Need band saw blade

First thiings first - is it a *metal* cutting bandsaw???? The *wood* cutting bandsaw I have from Sears uses an 80" blade. Wood cutting bandsaws run way too fast for metal. Ken.

No, it's a wood-cutting bandsaew, but I was considering using a variac to decrease the cutting speed. My saw uses the same 80" blades. I'm able to cut aluminum like butter using my skip-tooth blade.

Rich

I have the same saw and ended up ordering my blades from

If your motor on the bandsaw is the typical induction motor, a variac will not do you any good. The induction motor locks to the frequency of the line -- changing the voltage will only cause it to drop out of lock with a lighter load and stall. You need to either put in a jackshaft with a pulley reduction system or something like that to slow the saw down.

mikey

There is a HUGE difference between cutting aluminum and stainless. You will have to slow that saw down to a crawl to cut SS. Typical wood saws run 3000FPS. You need less than 100 and probably more like 50 for SS. You will also need some kind of lube. I used a big wax stick sold for this purpose.

Second, are you cutting thick blocks or thin sheet? The TPI will depend on thickness. A course blade on thin sheet will strip all the teeth off the blade and bend the stock too.

chuck

I have a related question. I have an old Delta three wheel saw. The wheels are pretty small. I keep breaking the blades I find in the store- I suspect they are not really intended to bend around such a small radius. I guess I should get real Delta blades, but, do they still make blades for their old three-wheel saws?

Question here would be if the blades are breaking at the welded joint? If so, take a new blade and anneal the welded joint a bit and let it cool, then install and try it out. Should be better. Ken.

How thick are the blades you've been getting? .025 gauge is probably most common, but thinner blades are available. For example...