Bandsaw and blade selection

Thank you for your guidance everybody.

That Jet looks like a better saw in that price range. Still a dual purpose machine, but sort of in 'metal first, wood second' in opposite of the grizzly I was looking at.

I do have a small, entry level 9" machine for wood and such already, and it does at least get me by for that role.

GG: as far as how many blades, the short answer will be all of them. All the blades. The long answer is we will see. The purpose is to increase productivity by reducing some of the work and reducing the drudgery of some of it. I currently mostly get by with the angle grinder and cutoff wheel to break down bar stock and drill press and hacksaw to rough my profile. I'd like a setup with a bandsaw and particularly one which lets me use a 3/8" blade width to get much of the curve/radius cuts done in the roughing stage.

I can't do as much forging as I'd like due to the impact on my joints so I try to wring as much enjoyment from stock removal knifemaking as I can.
 
I would still buy a old used Powermatic over the Jet hands down if you can find one. Jet tools are nothing like the used to be (never where all that great) in my opinion.

FYI Here is a tip if you are looking to speed things up a little while cutting blade of the same shape. What I do is get a stack blank material cut to the same length and run a light bead weld on each end making it one block. Now I scribe my pattern to the top of these bock and cut out 5-7 blades at once in about the same time it would take to cut one out on a portaband. It does take a good saw to do this but it can be done on the 4"x7" saws that many makers have you just cant cut as tight of a radius as you could with the saws that can use a 1/4" blade.
 
I like that advice.

I realize now that this changes the picture of bandsaw blade selection and I respectfully knock myself about the head with a mallet.
 
I think the G0621X is the saw that USAKnifemaker has in there shop. You'll notice two square pushbuttons right above the start switch. It lets you choose high or low FPM. I was extremely impressed when I used it at their hammer-in in the fall.
 
In the end, I still wanted a sturdy machine, but settled somewhere between the Grizzly machine I wanted (still want) and the porta-band.

[video=youtube;s8dWMU9uOSA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8dWMU9uOSA[/video]

I went with supercut bimetal blades in 0.5" 20-24tpi variable pitch which is a raker set. I would still very much like to get blades to give me a tighter radius, but I am very happy with the performance of these blades in general.

The savings allowed me to splurge on some other (still quite cheap) tools and so I am happy. On the other hand, I'm sad to say HF has been less than accommodating about a part which arrived broken on this saw, and two parts which broke immediately on my lathe.
 
Does that machine have an adjustable guard/guide block? If so, it should be set 1/4"-1/2" above the work piece. All that exposed blade is very dangerous. Also, most people I know who use that saw, have made a little butt pad to place on the bed so they can sit and cut. That will put you at a much more comfortable position without stooping over. One last thing, now that you have a saw, I am a huge fan of using a riser block on the bandsaw table for cutting knife-sized and smaller objects. The one I made for my new Jet saw is 4"x4"x1" surface ground S-7 (unhardened) and is slit half way through for the blade to run through. I attach mine with double sided duct tape.

Bob
 
I has a guard, I'm just being foolish.

It appeared I would have to modify the guard to fit with the 'table' that came with the saw, so I put that off. Then I needed to change blades and resaw some walnut (and boy does that take forever at the maximum 200rpm of a saw meant for cutting pipe). Then I changed blade back and I put it off. I'll see about it shortly. You know how it goes; bad safety practice and chains of excuses.

I'm trying to picture the riser block your describing. It sounds like you're saying a finer table to go on top of the table for fine work? If so I can see the value in that. I'm ultimately hoping to put a proper table on it anyway to replace the stamped sheet metal garbage it came with.

I like the seat suggestion also but I'm toying with another idea for that end of the casting, since I likely won't ever being using it as a horizontal saw with the clamp. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it, but I have a pair of proper acme screws left over from the cnc conversion of the mill, a 1/2hp motor looking for a job and the bug to build a small surface grinder which doesn't need to be high-precision. The casting seems to be just thick and rigid enough, it already has a slot for the nut and the mounting for a x axis screw and I think I could manage something like box ways. To top it off, the added weight of doing just about anything with that end of the saw would help with how horribly balanced the machine is. Probably just a pipe dream, but it's on the back burner.

Thank you all again for the help and thanks for reading.
 
I have a Milwaukee portaband in a SWAG table and I broke a blade today. You unplug the saw and twist out one circular plastic handle under the table to remove the saw and I changed the blade on the swag table and plugged back in in about three minutes. I used my first Starrett 14-18 variable twist blade and it cuts better than the Milwaukee or Morse blades I used before. I have some Lennox blades but have not tried them yet. The Starrett blade cuts so good that I might just buy them from now on. By the way both Milwaukee and Dewalt make "deep throat models with 5 to 5 1/2 inch openings and they work great. If I was given a first class band saw now I would sell it and buy a surface grinder. The portaband does everything I need.
 
I will doubtless try others but thankfully I think I am liking these supercut blades for cheap. I've dulled one a bit already but 1) The motor pulley arrived damaged and I can't use the 80fpm step safely and 2) Hot rolled blade steel with scale will do that. I'm certainly still novice cutting steel on the bandsaw.

Can you point me in the direction of which line of starrett blades you use?

On the safety note, you may also see that I haven't mounted the belt guard yet, as the design here appears make ever removing the belt without either propping the motor up securely or removing the pulleys and guard unacceptable. The motor will fall to where the shaft rests on the edge of the shaft cutout (of a very flimsy sheet metal guard) and - I worry - deform the guard just from the resting weight.

Sorry about the video by the way. I tried mounting the camera to the saw and the vibration was excessive.
 
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