# Band Saw Blade Selection



## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)




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## Wood4Brains (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks much for posting this video.

I have been looking at bandsaws in lieu of buying a table saw - I admit that I live in fear of kickback.

I guess that for straight line cuts, a 14 inch (but more likely a 16 inch) would be the very minimum for making straight line cuts on a band saw???


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## SebringDon (Jan 2, 2013)

I went the bandsaw route, first with a used 9" Delta Shopmaster, recently upgraded to a new 14" Craftsman. The Delta was sorta tuneable, but the Craftsman is tuned dead on, and even with a simple homemade fence and crosscut jig I can rip and crosscut all day long.

That said, even on the Delta it was possible to get long straight cuts. It just took a slow feed rate and close attention to detail.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

Grunkle Stan said:


> Thanks much for posting this video.
> 
> I have been looking at bandsaws in lieu of buying a table saw - I admit that I live in fear of kickback.
> 
> I guess that for straight line cuts, a 14 inch (but more likely a 16 inch) would be the very minimum for making straight line cuts on a band saw???


Wheel diameter is not the determination of a straight bandsaw cut, rather how well the machine has been tuned.

Even with a well tuned machine and a decent blade, you will likely need to joint the edges of the wood to get a true straight edge, especially if you are gluing.

I used to have a 14in bandsaw, I now have a 17in bandsaw. I recommend the biggest wheel you can afford. Larger wheels mean less stress on the blade, bigger table, more cross cut capacity etc.


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## gus1962 (Jan 9, 2013)

This is a good reference video. I recently purchased 3/8" 4 TPI 201 Series hardback band saw blade. It gives smooth cuts for soft and hard wood and some plastics.


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## Darkmoor (Jan 26, 2013)

I went with the Laguna LT 20 and a pair of their (expensive) resaw blades. Hope they are up to rock hard cured plum and walnut, and largely uncured honey locust, holley, laurel, etc

What blade (brand and type) would you lads recommend for a Jet 14 inch for resaw, (really a 4.25 inch for resaw) or is it too wimpy for that task with smaller diameter stock? Say 1.5 inch and less.. the stock blade is for paneling or similar. Tried it with a 4 inch piece of plum, forget it unless I am going to live to 200


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## WarnerConstInc. (Nov 25, 2008)

I have had several large saws and currently run a 36" machine. I prefer narrow blades. My go to blade for all work is a 3tpi 3/8" wide band.


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## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

A bit of rambling here....so if that offends anyone,stop reading now.


Somewhere recently saw a bloop or blurb about "some" new phones having a super slow-mo feature.I don't even have a cell,so colour me stupid?It was either built into the phone or is an app.....beats me(see above).I saw the feature being used as a diagnostic tool,in this case it was some semi-auto rifle that was having "issues".They were using the slow-mo to track down this or that problem.What was so gaul-dang interesting however wasn't the case extraction....it was the scope.You could see the front objective literally oscillating up/down under recoil.And it was filmed on a phone....go figure?So any of you fancy phone users want to film something?Check out a bandsaw blade sometime.


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