Problem with new bandsaw blades

[Ty Williams]

I've used a bandsaw for decades but have only been "in charge" of my own for a much shorter time so I'm running into problems for the first time (since they used to be taken care of for me). For the first time, I bought made-to-order blades (from Spectrum) rather than buying whatever pre-made blades Laguna or Woodcraft wanted to sell me. I've got something weird going on, and I'm not sure what to do about it. The saw is a Laguna LT14SUV in case it matters.

A few weeks ago, I bought 3 new bandsaw blades. 2 were the Lenox Kerfmaster stock and one was the Diemaster 2. Today, it was time to change to a new blade and I went to install the 3/4” Kerfmaster. While dialing in the tracking on the saw, I noticed that the blade would track stably for almost the entire revolution of the blade but at one point would jump forwards relative to the blade guides (towards the teeth) nearly 1/4” and then immediately settle back and run true for the rest of the loop. This is with the blade guides fully backed off, they were just used as a visual reference once I noticed the blade was moving. No amount of dickering with the tension or tracking could resolve this issue. Eventually, I realized that the jump forwards was occurring right at the weld. Thinking perhaps it was just bad luck, I then tried to install the 1/2” Kerfmaster. The same scenario repeated, though the jump forwards and back was less; right around 1/8”. Finally, mounting the 1/2” Diemaster 2, the same thing happened a 3rd time, though the jump this time was quite small, perhaps 3/32”. Going slightly crazy by this point, I put the original blade back on the saw and it actually ran true and stable the whole way round, showing that it’s an issue with the blades, not the saw.
I checked all 3 blades to see if I could determine why they were doing this. In the end, I’m not sure, so I’m hoping you can help me figure out what’s going on. Feeling the flat sides of the blades between my fingers, the welds a very ripply like they change thickness considerably over a short distance but I don’t see how this could possibly produce the result I observed. Putting a straight edge up against the back/spine of the blade, all three had a bit of a hollow at the weld, as though the two ends of the band were not perfectly parallel to each other when they were welded. I could see this resulting in the blade jumping forwards at the weld, but the size of the hollow (against a 12” straight edge) was much smaller than the amount the band was jumping forwards on the saw.
How do I resolve this issue with the new blades?

Thanks!

[Bill Orbine]

Call the manufacture. Your blades seems to be welded crooked and improperly. You should get it returned.

[Andrew Hughes]

Send them back if they don't cut right,I have send back a far amount of bandsaw blades.Most of the time they just send a new one.I also buy from a local saw service and they do a very good job welding blades.I also get to inspect them before I pay and take them home.

[Phil Thien]

Same guy welded all three. Incorrectly.

Try Woodcraftbands.com, they know how to weld blades.

[James Nugnes]

Well of course someone is having trouble with blades from Spectrum. Just used them as a supplier for the first time recently and had not even gotten them out of the box as yet.

So I will provide my observations here while admitting that I don't understand the issues for the welder.

I have four new blades from Spectrum and a new blade from Laguna purchased with the bandsaw. The Powerforce blade is a 1/4" blade. Whether a coincidence or not, it appears the worst of the welds on these five blades are on the two 1/4" blades. One has a slight irregularity along the spine or back of the blade at the weld. The other, the one from Spectrum appears to have an irregularity 90* off of the spine, along the width of the blade at the weld. The other blades from Spectrum at 3/8" and 5/8" appear to to be fine as far as the welds are concerned. I will have to mount up the two 1/4 blades to see if the irregularities have any impact.

I do wonder if Laguna's ceramic blade guides are more sensitive to blade weld integrity. Laguna appears to want the operator to have the ceramics closer to the blade than you would with a roller guide system. I guess I will have to wait and see what happens.

Does anybody know if welding thinner blades is inherently more difficulty or more prone to error?

[Barry Richardson]

Poor welds... seems like I get a few, no mater who I buy from. I have a local saw shop that carries bulk lennox and will weld to your desired length, and they are the cheapest source as well, but the welds are so hit or miss, I hesitate to go back there...

[lowell holmes]

I've had good luck with blades from BC Saw in Canada. Look them up.

[ken masoumi]

I've had good luck with blades from BC Saw in Canada. Look them up.

+1,I believe B.C.SAw is now called:NAP:

http://www.napgladu.com/

UNITED STATES

1-800-457-74681180 Wernsing RoadJasper, Indiana 47546USAFax: 800-457-7458

[glenn bradley]

Your symptoms do indeed sound like a bad weld. If you put an old blade back on and its fine, you've got it isolated. If your supplier EVER gives you static about a bad weld, go elsewhere. Timberwolf had a run of a few months where bad welds were reported. I assume the guy was fired or went back to college after the summer break because my recent blades from them have been back up to par ;-)

[lowell holmes]

I recently ordered two 105" blades from Highland Woodworking. I am extremely satisfied with them. They were 3/8" 3tpi skiptooth blades.

[Steve Peterson]

If you put a straight edge along the back side of the weld, is it straight? Or is the weld done at either 189 or 191 degrees? It sounds like the same guy welded all 3 using an improperly setup welder.

Steve

[Ty Williams]

If you put a straight edge along the back side of the weld, is it straight? Or is the weld done at either 189 or 191 degrees? It sounds like the same guy welded all 3 using an improperly setup welder.

Steve

They're not straight but they're not off as far as they jump in use. Not sure what that means.

[Gus Dundon]

If it's obviously a weld problem, call the manufacturer. They should replace the blades. I bought my blades online on sawblade . com , they also custom weld to length blades. Happy with the blades so far.

[Jim Finn]

I use my saw for re-sawing mostly and use 1/2" 3 TPI 105" carbide blades that last a long time and cost me $25 each at http://www.supercutbandsaw.com/how_to_choose.html I recommend them.

[Ty Williams]

So, I sent off an email to Spectrum and, almost a week later, got a reply that they’d send a return label. I’m used to someone saying this and then emailing me a PDF of a label so I can print it and send it back on their dime. However, no such PDF was forthcoming. Later that week, I had a UPS missed package sticker on my door when I wasn’t expecting a package. The UPS guy didn’t leave a note the next day so I called in to see why he hadn’t dropped the package off. The lady on the phone at first insisted that he had been there and left something and then eventually changed her tune and said that it was actually a pickup that had been scheduled and I was supposed to have a box waiting. The problems with this were 1) I had no idea who was wanting what from me and 2) the UPS guy would be there between 10 and noon, meaning right during the workday. I asked her where the package would be going and she said a guy’s name that I’d never heard before and Cleveland, OH. Still confused, the only thing I could think of was that this was Spectrum asking for their blades back. A trip to their website confirmed that Spectrum is in Cleveland. That just left the task of getting someone home to meet the UPS guy. Suffice it to say, this was a problematic way to return something vs me having to drive the package to a UPS drop off location (which can be done after banker’s hours) and the communication about what Spectrum wanted me to do was horrible.

Today, without warning, there was a box wedged in my garden hose reel (odd place to put it, IMO). I opened the box and it was the replacement blades. Cautious after the first set, I decided I’d put each of them on the bandsaw and check them right away.

All three are bad.

Again.

The videos below will let you see for yourself, but I measured them at basically 1/32nds runout for the Diemaster 2 1/2”, shy of 1/16th runout for the Kerfmaster 3/4”, and almost 3/32nds runout for the Kerfmaster 1/2”. The runout was periodic in sync with the revolution of the blade and was worst at the weld. To confirm it wasn’t my saw, I threw on a old Laguna Resaw King blade and did the same test. The Resaw King had around ten thousandths run out (0.010”) and it was basically random, just bouncing back and forth with no real relation to the revolution of the band. In other words, the Resaw King ran true and only showed a bit of roughness on the dial.

Am I being unreasonable in expecting the blades to be closer to what I got with the old Resaw King?