A Common Mistake With your Vertical Band Saw

By: Sinead Douglas

One of the main complaints that carpenters have when using their vertical band saw is that the saw seems to be underpowered, does not track very well and badly cupped kerfs. As a result their vertical band saw ends up only being used to cut thin stock. What a waste!

The main reason for this is the use of a vertical band saw blade that has too many teeth or points per inch (tpi and ppi). There isn’t sufficient space between the teeth to get rid of the sawdust effectively. This means that the sawdust gets clogged in the kerf creating friction and excessive heat.

What Is The Kerf: Kerf refers to the width of the cut that the saw makes. While Kerf is often used to mean the width of the blade, it usually and more commonly refers to the width of the cut.

The excessive heat causes the blade in the vertical band saw to become blunt and it loses its edge very quickly and therefore becomes very inefficient. This build up of heat can also cause the blade to move backwards and sideways which creates a rounded cut rather than a straight one. Tightening the saw at this point will not help.

Instead fit a ½ inch carbon steel skip tooth blade with 3 teeth per inch to the vertical band saw allows me to do just about any job I want. I use this for ripping, resawing, on hardwoods and softwood, cutting shoulders on joints, squaring panels and much, much more.

Here is my Top Tip.
A vertical band saw blade is not expensive, buying more than one keeps the cost down. Keeping a spare allows you to get on with the job in hand.

About the Author:

For more tips on Vertical Band Saw
www.verticalbandsaw.org

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