well, it’s time to widen the mill. That means longer blades. I have a pack of wood mizer blades for the original size mill, and I would like to cut/weld them to make new ones. I know some of you have backgrounds in welding/tempering bandsaw blades, so how bout it? Can you help me? They are brand new blades (well, never used anyway), that I bought years ago and only used a few out of the pack. I have a belt grinder, mig, acetylene, and a few other tools. What do I need to do on these blades? The way it was explained to me years ago was to weld them together making sure they are straight and in plane, then grind, then heat dull red and let cool. Is this right? I never really got to try it.
LodgedTree is a retired welder and has a mill. I believe this subject has been broached in the not so distant past. Seems to also be a lot of YouTube videos on the subject.
I'm a circle mill guy so have no experience with the band mills. But the blade material can be bought in bulk rolls, so there has to be a logical way of making/repairing your own. However, on the smaller regular band saw blades, I have silver soldered with success. 45% silver and white paste flux. I'm not sure that would sustain the amount of tension mill blades are exposed to.
I weld a lot Bandsaws ( part of my business)- but I have a specific welding machine for that ( butt welder ), as you have likely seen various jigs hold the blade ends in position and then either tig( best) or Mig ( if you are really good) torch is a lot like Tig but much harder to control heat travel. annealing - yes very dull red, need to hold it at that point for a couple minutes then let air cool- the annealing is the tricky part- as blade materials very- some of those silicon steel blades are a real pia to deal with.
And they suck when they break when your right in the middle of something!!! I had a 2" horizontal blade shop band saw for various steel and it always seemed that S.O.B. would snap right at the weld usually.
Poor or incorrect annealing would cause that. Speed and feed and lack of coolant are the other culprits besides the various mechanical problems that arise with time.
I've never changed that on various items and if anything we "slow and cool" more than normal. We had a bad batch from our welding supply
I personally think that you would be better off finding someone local who has a butt welder. Machine shops usually will have one. I've tig welded them before using 309 ss filler and it held up fine.
If you notice when this guy welds the blade the fixture is spring loaded so that each side is pushed together while welding. This makes sure there is enough metal in the weld area, like adding a filler rod. The only thing I did differently than this guy is I would grind the blade down after welding then anneal as its easier to see the colors of the annealing process on freshly ground steel.
