Cheap bandsaw for profiling blades?

E

exd3686

Joined
Feb 16, 2006
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Can anyone recommend a decent priced and decent quality make and model bandsaw to be used for profiling stock removal blades 1/4 inch steel and less. I'm seriously thinking about getting into knifemaking as a hobby and am compiling a list of needed tools and equipment. Thanks to everyone.
 
Go to Harbor Freight and get one.About $160 these days, scrap the blade and buy a quality Bi-metal blade and all will be good.I have had mine for about 15 years.Still chugging away.Dave:)
 
I was looking at the harbourfrieght. site for someone else a couple of days ago the $209 model is on sale for $179. I have one or the equivilant model made in china.

They work realy well. The only thing you have to watch with band saws that I am aware of is cutting too tight a curve. They may jump off the rollers. This is just a pest and can be overcome with operator practice.
I cut a bit then run the blade back and come forward again taking a little shave of the side of the curve it allows the blade to follow the curve better.

I may not be explaining it well but if you find the blade is skipping off the rollers it is probably something to do with tight curves not the machine is broken.

I would not be without my band saw for anything. Next tip while you are at the local saw doctor buying a new band saw blade ask for the off cuts. They buy rolls of blade and cut and weld it to size.

My local bloke is good value. I bought a blade tueday and hit the jack pot in his scrap bin for who knows what reason he was throwing out seven large 1 inch wide band saws about 8 m long when cut and laid out flat.

I have cut them up into damascus size billets now. (free) They were new steel I am guessing made the wrong length.
 
I have a Harbor Freight as well. Great machine and Iget my blades at Home Depot for $10.00 each. I've cut several 1/4" thick blades from 440 and 154CM and the blades still going stong. I've been using 14tpi blades and they work great.
 
I've had one of the Harbor Freight bandsaws for a long time with no problems. Throw the blade away that comes with it and replace it with a good bimetal one. I did make a different table for it out of a piece of counter top.
 
I may be a miser, but i havent replaced the first bi-metal blade I put in mine and i have cut a ton of steel since last fall. I know its dulling bit by bit, but the blades seem to last a long, long time. Best money ever spent. I hardly ever use mine horizontal. I took off all those attachments and use that area as a seat to sit on in front of the table, which i replaced with a more sturdy and less noisy version.
 
I just throw an old pillow on mine and straddle it while sawing. Still hurts the butt after a while, but it's better than nothing. Since I never use it horizontally I think I'll remove the vice and stuff and make a real seat for it. Like I said before, Home Depot sells blades made by Rigid for $9.95, bi-metal and they work great. I destroyed my original blade after foolishly trying to cut some tubing. It stripped about an inch of the teeth right off.
 
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