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Bandsaw Blades


avengers63

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My bandsaw blade gave up the fight last night. I was re-sawing some 2" thick zebrawood for a bookmatch. The lumber on the outfeed pinched closed and bound up the blade. Lather, rinse, and repeat and by the 3rd go, I'm not willing to use this blade anymore. It sounds line it's going to turn into shrapnel.

So...

What recomendations would y'all have for a 67" blade. My local stores don't carry 67" blades. I'm looking at bandsawbladesdirect.com and sunbeltindustrial.com for their made-to-length blades, but I wanted to get some input first. Any thoughts or suggestions?

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I've dealt with bandsawbladesdirect, their prices are fine and the blades are good quality. But they don't update your online receipt when the package actually ships....I got no shipping notification at all, I had to call them twice...once to get them to ship it, a second to confirm that it actually shipped.

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I'll go ahead and put in a plug for U-cut.com. They have pretty much any band Lenox made, and I got a trimaster 1/2", aluminum master 3/4" and a woodmaster CT 1" blade from them recently, shipped within a week (didn't have some of the blades in stock), and had very fair prices - $145, $150 and $101, respectively, for a 145" blade length. Although I have to say the weak dollar/strong euro situation is why I bought more than one. I've got a lifetime supply of bandsaw blade now, I suspect.

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I'll go ahead and put in a plug for U-cut.com. They have pretty much any band Lenox made, and I got a trimaster 1/2", aluminum master 3/4" and a woodmaster CT 1" blade from them recently, shipped within a week (didn't have some of the blades in stock), and had very fair prices - $145, $150 and $101, respectively, for a 145" blade length. Although I have to say the weak dollar/strong euro situation is why I bought more than one. I've got a lifetime supply of bandsaw blade now, I suspect.

and I want to hear what you think of the blades after you have chewed up some wood :D .

Rich

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I decided to go with Sun Belt. The blade prices were comparable, but Sun Belt had a lor cheaper shipping. I'd love to give you a report, but I'm NOT an expert, so I doubt my testimony will be worth much. The only thing I might be able to say is if it'll be better or worse than the blade that came with the saw. I'm just going to go on a hunch that the blades that come with it aren't worth a darn, so even THAT wouldn't tell you anything.

Edited by avengers63
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  • 2 weeks later...

The blades from Sun Belt came in Monday. As I expected, the blade that came with the saw was junk. I went by the spec sheet in the instructions, the spec sheet on the website, and the spec sheet inside the saw itself and ordered 67" blades. They're REALLY snug. So snug I had some issues wrangling them onto the wheels. Next time, it'll be 67.5".

What dorked up the first blade was trying to resaw some 4" wide 2" thick zebrawood. Also, the blade had a tendancy to drift. I did adjust the guide wheels as best as they can be, but it wanted to drift anyway. As the original blade was 1/4", I put on a 1/2" blade and tried it out on the zebrawood that ate the other one. I figured "If it won't do the job, I better find out now". I fed the wood through SLOWLY because 1) it hadn't been broken in yet and 2) zebrano is kinda hard. It went through the wood straight as an arrow. I'm pleased.

Again, I don't know what this is worth to you, but the fact is that the blade worked extremely well on my reconditioned $140 Ryobi bandsaw when resawing a 4" wide 22" long piece of zebrano.

As for customer service, I ordered the blades on 30-June, and they came in on 7-July. An email notification was sent out 2-July noting the order had been shipped. Factoring in a mailing holiday (4-July), the turnaround time was very reasonable for made-to-order blades. For price, 4 67" flex-back blades, 2 1/4" 4TIP & 2 1/2" 3TPI, came to the mid-$40's including shipping.

I hope this information is helpful.

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