Bought a Bandsaw- which blades? Review to follow

[hellofellow]

Hi all,

As you would of seen a few threads down I was looking at a bandsaw and was tossing up over carbatex models, Leda, Hafco woodmaster and Basato.

I ended up purchasing a BP 355 (H & F woodmaster). With 2 HP and a 250mm max depth of cut.

It was both on sale and when you sign up to H and F you gt a 50$ voucher for online purchases. So overall with 48$ postage I got this bandsaw for around $860 delivered. I figure if I can look after it with a regular price of 1023$, I should be able to get rid of it for a decent price in a year or 2 and get a nice saw like a Laguna.

Anyway, it should arrive early next week and I wanted to sort out some blades now. What shoudl I get- want to do some small work/ bandsaw boes etc, but defintely want to be able to resaw. Where should I buy blades online?

When do you use each blade?

Cheers all

[code4pay]

I got some answers to that question the other day
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=184189

[orraloon]

That link code4pay posted has got things about right. Some say resawing needs a wide blade over 1'' but your saw will have trouble tensioning a big blade. I have the same saw and resaw with a 1/2'' 3tpi blade. You will need to make a tall fence for resawing thick wood. for boxes I used a 1/4'' blade and I think it was 7 or 8 tpi. Both work fine. The blade it comes with is only average quality but I still got a bit of work out of it.There is a bit of a learning curve getting the best out of a bandsaw but plenty people on here to advise as you need help. You will soon be wondering how did manage before I got this saw.

Regards
John

[bosox]

I don't want to suggest specific brands but just to add something on the link posted, use more tpi for thinner
wood/stock , fewer tpi for thick stock .


In general ,the more teeth the finer the cut , low number of TPI blades cuts faster but not leave smooth finish.
Always keep at least 3 number of teeth engaged on the cut.


A 3/4" blade should be tensioned easily to your saw, resawing will be stable.