I have an older Hitachi resaw (bandsaw, B-600). Over the years, I’ve gone through a number of very expensive 3″ Hitachi stellite blades for this saw at about $140 each at today’s prices. They’re only two teeth per inch and take a relatively wide kerf and they leave a rough surface.
Does anyone have any experience using other blades, perhaps a 1 1/2″ blade, from some other manufacturer? I’d like a cheaper blade that leaves a better surface and cuts a thinner kerf. Given the blade guide arrangement, I can make guides at any width from lignum vitae to fit almost any wide blade.
Replies
I have the same saw. I think the last time I bought blades it was from "Tool Crib" (now Amazon) for about $100. In practice I use a standard 1/2" blade on the saw 90% of the time, and keep the 3" blades only for when it's really necessary.
DR
Granted that I've never seen (in person) a blade that wide (insert: grin) I'll still suggest you check with the Timber Wolf folks at:
http://www.suffolkmachinery.com
They handle big resawing machines and portable mills and such. My guess is, if you are displeased with what they send you, they'll take it back. Their customer service is excellent.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
They have this saw at our local community college and it currently has an 1.5 inch blade and it seems to work well with this blade. I don't know where they get them from though.
Hope that helps a bit
Troy
Thanks for the replies.I'm looking at about that 1.5" blade. The saw can handle it without new guide assemblies. I intend to use some scarp lignum vitae to make new guide blocks for the 1.5" blade.Out of curiosity, have you converted this machine to an induction motor? That universal motor screams like a banshee on an ant hill and I've burned out a few brushes sawing green walnut. I would think that about 2 to 3 HP would be great, maybe with a jack shaft to cut the motor speed down.
I put a 3-phase 3HP motor on it the week it arrived. The motor it came with was just horrible.
DR
Looks like this saw has the original motor.Troy
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