can you salvage a bent band blade?

[Kelvin]

We threw a blade off the mill, woodmizer double hard, 1 1/2" i think, and it bent pretty good.  It was a pretty good blade and nothing was really wrong with it.  I was teaching my cousin to mill and he backed it up while it was running.  Oops, guess we gotta learn some things the hard way.  What is the word?  Its not too bad a bend, i would say about 15-20 degrees, not kinked.  IF i hammer it flat will it just break anyway?  Hate to spend time on something if experience says it will break.  WHat do you guys think?
Kelvin

[Tom]

I have straightened blades and got some more use from them.  They will break eventually because you can't get them real straight.

If you have roller guides, the blade will probably not give you as much trouble as fixed plate guides.

The best way to try and straighten a blade is to roll it over something or bend it backwards using a wide radius..

If the blade is kinked then you can't straighten it and may even damage something on your mill. 

You will know pretty quickly if the blade is going to run.

I wouldn't hammer it.

[Brad_S.]

I agree with Tom, don't hammer, bend. Sometimes you can get back to straight, other times you can never get it straight to the point where the teeth align. The resulting blade chugs as it cuts and leaves a heavy corrugation pattern on the wood. I red tag those blades and save them for the jobs you don't want to subject good blades to, i.e. telephone poles and re-claimed beams.

[Minnesota_boy]

Aw shucks, I bend them the best I can and them hammer on 'em to get them a little better.  :D  Once they're bent, it's hard to get them to cut real good again, but when you run out of sharp blades an hour from finishing a job that's 30 miles from home, you'll find they will do a fine job. ;D

[Cedarman]

How long will it take to tackle a bent blade and maybe make it cut?  Say 5 minutes.  For a 5 minute investment you may save 10 to 15 bucks worth of blade.  For our mills the worst that can happen is that the blade won't cut good.

I use a heavy pair of gloves.  I sometimes put it in the vise to get it fairly straight.  Then with my thumbs  on each side of the bend straighten the best I can.  I try to over bend then bend back to get it fairly straight.  I have had extremely good luck with doing this.  You can tell if you get it about right as the curvature of the blade will be the same all the way around.  I rarely hammer them.

[wiam]

I have straightened one and put it back on the mill.  It ran alright but I stopped after the first cut and downset some teeth.  I was sawing hemlock 2X8's.  A neighbor was watching and said it looks like you push your saw pretty consistantly. :D :D  Every couple of inches there was a pretty good groove. :  They make pretty good planks for loading the lawnmower. :D

Will

[Tom]

Funny you mention that.  It's been a lot of years, but back in the late 80's and early 90's (before the turn of the century) it was "high tech" to bend a tooth, or six, out of set so that marks would be left on the boards that were to be used for outdoor steps.

The lines are very straight and look to be at a 90° angle to the board.  I tease my customers that I have created that so that they don't have to use their square.

[ely]

i use those wide flat sheet metal pliers , not sure what the name of them are but they are for sheet metal work and about 4 inches wide. if you have two pair of them it works better. just use one on each side of the bend and it works well for me.

[Dana]

Ely, are they called duck bill pliers?

[ely]

not real sure but my dad knows, he was a sheet metal guy for alot of years. the pair i have came from a surplus store. name brand of wiss and they had a bolt missing. lady sold them for a buck, dad said it was a steal as we have a gajillion bolts.