Sharpening Band Saw Blades
 

I know. I know. Its just not worth your time, but I have to wait a
couple days for some new blades to arrive, and I have stock to take down.

Its my own fault. I bought a new 7x12 HF bandsaw and I love it. Its an
order of magnitude better than my old 4x6. In fact think its better on
average than most HF tools I have bought over the years. Its not a
throw away tool.

Anyway, the plane carbon steel blade on it has worked great. I knew I
needed to order some better quality M42 bimetal blades sooner or later,
but the stock blades was doing a great job of whizzing through aluminum
and mild steel. The other day I needed to make some square U-bolts
because I needed to finish a project, and nobody who was open had
anyway. I made most of them out of 304 stainless and the saw worked ok,
but I had to make the last couple out of 4140QT. (Its what I had on
hand.) The teeth on the blade aren't pointy anymore. LOL. I've got to
break down some more stock, but I've got the old 4x6 set up semi
permanently as a small vertical now. (Its got a bimetal blade in it.)

So in a pinch what would you use to make the teeth on that carbon steel
blade sharp again? I was thinking a fiber cutoff wheel in a rotary hand
piece would be able to shave the back side of the teeth moderately fast,
but those little wheels don't last long when doing real work. I hit it
with a file just to see and the blade is pretty hard. It would dull a
file long before the file sharpened the whole blade.

I know. I know. Just go convert the little saw back to horizontal for
now and wait for my blades to arrive for the bigger saw.

Sharpening Band Saw Blades
 

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I know. I know. Its just not worth your time, but I have to wait a
couple days for some new blades to arrive, and I have stock to take
down.

Its my own fault. I bought a new 7x12 HF bandsaw and I love it.
Its an order of magnitude better than my old 4x6. In fact think
its better on average than most HF tools I have bought over the
years. Its not a throw away tool.

Anyway, the plane carbon steel blade on it has worked great. I knew
I needed to order some better quality M42 bimetal blades sooner or
later, but the stock blades was doing a great job of whizzing
through aluminum and mild steel. The other day I needed to make
some square U-bolts because I needed to finish a project, and nobody
who was open had anyway. I made most of them out of 304 stainless
and the saw worked ok, but I had to make the last couple out of
4140QT. (Its what I had on hand.) The teeth on the blade aren't
pointy anymore. LOL. I've got to break down some more stock, but
I've got the old 4x6 set up semi permanently as a small vertical
now. (Its got a bimetal blade in it.)

So in a pinch what would you use to make the teeth on that carbon
steel blade sharp again? I was thinking a fiber cutoff wheel in a
rotary hand piece would be able to shave the back side of the teeth
moderately fast, but those little wheels don't last long when doing
real work. I hit it with a file just to see and the blade is pretty
hard. It would dull a file long before the file sharpened the whole
blade.

I know. I know. Just go convert the little saw back to horizontal
for now and wait for my blades to arrive for the bigger saw.


FWIW, a sharpening shop regrinds my 16' long sawmilll bands for $8.
-jsw

Sharpening Band Saw Blades
 

s ago, inOn Tue, 8 May 2018 09:26:53 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I know. I know. Its just not worth your time, but I have to wait a
couple days for some new blades to arrive, and I have stock to take down.

Its my own fault. I bought a new 7x12 HF bandsaw and I love it. Its an
order of magnitude better than my old 4x6. In fact think its better on
average than most HF tools I have bought over the years. Its not a
throw away tool.

Anyway, the plane carbon steel blade on it has worked great. I knew I
needed to order some better quality M42 bimetal blades sooner or later,
but the stock blades was doing a great job of whizzing through aluminum
and mild steel. The other day I needed to make some square U-bolts
because I needed to finish a project, and nobody who was open had
anyway. I made most of them out of 304 stainless and the saw worked ok,
but I had to make the last couple out of 4140QT. (Its what I had on
hand.) The teeth on the blade aren't pointy anymore. LOL. I've got to
break down some more stock, but I've got the old 4x6 set up semi
permanently as a small vertical now. (Its got a bimetal blade in it.)

So in a pinch what would you use to make the teeth on that carbon steel
blade sharp again? I was thinking a fiber cutoff wheel in a rotary hand
piece would be able to shave the back side of the teeth moderately fast,
but those little wheels don't last long when doing real work. I hit it
with a file just to see and the blade is pretty hard. It would dull a
file long before the file sharpened the whole blade.

I know. I know. Just go convert the little saw back to horizontal for
now and wait for my blades to arrive for the bigger saw.

Years ago, in _Fine Woodworking_ magazine or one of their books, was a
description of a simple setup that involved a narrow cutoff-type wheel
mounted in a bench grinder, with a simple guide and a finger to step
the blade along, one tooth at a time. It was very fast. You skip teeth
and then re-set the angle of the guide (it was just C-clamped
together, IIRC) to grind the alternate teeth.

I used the setup once, to convert a cross-cut wood blade to a rip saw.
A lot of experienced woodworkers prefer the straight-across rip saw
blade for all wood cutting.

--
Ed Huntress