in a rotating motion towards the table and then stalled,
but I managed to recover from that.

I measured the blade and it's a 3/8". How small a diameter circle could
I realistically cut with that? And would there be any advantage to going
up a size to, say, a 1/2" blade if I decided that the minimum diameter I
could cut with that wouldn't be a problem?

--
Alun Saunders