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Band saw


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Ok so I had my band saw blade snap on me today during a cut. I'm out of backups so I decided to braze it up and see if I could get back to the cut list.
It actually worked like a champ, saved me 25 bucks today. Im kinda p.oed thinking how many I've thrown away in the past.

So now I'm thinking I've got this 7 x 12 h/v Wilton and I've been paying someone else to weld up the blades for me. I'm guessing the blades come in a roll and you just cut off 96" and braze em up...am I right.

How many of you do this is it worth while and do the rolls come in varying leangths. How much per foot do ya think .

Thanks Marc

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Brazing was common at one time, well maybe not brazing exactly, but silver soldering (sometimes called silver brazing). Usually the joint is scarfed about 1/2 an inch. Did you just butt joint it or scarf it? In fact, blacksmiths often did it. You scarf the ends, put it in a jig to hold everything straight, put a piece of silver shim in the joint and squeeze it with a red-hot flat jaw tong made for the job. The tongs usually had pretty massive jaws to hold a lot of heat and met parallel on the blade.

Edited by nakedanvil
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Did the blade snap at the weld? I grumbled a little bit to my industrial supplier that my blades usually broke before they wore out. He asked me if the breaks were at the weld I checked and most were at the weld or within 1/2" of the weld. He asked me to return them and he would get them re welded. A week later I got a box with 5 new blades in it. Luckily I had thrown my blades in the scrap barrel rather than the garbage.

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Well I spoke too soon. The blade has broken on me again already I brazed it up again to finish my cut list. It seems to be just a temporary fix if your in a jam. Would be nice I priced some coils at a 100' and figured cost could be around $10 bucks a piece pretty good savings maybe that cheap HF band saw blade welder would be a good purchase. A weld would prolly hold up better than brass.
Marc

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Did you just butt joint it or scarf it?

Nakedanvil It was a butt joint and brass brazing. Maybe this is why I had failure in the joint. I can see how an overlaping joint would be much better. I did not have a clean straight fracture in the blade and I didn't want to effect it's leangth so I butted and brazed. Now is silver soldering a stronger bond and more durable for the abuse of a saw blade than brass.
Thanks Marc

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Silver solder is much stronger than brass, but, I usualy wear the teeth off my blades. What kind of blades are you using? Bandsaw blades is one place in particular where it is cheaper to spend more. I have used Starret PowerBand Matrix II blades for many years, but I am also hearing good things about Lenox Diemaster Blades.

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We normally braze our woodworking bandsaw blades ourselves, since the closest shop is quite far away. Results is variable, but I've found that normally the blade doesn't break on a brazed joint, but of to one side. My record for a silver solder jointed blade is seven days of continous production work. All joints must be scarfed.

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  • 2 years later...

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