How Bands are Made

[Nate Surveyor]

Does anybody know how bands, used in bandsaws are made?

Are they pieces of long metal, that are cut up, and then welded into a loop?

Are they laminated?

Just curious. I searched the forum, and did not get real far.

It seems to me that millers are some of the most creative folks on earth. And able to improvise!

Anyway, HOW are they made?

Thanks!

Nate

[Dave Shepard]

Yes, they are cut from very large coils, welded, annealed, and ground. You can see the grind marks on the bands. I would be interested to know if the profile is ground into the band, or cut with some kind of stamper. I believe there is a strip of harder material on the outside edge that becomes the tip of the tooth.


Dave

[Tom]

The band is a strip of metal that can be punched or ground to create the teeth.  It may be presented to the manufacturer's idea of hardening, either in total or just the tooth tips.  The bulk bands are then rolled into rolls about the size of a 55 gal. barrel lid and sent to a company who disperses and sells the various sized bands by cutting the bulk roll to size and welding it with a zap welder, which anneals it.

This handling of bulk material is something I've mentioned in the past where your supplier may be damaging the tips of the teeth.  Stacking the rolls too high, or tooth down on concrete can do it.  The may also be damaged in shipping of bulk rolls or even in the retail boxes.  Truckers, package laborers and equipment operators seldom are educated about the harm they can cause to your band.

Reading about the methods of creating the teeth is interesting.  There are wave sets, tip bending sets, no sets, applied teeth, no teeth (some bands look like circular knives), heat treated teeth, bi-metal bands, and many other configurations that  are created by someone who thinks he knows best or is trying to make a special product.

If you, as an operator, see no problem in throwing your bands to open them, think of the care that the forklift operator might be using when he is moving pallets of bulk band around.  How high did he stack them? Did he drop them?  were some stacked tooth down?  What's on top of the rolls that are tooth up?  How heavy is a stack of rolls 3 feet tall. What is it doing to the teeth on the bottom?

That's why some blades will cut better after a sharpening than when they were new.

[Slabs]

I couldn't resist an observation on this thread. 

When the blades are made, they must be cut and welded with extreme precision as to the length of the blade.  Not because the length is so important for fiting the mill but because the teeth have to be "PRECISELY" spaced for sharpening.  Those of you that sharpen your own blades have had an oppurtunity to see the importance of this (if you use an automatic sharpener) when the blade comes around past the beginning point and is still aligned to succeeding teeth.  Anyway, you probably never start at the weld as you begin the sharpening process.  If the teeth weren't "EXACTLY" spaced about the length of the blade, automatic sharpening wouldn't be possible.  Another reason why rewelding blades would probably be unsuccessful.



Hope this wasn't confusing to anyone as it comes to my attention everytime I work with the sharpener.

[beenthere]

Slabs
Wouldn't the advancing mechanism (arm) just take care of any mis-alignment?

Maybe not, but seems it would. : :

[Tom]

beenthere,
I know what slabs is talking about.  The arm will take care of a gullet that is too long, or a gullet that is a bit too short, but not when the gullet is practically non-existent or when the band is welded out of alignment.  I've gotten bands that were obviously made out of scrap and contain two or more welds.  It does get into your game when you grind off a tooth, pieces of stone fly off and the grinding motor stalls.

I have an understanding with my manufacturer and he is more than happy to provide me with single welded bands.  He very seldom will produce a mis-aligned band.  I figure he's training a new guy when it happens now and I don't even  complain because I know it will be straightened out in short order.  *not that I won't complain if it isn't. :D

In the past, I have gotten bands where the weld has the two teeth on each side only 1/8 or 1/4 inch apart.  Sometimes the push arm wouldn't even go in the space.

[Slabs]

I think Tom covered it completely.  I probably should have said that the band should be an exact increment of the tooth spacing.