Joining bandsaw blades

blades?

create a

Wayne,

Before I got my current bandsaw, which has a welder incorporated, I would scarf the join, clamp them in a simple jig and silver solder them, filing the silver solder flush when done - worked fine. I've heard of people on the other side of the pond Tigging them satisfactorily with a straight but joint, again in a jig.

AWEM

Andrew I'll give it a go.

More disasters, the damn motor just burnt out! Tis only a cheap machine mart 41/2" saw and only just over a month old, so I'll take the motor back tomorrow. Not going to say how much work it's done though ;)

Wayne...

I know where there is a bandsaw blade welder and tooth setter that are due to go on ebay soon, unless anyone offers suitable amounts to my friend (the owner of said items) Bob

Any idea if it can do 1/2" blades? single phase? (maybe they all were).

I just took the motor off the machine. 500W on the nameplate, and a hidden sticker under the mount says 370W ;) But give machine mart their due they only list the machine as 1/2HP.

Silly me I used the rather fine blade as supplied with the machine to cut some ally to try and finish off the job before I start the 2" stuff. It was taking so long compared to the 6tpi blades I went indoors. It must have had a blade jam and stalled.

Obviously no motor protection overload on the machine at all. :(

We'll see what they say tomorrow. I might have to buy one of their stock motors to get me going again quickly.

Wayne...

Can't do that.. Got 6 x 4 metre lengths of 2" square ally to cut into

360 off 62mm long pieces! I'm also running it at it's fastest speed, which worked great on the 6tpi blade.

Got a new 1 HP motor on there today. Didn't want to have to buy a machine mart motor as they are expensive, but it's working again. Had to extend the crappy mounting plate by 5/8" in width to mount it.

Now to knock up a blade joining fixture and get cutting again. 4 new blades should get here on Monday.

Thats the 1st thing to remake I think. What rubbish bit's of these machines are, but at 170 odd quid I guess they have to.

I think I'll be on the lookout for a 3/4" blade machine on ebay if one comes up fairly locally.

Wayne...

Wayne If your near Harlow on Monday I can let you see and try the blade welder that's up for grabs. It is single phase and I have photos of it, but cant remember what online picture programme people use in this group. Bob

Bob. I've had some success with the fixture I knocked up earlier. As long as the scarf joint is very shallow it works light a charm.

In fact one blade broke again, but not at the original join which I had silver soldered.

Touch wood it's going well, I have a load more blades coming in on monday. Hopfully I won't need them.

Wayne...

Well all this has been an interesting but frustrating little trip.

Re-joining the blades has been a success. For those interested I put a few pics up here.

The scarf joint was simply ground on the linisher. The jig took all of

30 minutes to knock up using a couple of offcuts of the smaller material I was cutting.

I continued to get some breakages, but not at the join!

I had noticed a fair bit of vibration which was slowly getting worse. This turned out to be the crappy vee belt which was wearing in one spot, and shreading itself. I forget what it looked like new (about 6 weeks ago!) But actually i think it was not the correct section for the pulleys. I found a good belt of the correct section and length on my Studer grinder, and borrowed it!

It's now a lot quieter and smoother. So far no more broken blades.

Only 16 metres to go!

Wayne...

I used to use the blade welder at work 'till they got the new machine that doesn't have one! What's a 'suitable' amount of the folding stuff - I could be interested?

Richard