[DannyBoy]

So, as you may have read, I am the proud new owner of a Taiwan knock-off of a 1980s Delta 14" bandsaw (it was free). After some refurbishment and a discussion about tapping screw wholes, I came to the point at which to put a new blade on the sucker and start her up.

Well, shucks. The blade is longer than 80" and shorter (by almost 3 inches) than 93 1/2. So, I can't buy a blade for it. So, luckily the previous owner was nice enough to give me the brazing kit he had (the jig only) to be able to make my own blade lengths (I hate tooling up to use a tool). So, I (again) need some advice from our wonderfully educated and experienced community of kindhearted woodworkers.

I have done my research and found The Bandsaw Book on Google Books which has a nice set of instructions on brazing. It looks easy enough with a bit of a learning curve… Here are the steps it shows:

1. Bevel the blade ends.
2. Clean the blade ends.
3. Clamp blade ends to the fixture.
4. Spread the flux.
5. Braze.
6. Omitted for some reason…
7. Remove excess alloy.

A couple of questions come to mind for me. Any idea what should be in step 6? Also, I plan on cutting down 93 1/2 blades to make mine, so will a pair of tin snips be good for cutting the blade apart or do I need a different tool for that?

Thanks for you help!

~Danny Boy

 

[DannyBoy]

Patron, thanks for the link. That may be a better option.

 

[DannyBoy]

I had considered this as well, but I'm wasn't too keen on asking about it. It sounds like it is a reasonable fix. When I was thinking about doing it, I was looking at the risers that were available through Rockler and they didn't seem like the right size plus they were $100 to $125 a piece and I wasn't prepared to spend that cash on a free saw.

I just purchased some custom length blades from the website Patron suggested. I'm going to see how that works out. When it comes time, I may do a riser block for this machine after all. Hell, it would be nice to have the extra few inches anyway.

~DB