Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey guys, all the recent posts about bandsaws and blade recommendations have really made me want to see if anybody has any recommendations as to what I can do with my bandsaw. If your comment is to buy a new bandsaw don't waste your time typing it out, this was given to me and I'm a med-student with a wife and 3 kids (read: not going to be buying a bandsaw for a long time!).

Enough of that. Anyway, I have a Hitachi CB6Y 10" bandsaw and the only blades I've been able to find (without going to high-end custom blades that are just too far out of my price range) are flimsy and have a ton of lateral travel during a cut (read: don't cut straight). Does anybody have any recommendations as to what would be a good blade to run? I know this is a slightly loaded question, but I obviously am not doing any resawing with this bandsaw but it would sure be nice to use it to rip wood for necks or cutting tail blocks and have a straight cut. When I asked the guys at Woodcraft they told me to buy a new saw, when I said that wasn't an option they told me to learn how to cut with a handsaw. Very helpful

I've tried the Powertec blades and they dull ridiculously quickly. I was thinking of purchasing from bandsawbladesdirect.com but wasn't sure which blade (if any of those) I should be looking at. The powertec's are only like $8 (and not worth any more than that) so dropping $30 on a blade that will actually last more than an hour is fine with me. I'm new to this arena and figured I should take advantage of the wealth of knowledge kicking around in a lot of your heads.

I appreciate the help.

Specs on the saw (taken from amazon.com):
# Motor: 1/3 -horsepower, 4.0 amp, continuous duty,-induction-type, 120v, 60 Hz, 1725 RPM
# Cutting Capacity: 9-3/8-inch throat depth, 5-inch max height at 90-degrees
# Blade Size: 63.5-inches, 1/4 to 3/8-inch width, 0.014-inch thickness
# Blade Speed: 3600 Feet Per Minute

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Hi, Aaron. The best thing I can recommend is that you spend some time reading on-line about tuning up your saw. There is a wealth of free and useful information available to you.
Google terms like "band saw maintenance" or "band saw adjustment" and you will find hours of reading and viewing. As to your cut problems, there could be several things going on. Your wheels might or might not be co-planar, which simply means that one could be slightly canted in relationship to the other. You might not have the right blade tension dialed in, or the tensioning spring might be weak. Your blade guides might just need a simple adjustment. Again, you can find out how to check and correct all these things on the internet, and most of these issues just require a bit of simple tinkering to get things right. Occasionally, you can run into a more complicated problem. But again, the internet is your friend. You might also discover that you just need some more practice with scrap boards. Don't worry if that's the case. Just grab some sticks, draw some straight lines on them, and then start sawing.

You might be experiencing a phenomenon called "drift". Even with a well-tuned saw, many bandsaw blades tend to cut straightest along a line that is slightly angled to the supposed line of cut. I believe this is due to irregularly "set" teeth. By "set", I mean the alternating side rake to every other tooth. (As you face the saw, teeth raked more toward your left will favor a cut that angles from your near left to your distant right.) I have compensated for this phenomenon by clamping a shop made fence parallel to the line of drift. Others recommend dressing the tooth set with a honing stone. If you do this, do it ONLY with an unplugged saw!!!: With the saw tuned and proper tension on the blade, open the access panel on the front. With your left index finger on a wheel spoke, spin the top wheel backwards. With the other hand, hold a sharpening stone flat on the table so that it just "kisses" the SIDE of the blade that is causing the drift. If you do it right, you'll hear only a few teeth touching the stone with each revolution. Then close the panel, plug in and do some more test cuts.

Not sure I have explained this well. Again, Google search these things, and you'll find better explanations with photos and even video demonstrations.

Good luck with it. Nothing wrong with a tool that is gifted. Sure, it might not be an industrial workhorse, but you can probably make it perform well for lots of useful work.

If your blade is properly tensioned & the guides are properly set, the saw should cut straight assuming that the frame is not flexing from the blade tension, in which case you need to buy... sorry.

All bandsaw blades will have inherent drift which means that the blade will cut straight but not necessarily in line with the table - you have to skew the workpiece to the table for the saw to cut a straight line. Once you figure out that skew angle, feed along that line & it will cut straight.

In my experience, the Olson blades from Woodcraft (something like a 1/4" x 4tpi skip tooth blade) work pretty decent for the price.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Thanks for the replies! I have done some research (admittedly not a whole lot) and thought that it was the guides just allowing for too much side-to-side play in the blade so I looked up how to adjust those and they seemed to be set just as I was instructed. I don't think that I'm getting the tension on the blade that I need, when I bring the blade to tension the spring arm doesn't extend all the way (the spring seems to reach its limit really quickly). Maybe I'll check out ereplacementparts and see what I can do about replacing the spring.

Any opinions/suggestions on good blades in this size?

_________________
"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

Hi aaron hope this helps for 13 years I have been using , a ryobi 9 in bandsaw that has seen a lot of use . I have used 3 different types of blades. The first ones vermont american, were frankly junk and dulled very quickly. Next I started ordering 5 blade packs of 1/4 in3 tpi skip tooth blades from BC saw in toronto, These were good blades that left a rough cut on ripping /crosscutting/. When the blades wore out they would just break on the bandsaw . For the past 3 years I have switched to an el cheapo 6tpi 3/8 in ultra thin delta blades (59.5 In) which I purchased cheap from one of those tool clearance places locally that sold clearance or rebuilt ryobi tools etc . they are not in biz any longer . These thin kerf blades are great for all operations , and generally leave a smooth finish IMHO. I also made numerous modifications to the saw I put a slightly larger rear thrust bearings about 1/64in behind the blade , I replaced the crappy blade guides with lignum vitae or ebony,metal ones ruin the blade set.. sq the blade to the table . I also use it in conjunction with a plywood fence. I also use a small shop vac hooked up to the bandsaw to eliminate dust.Ocassionaly lubricate bansaw blades with wd -40 or suitable lubricant. Good luck, there are many blade suppliers. If you plan to use anything over 1/4 in make sure it is very thin otherwise it will bog down in the cut.

Hi, again, Aaron.
If your tensioning spring seems to "bottom out" before it can bring the blade into proper tension, then I highly recommend replacing that spring. This is all very difficult to diagnose via forum posts, but if, indeed, your tensioning spring has lost its power, then it needs to be replaced before trying any other blades or any other solutions. An overly compressed spring won't allow even the finest blade to perform to its best potential. This should not be too difficult a repair, and I'm sure you can find an appropriate spring online or even at a good hardware store. Spend some time researching parts. Don't forget to go to the manufacturer's website first. Branch out from there. It takes some patience, but you will get it solved. When you do, you might find that even ordinary blades will perform to your satisfaction for certain tasks. And you might decide that premium blades work best for other tasks. It all comes down to your methods of work and your preferences. You will soon have several blades for different purposes, and each will require a slightly different adjustment of tension, blade guides, etc. My underlying point in all of this is that there is no reason that even a "hobby" sized tool can't be made to perform quite well for you purposes, as long as you don't ask it to perform like an industrial tool.

You'll get it worked out. Best of luck to you, and carry on!
Patrick

I have found Morse blades work well on my 9" proformax.

Bob