Right after a successful woodworking project, the blade of your bandsaw can become dull. Yes, this is a common scenario in the woodcutting world but you can’t apply this useless blade on the next task.
So, you have 2 options left. Either you change the blade and buy a new one or you can sharpen the blade to make it ready for cutting again. As we all know, changing the blade can be a costly option and sometimes it is hard to find the best quality blade in the marketplace.
Don’t worry!! In this article, I will thoroughly discuss how to sharpen a Bandsaw blade so that you can easily master this art. All you need to do is to stay focused and read the next section carefully.
How to Sharpen A Bandsaw Blade: 2 Popular Techniques
Most of the Band saw is expensive but you can find a high-quality low budget band saw if you follow some basic guidelines. However, to cut woods accurately; your band saw blade needs to be very sharp. Also, a sharp blade is straight and functioning. Whether you like it or not, you need to sharpen your band saw blade when it becomes dull.
There are 2 ways of sharpening the band saw blade. Here I will discuss both techniques so that you can do what you can afford.
Technique 01: Manually sharpening a bandsaw with a Dremel
Buying an automatic bandsaw blade sharpening machine can be costly. So, a manual sharpener could be the perfect option if you don’t want to spend any extra money. Nonetheless, it is a time-consuming process. But, you can do it effortlessly if you track this guide.
Tools needed
- Band saw
- Pencil Grinder or hand file
- Sharpening stone
- Marking tape
- Gloves and eye protector
1. Open the Cabinet and Remove
At first, unplug the saw from the power outlet. After that, open the band saw cabinet to bring the blade out. Yes, you can sharpen the blade while it is attached with the machine but you can comfortably sharp the blade teeth if you take it out.
Make sure that you have properly loosened the blade tension and unscrew all other pieces of equipment that are holding the blade. You can easily know about the blade opening system by following the user manual.
2. Mark the blade
Once you take the blade out, you need to place the blade on a table. Now, inspect the blade and find out the dull teeth. Then, mark the blade with blue masking tape. Mark the place where you want to start sharpening.
Some will argue that you don’t need to do the marking. But, I strongly disagree with them. You can easily stay focused by marking the blade. Additionally, it helps you to track your sharpening process so that you won’t sharp a tooth twice unintentionally.
3. Sharpening the inside part of the teeth
After marking the blade with the blue tape, start sharpening the place where the marking was started.
Now, take a Dremel tool attachment. Ensure that the dremel tool fits the curve of the gullet of the blade. It is important for perfection. Remember, you should operate the Dremel tool slowly and steadily. Because you can’t control the tool properly on your first try.
Begin by contacting the sharpening tool lightly to the backside of the tip of the blade. Take away any metal particle to get a clean surface. Sharpen all the dull and wounded tooth of the blade. Finish one by one until you reach the marked tip. It means you have completed your first round successfully.
4. Sharpening the front part of the teeth
Let’s start sharpening the front part of the teeth of the band saw blade. To do that, you can use a sharpening instrument like diamond plates. However, you can use a sharpening stone too.
Before starting this process, insert the blade back into the machine and tighten the blade using the blade tension knob. Attach the blade guard and guides properly. Also, adjust the tilt of the blade to make it stand straight.
Now, position the stone or tool facing the blade. Lightly connect the stone on the blade teeth. Make sure that the stone hardly touches the front side of the teeth. Don’t force the blade inwards with the stone. Now, rotate the blade backward while holding the stone on the blade surface.
The main purpose of this step is to make all the teeth equal in size. As a result, you can cut straight and even. If you find that some teeth aren’t contacting the stone, you should align the blade properly.
For aligning the blade, you should follow step 3 again. Yes, you can’t make them perfect but you should sharpen the teeth as much as possible. Once your full sharpening process is done, you will feel the difference operating it.
Technique 02: Automatically Sharpening A Bandsaw Blade with a Machine
When you have too many blades to sharpen in a small amount of time, you can certainly go for an automatic sharpening machine. Besides, if you’re using a blade that has a lot of teeth, you should not try sharpening this blade with the manual process. It can exhaust you and there are high possibilities of mistakes.
To sharp your blade with a powerful machine, you must know how to operate this machine. In that case, the instruction manual of the device can help you. All you need to is take out the blade from the band saw and place it on the sharpening machine facing the teeth of the blade upward. Finally, start the machine and it will do the rest. Chill!!
Don’t forget to configure the machine according to size and teeth shape.
Final verdict
I am sure that by now, you have clearly understood how to sharpen a bandsaw blade. Here, I have discussed 2 methods of sharpening a bandsaw blade. If you are a DIY artist, you should love the manual system but an automatic machine system is perfect for large industries where a lot of woods are required to cut every day.
Please let us know if you find any difficulties while sharpening your bandsaw blade. We’ll try our best to sort out your issue.
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