Bandsaw Blade Speed

[Keggers]

I'm curious about the speed most of you run your bandsaw blades. Not really the particulars but whether you run them at the fastest speed possible or the slowest. My Grizzly bandsaw has two speeds and I noticed while I was working on it that the belt was set to run on the slowest speed. I moved it so it would run at the fastest speed possible -  so now I'm wondering if that was a good thing to do. I haven't turned on the saw yet as I haven't quite finished with the new Carter guide installation.

[Chestnut]

2 minutes ago, Keggers said:

I'm curious about the speed most of you run your bandsaw blades. Not really the particulars but whether you run them at the fastest speed possible or the slowest. My Grizzly bandsaw has two speeds and I noticed while I was working on it that the belt was set to run on the slowest speed. I moved it so it would run at the fastest speed possible -  so now I'm wondering if that was a good thing to do. I haven't turned on the saw yet as I haven't quite finished with the new Carter guide installation.

My saw only has 1 speed. 3,000 feet per minute is the speed you should shoot for for cutting wood. The slower speed is for cutting metal.

[gee-dub]

Mine has two step pulleys for 1700 or 3500 FPM.  The saw is sold as a wood cutting bandsaw and the manual states "Slower blade speeds generally produce better results when cutting hardwoods, intricate curves, or when an exceptionally smooth cut is desired." but, I have never used the slow speed and certainly have no desire for the saw to cut slower .  I suppose there are reasons that I may be ignorant of.

When setting the wheels up to be coplaner I went ahead and used a length of link belt I had on hand.  I am not sure that the link belt can take all the credit but, once I have everything aligned . . . the machine became spooky quiet.  

[Keggers]

47 minutes ago, gee-dub said:

Mine has two step pulleys for 1700 or 3500 FPM.  The saw is sold as a wood cutting bandsaw and the manual states "Slower blade speeds generally produce better results when cutting hardwoods, intricate curves, or when an exceptionally smooth cut is desired." but, I have never used the slow speed and certainly have no desire for the saw to cut slower .  I suppose there are reasons that I may be ignorant of.

When setting the wheels up to be coplaner I went ahead and used a length of link belt I had on hand.  I am not sure that the link belt can take all the credit but, once I have everything aligned . . . the machine became spooky quiet.  

My owner's manual states the same thing concerning the blade speed. It was set up on the lower speed from the factory and has never been changed - until now. We'll see what happens. I've never checked to see if my wheels were coplaner.  I mostly use the bandsaw to rough cut wood so it really hasn't been an issue. I might check to see if the wheels are aligned while I have it all torn down.

Thanks!

[wdwerker]

My bandsaw has 8 speeds. It is the metal cutting version of the Delta 14" . Step pulleys gives 4 speeds and a geared transmission steps it down to make 4 more slower speeds. I've only used a few of the speeds. Cutting 3" thick solid brass was fun. The metal blades have teeth like a hacksaw. I might have to try using the lower speeds when resawing. Probably better sawdust clearance & more torque. 

[Marmotjr]

Mine has two speeds, AFAIK,

On and off.

But the theory with cutting is pretty much universal.  The bigger/harder the material is, the slower you want to go. 

A fixed blade rate can be compensated for by adjusting your feed rate.  Each tooth can only remove so much material before the gullet is overflowing.  If you are doing a huge resaw, or trying to carve out a sleigh for your mom, then slowing the feed rate to allow the teeth to take a cleaner cute might be needed. 

[wdwerker]

That makes good sense to me. I will give lower speeds a test run the next time I'm set up to resaw.  Always have plenty of scrap around, it's the curse of being a packrat/hoarder.

[Marmotjr]

22 hours ago, wdwerker said:

That makes good sense to me. I will give lower speeds a test run the next time I'm set up to resaw.  Always have plenty of scrap around, it's the curse of being a packrat/hoarder.

I'm actually surprised that might be new to you. 

Here's some more info from mathias, and hes got a video on it too!  But he does do some great visuals on how the gullet of a blade clears the waste and how you can overfill it. 

http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/resaw.html

 

[Tom King]

Bandsaw speed also varies with bandsaw machine size.  Blade speed is not listed much, but if you look at some of the European machine sites, they do list the blade speed.  I don't remember what the blade speed is on my 24" Centauro, but it's something over twice as fast as a typical 14" bandsaw.  The larger the saw, the thicker, and wider the blade that it can run,  so with the larger teeth that a larger blade can fit, the cutting speed is exponentially faster the larger the saw gets.  A cut that my 14" can make with the best resaw blade for its size takes 20 seconds, whereas the same cut with the 24" running the best resaw blade made for that size takes 3 seconds, with no loss in quality of cut (why I quickly sold all my resaw blades for the 14" machine after running the 24" the first day).

copied and pasted:  many 36 and 42 inch band saws are known to run in the 9000 to 12000 sfpm.

Most of the manufacturers of big bandsaws buy the solid wheels from Carter because they're balanced to 180 mph.

This is one of the reasons I don't see a 20" or 24" bandsaw as an all-around machine.  I wouldn't want a 3/16" blade running at the speed that the 24" runs.

[Tom King]

I just noticed that Rikon has started stating blade speed in their specs.   I'm glad to see that someone has.  It was also interesting to see that their different models of 14" saws have different blade speeds.  I wondered if they did that to make sure that the higher priced the saw, the "better" it cut.

I checked the Powermatic bandsaw page, and they're listing blade speed now too.  Theirs go from 3,000 for the 14", to 4800 for the 24".

[wtnhighlander]

On 12/29/2017 at 12:03 PM, Tom King said:

 

This is one of the reasons I don't see a 20" or 24" bandsaw as an all-around machine.  I wouldn't want a 3/16" blade running at the speed that the 24" runs.

Yeah, Frank Howarth had a shorts-soiling moment in one of his recent videos when the 3/8" (?) blade on his 36" bandsaw snapped. That thing was realling zinging!

 

[Tom King]

I think maybe the 1/4" blade balled up in my 24" Centauro had something to do with my being able to get the saw so cheaply.