Craftsman 14 in bandsaw what type of blades do I need?

The type of blade you need depends on what kind of cutting you expect to do, can you tell us what you’re planning/expecting? TPI is not the only specification you need to choose. There’s also the width of the blade, tooth set, hook angle and thickness of the blade. There’s a good starter guide here, the first 3 pages will help you get started. Information about calculating SFM may not be applicable—it’s for saws that have various speeds available.

-- My mother said that anyone learning to cook needed a large dog to eat the mistakes. As a sculptor of wood I have always tried to keep a fireplace. (Norman Ridenour)

I have the same saw. I keep two types of blades on hand. For general use (straight line cuts, large radius, resaw, etc) I use a 1/2” woodslicer.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/wood-slicer-resaw-bandsaw-blades.aspx

For tighter curves, I have a 3/16” 4 tpi skip tooth that serves me well.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/316-4-tpi-skiptooth-bandsaw-blades.aspx

Forestgrl, thanks for the tip and the chart. That is just what I needed also.

-- We all make mistakes, the trick is to fix it in a way that says "I meant to do that".

Thanks guys for the info..

Has anyone ever used these 2 companies for blades?

http://www.carterproducts.com/band-saw-products/band-saw-blades/99-75-length-band-saw-blades

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/160436/9975x38x4tpi-S-Starrett.aspx?gclid=CLCl7oCCucgCFRYlgQodIJII2Q

Starrett blades are very well-known and generally admired. I don’t know about Carter, other than their guides, but I would expect their blades to be high quality. I’m behind the times on blade makers, because I have so many blades hanging on the wall, but if you do a search here at Lumberjocks, you might find a thread where everyone pitches their favorite. There may be really good blades at a better price than you pay for the super-well-known names. If I stumble across a good thread, I’ll post the link here.

-- My mother said that anyone learning to cook needed a large dog to eat the mistakes. As a sculptor of wood I have always tried to keep a fireplace. (Norman Ridenour)

ForestGrl thanks…

If you’re looking for a set of Carter guides for this saw let me know. I happen to have an extra set.

If you re looking for a set of Carter guides for this saw let me know. I happen to have an extra set.

- Yonak

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-- My mother said that anyone learning to cook needed a large dog to eat the mistakes. As a sculptor of wood I have always tried to keep a fireplace. (Norman Ridenour)

If you’re looking for a set of Carter guides for this saw let me know. I happen to have an extra set.

- Yonak

delete

- ForestGrl

Really ? Why ?

If you re looking for a set of Carter guides for this saw let me know. I happen to have an extra set.

- Yonak

delete

- ForestGrl

Really ? Why ?

- Yonak

I asked a question that wasn’t necessary. Looked for a delete option, but LJ has none.

-- My mother said that anyone learning to cook needed a large dog to eat the mistakes. As a sculptor of wood I have always tried to keep a fireplace. (Norman Ridenour)

I just bought the saw blades that Junebug listed. They are great and that woodslicer blade on my 50- year old Atlas saw does an amazing job. That 3/16” blade does allow me to cut some fairly tight curves. I think both those blades will serve you well.

ForestGrl should I get a set of Carter guides for my Craftsman Bandsaw Item # 00932607000P Model # BAS350?
thanks for all your help..

Hmmmm, I’m probably not the best person to answer that question. I use Cool Blocks on my Grizzly band saw, they are phenolic laminate that you can push up right next to the blade (Click Here to see them), decidedly low-tech. Whether you should get the Carters may depend on (a) what kinds of cutting you plan to do and (b) how much you feel like spending. I’ve done work with everything from a 1/8” blade to 3/4” blade, detailed curves to resawing with the phenolics and been happy with them. Perhaps there are some Carter users out there who can tell us what they can help with, problems they solve? Have to admit, I don’t have hundreds of hours of band saw time under my belt, but have done a variety of cutting.

-- My mother said that anyone learning to cook needed a large dog to eat the mistakes. As a sculptor of wood I have always tried to keep a fireplace. (Norman Ridenour)

I used a saw very similar to that one for years. I like to use a 3/8” blade with a 3 or 4 tpi hook blade. It seems to be a good all around blade for cutting out curved parts as well as re-sawing.

-- Brian Noel