welding saw blades

[welderskelter]

Anybody weld their own broken blades? And if so what method of welding do you use? Thanks

[barbender]

Every blade I've ever broke, had severe fatigue- it broke in that spit but it was ready to break in 10 more. I wouldn't bother. 

[moodnacreek]

Welding of small bands is for new stock.

[Chuck White]

Not worth the effort!

At this point, the band is already "workhardened", and brittle!

[Old Greenhorn]

To answer the original question: bandsaw blades are welded in a machine just for that purpose. The ends of the bands are squared off with a grinder and each end is locked in the machine with the butt end meeting and the back of the band held exactly in a straight alignment. The blade is heated with induction and the ends are weld together. Then, and this is the critical part, the weld has to be annealed so it is not too brittle. Then the welded joint is removed and the weld is ground flush on both sides and back edge so it is all straight and smooth. Even with the machine it takes practice to get it straight and square. I would never try to weld it any other way than with the correct machine.
 But re-welding used blades is really a waste of time, although it might be fun to try it....once.

[Crusarius]

Look up kbeitz he had a thread somewhere about doing it. He ended up saying it was not worth the effort. He used silver solder.

[Southside]

I think everyone goes through this exercise after watching a few $40 bands break, I know I did.  Glad I didn't pursue trying to salvage them.  

[Edvantage]

Easy to weld I've mostly welded metal cutting bands. (I have not broken many woodmizer bands and when they do break they are worn out from metal fatigue) When someone knocks a tooth out of a brand new metal cutting band I'll cut out the bad tooth and weld it back together. Mig or tig works. I use a propane torch after welding to anneal the weld. Warm up the joint until metal turns brown but not blue. Not worth fixing a worn out band or without good equipment and welding skills. Used this as a demo for teaching students how alloy steels get brittle from welding and how to anneal a weld joint. 

[Crossroads]

I tried forge welding some pieces together to make a knife out of. Probably not the best material for a first attempt at forge welding. I got them welded together, but I'm not going to waste my time making a knife out of it. 

[grabber green]

Like has been said ,It is mostly a waste of time with fatigued blades,but I have had good luck with welding blades with a mig and dressing the weld  up with a grinder. 5 minutes with a welder to get 5 or 6 more hours out of a blade is not a waste of time. It greatly depends on the condition of the blade.

[SawyerTed]

Sure I understand that for hobbyists and DIYers sometimes it's about seeing if you can do something like weld blades.  It is fun to figure things like that out.  Stretching hobby dollars is a good thing.  I sometimes do this very sort of thing but not with saw blades.  

If production sawing, blade cost has to be part of the equation.  Lowering blade costs has to be in there as well but welding broken small bandmill blades won't get lower costs consistently.

The blades that broke on me have already paid for themselves several times over.  I estimate they have cut on average around 2,000-2,500 bdft maybe more over their life. Even at $25 +/- per blade, taking the time to weld a used blade just doesn't offer enough return on the investment. Then include the limited life of a heavily used shop welded blade and the subsequent downtime removing it from the saw.  Add in that a broken blade can do all sorts of damage to wheel belts and or the drive belt and quickly cost more than a new blade.  Production wise welding broken blades isn't going to save much if anything over time.

In setting my sawing rates, I have a figure per board foot for saw blade replacement and sharpening.  That figure gets put in a line item budget for blades and blade maintenance.  Based on my average board foot production per hour, I can almost purchase a new blade every hour I saw and still make money.  My savings is in sharpening blades myself.