Starret Bandsaw Blade Life Expectancy

Ignoramus12350 fired this volley in news:5IydneTNkthMOejMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Yup... but despite EA's inane protestations, the Starrett bi-metal blades are good. I go roughly a year between replacing them on the 8x24 Kalamazo. I don't make as much steel chips as you do, but still cut a lot of stock.

I figure - at some point - time is as important as blade cost. I'm not one to shirk buying a new cutting tool if one wears out; I HATE dull _anything_. But after long enough, you figure a blade must be fatigued from all the bending, that being just as much or more destructive than the wear from actual cutting. My old blades break (usually) long before they dull.

LLoyd

news:5IydneTNkthMOejMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

EA is not the only one. When I worked at Qualcomm's Prototype machine shop we tried Starrett band saw blades with very poor results. I've also used Starrett band saw blades elsewhere and they weren't very good and certainly were nothing special. That doesn't mean all Starrett band saw blades suck or they they don't have something new that's great only that I've seen nothing special about them.

If you look closely, you'll probably see numerous stress cracks.

Re-welding is futile, it'll just break again someplace else.

FWIW, I'm currently using DoAll blades, and the saw sees aluminum only, for maybe 3 hours a week...

--blades usually last at least a year unless there's a mishap.

"PrecisionmachinisT" fired this volley in news:LKGdnQKazYfgJejMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@scnresearch.com:

I do... I already knew that. I was just trying to make the point that fatigue is often the limiting factor.

After all, every gullet is a designed-to-purpose stress riser in the metal!

Lloyd

So is hypereutectic aluminum -- until it tears the crap out of your blade, which will happen before you can get a cup of coffee.

Ease of cutting may not tell you anything about blade life, Iggy, although it usually does. Just be aware that alloys are not "mild steel." Mild steel is a non-technical nickname for plain carbon steels, usually below 20 points of carbon. IOW, 1020 or below.

Oh yes, indeed. I'll try to be good. If I can't be good, I'll at least try to entertain a bit. d8-)

As Thomas Jefferson said, in his conclusion to the "Tree of Liberty" letter:

"The want of facts worth communicating to you has occasioned me to give a little loose to dissertation. We must be contented to amuse, when we cannot inform."

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@ot10g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...

gullible folks who are apparently eager to waste their own time spoon-feeding him with information that he could easily figure out on his own if he were so inclined.

someone who posts on usenet using the nym "ignoramus", if you catch my drift...

their reasoning, problem solving, and decision making skills generally suffer substantially as a result.

Pfffhhhht!

Go s*it in your hat. How's that for a small amount of research?

Cutting aluminum, or cutting D-2?

How high is up?

Lenox has worked for me for years.

Starrett sucks indeed.

gullible folks who are apparently eager to waste their own time spoon-feeding him with information that he could easily figure out on his own if he were so inclined.

someone who posts on usenet using the nym "ignoramus", if you catch my drift...

their reasoning, problem solving, and decision making skills generally suffer substantially as a result.

One has to assume that, having condemned Iggy for asking questions, that you know everything.

I'm reminded of the old heads, you know, the guys that have been at it for 20 - 30 years, when they get a job that is a bit intricate they wander around the shop asking other chaps, "if you were doing this how would you do it", and after having collected a number of ideas they go ahead and make the piece. The young apprentice boys, on the other hand, being too embarrassed with their own lack of knowledge to ask questions frequently have to go back to the boss and admit that they can't figure out how to make the part. You sound much like the latter description.

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@ot10g2000pbb.googlegroups.com...

gullible folks who are apparently eager to waste their own time spoon-feeding him with information that he could easily figure out on his own if he were so inclined.

for someone who posts on usenet using the nym "ignoramus", if you catch my drift...

their reasoning, problem solving, and decision making skills generally suffer substantially as a result.

They're calling you from your Group, Jon. Run! Run!

Ditch the hat first, though.

I would say, each of his multiple personalities has multiple problems. :)

Thanks. Also, it is a lot better to ask a question about making buckets of chips, even a dumb one, as opposed to waging personal vendettas.

I find it fascinating how a blade that weighs, maybe, a pound, can make multiple buckets of chips. To me, frankly, it feels like a mystery. It turns out that there is a lot of ilttle secrets to bandsawing.

Someone showed me a cool trick yesterday, in order to cut bundles of rods, he would weld their backs together with tacks. I thought that it was rather clever.

Maybe there's a therapist who offers bulk discounts.

The problem is that his multiple persnoalities need different therapists.

I'm sure there are therapists with multiple personalities as well. Hopefully all of them are licensed.

Jon, there are only about four people here who give Iggy a hard time. And three of them are you.

Nothing will top the video about growing vegetables in your bathroom. That's going to be your signature identification, Jon. d8-)

I'll bet your table is going to be something to behold -- Eight pitchers of vegetable juice and a puddle of melted cranberry sauce.