I have an older vertricle bandsaw that currently has a wood blade in it. This is an older bandsaw, but it's pretty decent, but I'm not sure about the length of the blade. I want to get a new blade, and I was curious if anyone was aware of a place around Atlanta, preferably on the North West side, but anywhere will do, that made custom length bandsaw blades for cutting metal. Any help is greatly appreicated. I googed this, but didn't come up with anything very useful for what I was looking for. Also any tips on the right blade to get would be appreciated. I found this
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and it looks like I want a bi-metal blade, but I don't know much about what makes a good blade.
Assuming your bandsaw can cut at speeds of 30-300 fpm (wood speeds are typically
800-5000 fpm) then you may or may not want a bimetal blade. In production you certainly would want one, but they are expensive and can be frustrating because if you get the speed wrong those hard brittle teeth can strip right off quickly. Carbon steel blades from a good manufacturer do dull more quickly but the teeth don't strip off and they're a lot cheaper. I'm tired of wrecking $40 blades so I'm switching over to carbon steel ones for my 14" vertical. - GWE
MSC is in your town, and they make blades, and have quite a good selection of stock and will custom make any size.They should be listed in the Atlanta Phonebook
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I've always used a piece of string wrapped around the wheels and marked at the intersection for finding blade sizes on a bandsaw. Unless it's a real oddball or homemade, it'll have something standard for a blade. Just got a flyer from HF, they've got their 220v blade welder on sale currently. Just another option.
What type of blade you want depends totally on what you want to cut. Wood blades are different from metal blades and there's a lot of differences in tooth patterns even for wood blades. If it's a woodcutting bandsaw, you're going to want to slow it way down for anything ferrous. Tooth shapes can be different for alloy compared with steel-cutting blades, too. Usually the maker has some line sheets that state what each pattern is good for. Starrett used to have some nice stuff in the back of their catalog on bandsaw blades and applications.
Lenox makes good bimetal blades, they're what I've been using on the
4x6. You've got to match the tooth pitch with what you're cutting, too coarse a pitch with thin steel or thin-wall tubing and you'll shuck those nice hardened teeth right off. I usually have three pitches on hand and swap blades depending on what I want to chop and its shape.
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