I tigged a bandsaw blade!

[et...@whidbey.com]

I broke an expensive blade because of ooperator error. I had never
tried tig welding a bandsaw blade before. So I just went ahead and
tried it. It worked great! Only took me three tries to get the weld to
last more than a few parts. But finally the blade is holding well. I'm
cutting 1.5 dia stressproof. And I figgered it out all by myself. That
page that Ernie Leimkuhler posted :

http://www.stagesmith.com/gallery/shop_projects/bandsaw_blade_weld_jig/index.html
didn't help one bit. His advice about amperage and filler metal could
have been figured out by me, eventually, someday. I mean really,
tempering the HAZ properly is just like falling off a log. Who needs
someone to hold their hand when they are trying something like this
out the first time? Well, me, actually. Ernie's info really helped. He
states that done properly there is no need to weld both sides. I found
that if I left a small gap, about .010", between the ends of the
blade, the weld worked just the way Ernie said it would. I used 308ss
filler because it was the only SS rod I had on hand small enough.
There was no sugaring on the back side of the weld. I attribute this
partly to using similar fixturing to what Ernie shows on his page.
Thanks to Ernie again for his excellent welding advice.
Eric

[Ernie Leimkuhler]

In article <7ai1h7h35i2ulbcuq...@4ax.com>,

I really should have figured out some kind of royalties system to
retire on.

[amdx]

It's pretty hard to live on all the love you get Ernie,
but you should feel good knowing you helped a lot of people.
Thanks, Mikek