• January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to John Lucas for "Lost and Found" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 13, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Bandsaw blade for 14" with riser??

RonC

RonC

Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
20
Likes
0
Location
Ocala, FL United States
I have Delta 14" bandsaw (1 hp 1725 rpm) with the riser. I'm considering buying a 105" 3 or 4 TPI blade. I didn't originally buy this bandsaw for woodturning as probably many others have, but that is what I'm stuck with for the time being.

I finally have some newly fell wood to prepare for wood turning bowls that are about 8" thick. Is this bandsaw to small to do this kind of work on wet wood? Any other suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks/Ron
 
Band Saw

Hi Ron,
I have a Griz 14" with a riser and use mine for rouging out green wood blanks for bowls and such all the time.
Using the correct blade makes all the difference.
I buy Timber Wolf blades directly from their factory. If you buy 3 you get 1 free. I'd been using Carter, but the Timber Wolf last longer. You'll have to call them to order them and they'll help you decide the right blade(s) for the type of work you want to do.
With the right blade that 14" Delta will do just fine.

Good luck,

Tom
 
I ruined 2 of the more expensive blades cutting green wood so now I just buy blades from my local saw sharpening service for $6 each. They cut green wood just fine and if I break one I just take them back to him when I buy more blades and he welds up the old ones so I get more use out of them.
I use 1/2" 3TPI. They cut well enough that I use them for resawing dry wood as long as it doesn't have to be super accurate. They cut accurate enough that I resawed some 5/8" Bamboo flooring and got 1/4" boards out of it. Not bad for $6 I think.
 
Bandsaw blade for 14" with riser

I recently made some modifications to my United bandsaw. New tires, 1 hp motor and Iturra Design high speed pulley system. It really zips through the wet wood. Agree with John Lucas on the cheaper band saw blades. I like the 3/8" blades for bowl blanks, 5/8" for resawing(which I do litttle of).
 
Ron:

Over a period of several years I have tried a number of cheap and not so cheap 105" blades to reliably cut wet blanks from freshly cut wood.

In recent years I have settled on using the 3 tpi 3/8" "Woodturners" blade sold by Highland Woodworking (SHOWN HERE). These blades have a bit of set, and clear the wet wood sawdust well, and are very effective in "green" blank preparation. We now buy them at least a dozen or 20 at a time as a group order because many of our club members use them exclusively.

Like others, I join them back together when and if they break, and occasionally touch them up a bit by sharpening them with a 5/32" diamond hone (used for chainsaw sharpening) in a Dremel tool (takes less than 15 min. for a 105" blade) - I do get a LOT of "mileage" out of them. I recently reconditioned an "mature" 14-inch Jet band saw that I added a riser block to, and now have this second band saw in my garage for exclusive use in preparing green blanks, and the Highland Woodturner's blade cruises through blanks up to 10 or 11" thick without problems on this 1 HP saw. It can make fairly tight radius cuts if you are careful (relief cuts are a lot more important in wet wood than with dry wood!)

I have no affiliation with Highland Woodworking other than being a long-time satisfied customer.

Rob Wallace
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Hi Ron,
I have a Griz 14" with a riser and use mine for rouging out green wood blanks for bowls and such all the time.
Using the correct blade makes all the difference.
I buy Timber Wolf blades directly from their factory. If you buy 3 you get 1 free. I'd been using Carter, but the Timber Wolf last longer. You'll have to call them to order them and they'll help you decide the right blade(s) for the type of work you want to do.
With the right blade that 14" Delta will do just fine.

Good luck,

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom,
I think the buy three get one free deal is for first time buyers only... They do do discounts on multiple blades and you can mix and match to get what you need for various jobs.
The people at Suffolk Machinery (Timber Wolf) are FANTASTIC! They will make sure that you get the right blades for the saw that you have and the jobs you plan to use them on.

I have no financial or business affiliation with the above company beyond my more than satisfied use of their products and services.
 
Guys,

Thanks for all of your insight. I do appreciate everyone's input. You have all given some additional confidence that I needed in doing this the first time. Will probably get my 105" - 3 TPI from our local Woodcraft store, less the 15 min away, but will look at other options for future purchases.

Thanks/Ron
 
Similar to what John Lucas suggested, I use blades from Ellis Manufacturing:

http://www.ellissaw.com/Band-Saw-Blades/4/band-saw-blade-selection

Their "Flexback" 3 TPI hook tooth blades have performed as good as or better than the Timberwolf blades I used to run in my 14" (w/riser) saw, and they cost me about $7 or $8 each. Ellis only takes phone orders and has a $50 minimum purchase, but for a functionally equivalent or better blade at 1/3 the cost of a Timberwolf, I stock up and never look back.
 
While I don't do a lot of resawing, I do enough to agree with Tom. I use Timberwolf blades. However...and this is a big deal...if you saw rough logs, you will likely be sawing through bark. Bark can contain all sorts of nasty things...including plenty of grit that will dull a blade. So be prepared to replace a blade a lot more often than you might with say, kiln dried dimensional lumber.

my 2 cents.
 
Rob Wallace

Rob-Would, could you give some detail on your band saw blade sharpening method using the diamond hone in a Dremel tool. Is there a reasonable method for adjusting the set?
 
Sharpening Bandsaw Blades - What works for me

Wayne Spence said:
Rob-Would, could you give some detail on your band saw blade sharpening method using the diamond hone in a Dremel tool. Is there a reasonable method for adjusting the set?
Click to expand...

Hi Wayne !

I just saw your request for more info about blade sharpening.

I can tell you what I do that works for me....I don't know how this method would adapt to sharpening blades of different manufacturers, but the same method would likely be acceptable.

First, the blades I use most in my two bandsaws (both saws are 14" w/risers; one an old Delta metal/wood saw [28-300], and the other a reconditioned Jet [JBS-14MW]) are the "Woodturner" blades from Highland Woodworking. These blades are 3/8" - 3 tpi with some set. Sharpening takes place while the blade is still in the saw and under tension; unplug the saw to be sure it can't start accidentally. I also use a leather glove on my left hand to move and hold the blade during the sharpening procedure.

The sharpening equipment I use includes a corded Dremel tool (variable speed) fitted with a 5/32" diameter diamond chain saw sharpening stone "burr"; obtained from Lee Valley - item number 77J81.11; $6 for a set of 3). The rotary tool is set to run at about half-speed while I am sharpening. At first, I built a small cradle for holding the Dremel tool in a horizontal position that was able to slide on the table surface so that the grinding stone was kept at about 1.25" above the band saw table. I now "free hand" hold the Dremel which seems to go faster for me than when I had the tool in the jig.

For indexing the sharpening angle, I place a piece of 2" wide masking tape on the table/throatplate and mark lines from the blade that are about 30 degrees off the bade on each side to serve as reference marks to position the stone along those axes.

I first mark a "start-stop" stripe on the blade with a black Sharpie marker to establish beginning and ending points for sharpening. Holding the blade with my gloved left hand, I place the spinning diamond stone into the gullet of the tooth to be sharpened, and touch-up the inside curved portion of the cutting edge of the tooth for 1-2 seconds, maintaining the approx. 30 degree angle. I first sharpen all teeth with the same side set (skipping opposite set teeth as necessary) since it is easier to hold the Dremel in one position and just advance the blade until you've gone around the blade once on that side. Then switch to the other 30 degree line, and sharpen the opposite set teeth going all the way around on that side. The amount of time it now takes me to sharpen the approx. 315 teeth on a 105" blade is typically about 15 minutes. When the blade performance shows signs of dropping off, a quick touch-up brings the blade "back to life". I've been doing this for over 4 years without much problem. I think it's cut my blade costs to about half along with repairing broken blades*.

Given that the Highland Woodworking Woodturner blades already have some set, I have never tried to adjust or modify the set of a bandsaw blade. To do this, I assume some adjustable jig would have to be built, and would need to be done off the saw to provide consistent results from tooth to tooth, and to allow it to be done in both directions.

Some of my friends say my doing all this is just evidence that I'm "cheap"..... given the cost of blades, multiple sharpenings stretches the life of the blades quite a bit, allows them to continue to perform well, and saves money overall.

*If blades break in use (and are not twisted) I braze them back together with silver solder, and get even more life out of them; I usually do this in groups of 2 or 3 broken blades at a time, saved up over period of many months so I can repair them as a batch at one time when I set-up the blade repair jig. ( Maybe I AM cheap ? ? )

I hope this helps! Let me know if you need any further explanation....

Rob Wallace
 
Wayne Spence said:
Rob-Would, could you give some detail on your band saw blade sharpening method using the diamond hone in a Dremel tool. Is there a reasonable method for adjusting the set?
Click to expand...

I also sharpen a 1/2"3 TPI and either use the LV diamond hone in the gullet or a diamond disk on a dremmel right angle adapter on the top. I also use an old fashioned hand saw setting tool I bought at Lee Valley to reset. This is only for sawing bowl blanks and I have close to a 1/8" kerf. I have sawn 8" thick green blanks with my import 14" toolex and riserblock using this blade. Have sharpened several times and resoldered with silver solder as well when it breaks.
 
Resetting blades

An old Stanley 42X saw set with the plunger seems to work well to reset my cheap blades . It provides consistent set, but a small smooth jaw pliars will work at the crude level suitable for rough sawing green wood.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top