I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Brownnsharp

In article ,
brownnsharp wrote:

I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Brownnsharp


Buy good blades from a saw shop.
I like Lennox Bi-Metal blades.
For thin wall tube and pipe use a 18 TPI blade.
For heavier bar stock go to a 10 or 12 TPI.

The blades should be 64-1/2" x 0.020" x 1/2".

On 16 Nov 2003 19:49:25 -0800, (brownnsharp) wrote:
I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Buy good blades. I like the Lenox bimetal blades. 12 to 18 TPI
should be about right for most things you're likely to cut. 6 TPI
is just too coarse for a 1/2 x .020 blade.

Gary

"brownnsharp" wrote in message
om...
I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Brownnsharp

If you feel you won't shuck teeth from the blades, a bi-metal is very good,
but I don't use them. I've stayed with carbon steel blades for a couple
reasons. One, I usually damages a blade well before wearing it out, or (2)
it breaks from fatigue before you have the miles from it. Regardless of
your choice, though, I think that the blade stock in question might be .025"
thick, not .020". To make a proper blade selection, just remember to
have at least three teeth in contact with the work at all times. If you
don't have, you'll shuck teeth, especially with the gravity feed type saws
that don't have fine control of the feed speed. If you're cutting small
diameter material, or thin stock or tubing, that calls for something as fine
as a 28 pitch blade. For thick materials where you'd have lots of teeth
in contact, it's best to have a coarser blade, even a skip tooth if
necessary. You need a place for the chips to accumulate while the blade
gets from one side of the cut to the other, and fine pitch blades usually
don't have enough room. That causes the blade to float instead of cut,
which leads to more heat and faster failure of the blade. Hope this
helps.

Harold

I bought a HF horizontal bandsaw and have used their blades as well as
nice Kennametal varipitch blades from Enco. The HF blades seemed to
work ok and dulled in an reasonable amount of cuts. The Kennametal
blades cut a lot faster and last very well. I now only use the
Kennametal blades.

--G--

On 16 Nov 2003 19:49:25 -0800, (brownnsharp) wrote:

I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Brownnsharp

Harold & Susan Vordos wrote:

If you feel you won't shuck teeth from the blades, a bi-metal is very good,
but I don't use them. I've stayed with carbon steel blades for a couple
reasons. One, I usually damages a blade well before wearing it out, or (2)
it breaks from fatigue before you have the miles from it.

I have been using Morse bi-metal blades almost since I got my saw three
or four years ago. I have been cutting everything from EMT and .035
wall 2" Al irrigation pipe to 4130 1/8" plate and (Harold's favourite
material, NOT) OCS with a 14 tpi plade. Most recent cut was a piece of
5" diameter 6061-T6. I had to remove about 30 thou facing cut to get
that last one square. I put some light up pressure by hand on the end
of the saw arm when cutting thin wall stuff. I once damaged a toth a
couple years ago.

When I got the saw it had a carbon steel blade. It was toast. I had
been advised to use carbon steel blades since they were much cheaper. I
bought two. Big mistake. They last about a week each. Princess Auto
had a sale on the Morse bi-metal. Bought six. Still have 2 unused
hanging on the wall and one on the saw. One, as I said, I damaged. The
others two were plain wore out.

Regardless of
your choice, though, I think that the blade stock in question might be .025"

That is correct. 0.025" thick.

Ted

I used several carbon steel blades, and bought half of a 100 ft. roll of
blade stock. Welded them up at work on a Do-All with built-in welder, but
it didn't work very well on stock that thin (0.025"). Then I got a Lenox
Bi-Metal blade from the J&L Industrial store, and 3 years later it's still
cutting very well.

Doug


"Gary Coffman" wrote in message
...
On 16 Nov 2003 19:49:25 -0800, (brownnsharp) wrote:
I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Buy good blades. I like the Lenox bimetal blades. 12 to 18 TPI
should be about right for most things you're likely to cut. 6 TPI
is just too coarse for a 1/2 x .020 blade.

Gary

"DougVL" wrote in message
...
I used several carbon steel blades, and bought half of a 100 ft. roll of
blade stock. Welded them up at work on a Do-All with built-in welder, but
it didn't work very well on stock that thin (0.025"). Then I got a Lenox
Bi-Metal blade from the J&L Industrial store, and 3 years later it's still
cutting very well.

Doug

The DoAll welder is not very easy to use. I, too use one, and you have to
work at getting proper welds, and even harder at annealing properly, but
once you get it figured out, you can produce outstanding welds. You just
have go through the learning curve, often for each type of blade stock.
They are not identical. I'm very pleased with mine and the results now
that I've gone through a few welds.

Harold

In article ,
says...

"DougVL" wrote in message
...
I used several carbon steel blades, and bought half of a 100 ft. roll of
blade stock. Welded them up at work on a Do-All with built-in welder, but
it didn't work very well on stock that thin (0.025"). Then I got a Lenox
Bi-Metal blade from the J&L Industrial store, and 3 years later it's still
cutting very well.

Doug

The DoAll welder is not very easy to use. I, too use one, and you have to
work at getting proper welds, and even harder at annealing properly, but
once you get it figured out, you can produce outstanding welds. You just
have go through the learning curve, often for each type of blade stock.
They are not identical. I'm very pleased with mine and the results now
that I've gone through a few welds.


The biggest problem I had with my DoAll welder is the very
non-obvious adjustment for the weld current contacts, which
controls the timing of the weld current relative to the
movement of the blade clamps. If this is set too early
you're likely to blow holes in the weld rather than getting
a properly upset weld. On my saw, the adjustment is a hex
socket screw hidden inside a fiber insulator in the large
power contact assembly. With this adjusted properly it's
difficult to make a bad weld.

I do a double anneal. Once very lightly before moving the
blade from the welding position--just enough to make the
blade sturdy enough to remove from the clamps and grind the
weld. Then the blade goes into the stepped portion of the
jaws to be annealed to dark blue.

Ned Simmons

I've found that good blades make a world of difference in how a
bandsaw performs. I keep being amazed at how well my Milwaukee
portable works but I think it's mostly the Milwaukee bimetal blades.
That saw goes thru barstock up to 4" dia far faster than the low-end
horizontal bandsaws do.

Ditto with the Wilton vertical bandsaw. I was mildly disappointed
with the saw when I first tried it with the supplied (import) blade,
but it works beautifully with a Sandvik blade I bought locally.

Figure at least 3 teeth in the cut, choose pitch, rake, speed and
tooth shape according to thickness and material. Your local
sawblade purveyor can be a lot of help.

On 16 Nov 2003 19:49:25 -0800, (brownnsharp) wrote:

I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
saw blades.

Brownnsharp

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 01:00:14 -0600, Don Foreman
wrote:

===I've found that good blades make a world of difference in how a
===bandsaw performs. I keep being amazed at how well my Milwaukee
===portable works but I think it's mostly the Milwaukee bimetal blades.
===That saw goes thru barstock up to 4" dia far faster than the low-end
===horizontal bandsaws do.
===
===Ditto with the Wilton vertical bandsaw. I was mildly disappointed
===with the saw when I first tried it with the supplied (import) blade,
===but it works beautifully with a Sandvik blade I bought locally.
===
===Figure at least 3 teeth in the cut, choose pitch, rake, speed and
===tooth shape according to thickness and material. Your local
===sawblade purveyor can be a lot of help.
===
===On 16 Nov 2003 19:49:25 -0800, (brownnsharp) wrote:
===
===I just bought a metal cutting horizontal bandsaw (one of those that
===swivel from one end of the saw, takes a 64 inch blade and cuts by
===gravity feed, switching itself off when finished) from my local scrap
===metal yard. Spent the day welding and straightnening things, and am
===ready to cut stuff now. On my vertical bandsaw, I use 6 T/in blades
===for thick steel (1"). A friend of mine said I should use much finer
===teeth on the horizontal saw. Anyone got a list of recommended T/in
===blades for various thickness materials for these saws? What brands of
===saw blades hold up? Anyone tried HF bandsaw blade? Their store is
===really handy-close-by to me. I buy a lot of Harbor freight stuff, but
===I don't buy anything that requires that the alloys or heat treating be
===well-done for it to work. I.e. no pin wrenches, snap-ring pliers, or
===jewelers screwdrivers,for instance. Hence,I am wary of Harbor Freight
===saw blades.
===
===Brownnsharp

I have just had the opportunity to use and play with a Milwaukee Porta
Band saw this past week and I have been really amazed at how well that
thing cuts and at the speed. I have had that blade twisted and
distorted pretty bad trying to make some cuts up under a trailer, and
have yet to break a blade. Its amazingly fast. For my pumy butt its a
might awkward to hold in out or position cutting, but its still aheck
of a sight better than a hand hack saw could ever dream of. Too mad
those things go for asbout $300 or I would definately have me one. I
just hope my buddy is not to much in a hurry to carry it back home
again. It would be great for cutting all my various exercise equipment
steel frames and such apart, instead of hand sawing the stuff or
getting into a jam with the odd ball shapes etc in my Horrible Fright
H?V saw.

He also broungt his Porter Cable Tiger saw. I am also hooked on that
as well. I guess I could probably only talk the better half into one,
and its a tought decision to make. Two different saws, but both
terrific.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

Roy wrote:
... a Milwaukee Porta Band saw ...
those things go for asbout $300 or I would definately have me one. ...

I got a Porter Cable one off ebay for $59. Well used, but not used-up -
it will outlast me for the incidental use that I give it. I think that
I was real lucky to get it at that price, but you can save a lot by
buying used. With the quality of the Milwaukee and P-C brands, I didn't
feel that I was taking much of a risk.

Bob