Brazing band saw blades

There is actually a machine for welding band saw blades, Have to have one for the big bandsaw at the shop, it welds them, grinds them and all in one machine, kind of a tricky tool to master though. But I thought the 104s were more common than that, don’t know though, since I’m either using a small blade, or a massive 150 or something like that.

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I worked in a metal-working shop one time where the band-saw had a built on spot welder.
it was only little but it worked a treat. This is about 20 yrs ago so I cannot remember the make.
Very handy tool though.

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In horizontal band saws, brazed band saw blades are not recommended to use but missing tooth/teeth would be fine. There’s a huge tendency that the blade will break again.

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This is a topic I have been working on just this week. I am a tool maker / tool and die welder for almost 40 years. I have welded blades using Tig, a blade welder built into our band saw and silver soldered blades at work for our band saws. I personally have a Rockwell Delta band saw (with back gears) that I use for wood. I use 3/8 and 1/4 inch blades (wood and metal blades) for this saw. I have purchased many coils of band saw blades off of e-bay for this saw. I generally build small projects so this selection of blades works well for me. I have tried to tig these blades using 7 amps and tried using our blade welder with some success. But the best luck I have had with this selection of small blades is silver solder. I use Harris brand silver solder with about 45% silver in .032 diameter. I cut the blades to length and grind a scarf joint on my pedstal grinder. I built a jig to clamp these blades in. I use flux and heat my blades with a common propane torch. When the flux begins to “flow” i add a small amount of solder to the joint and then just lightly file the joint when the blade cools this whole process just takes about 3 minutes per blade – this is bar far the best combination I have found for these small blades. But please note I do NOT cut metal with these blades so I can not answer how this type of joint would hold up against a steel work piece.

Old machine guru Bob Vaughn shares how he solders
band saw blades (with pictures) at:

http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/BandsawBladeSoldering.ashx

I’ve worked with several of the band saws that had the welding feature. One of the brands was a “DO-ALL”. They worked great.

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I am using fairly small blades on my bandsaw at home. I tried to use the blade welder at work to weld these but by the time I welded and annealed the blades and then ground down the excess weld on the blades I was spending almost a 1/2 hour on these small blades. It is very important to anneal the weld zone on a band saw blade or the blade gets very brittle in the welded area. large blades 3/4 and up are a piece of cake on the blade welder. We have had Do All and Grob bandsaw /welders during my career

The jig on the vintage machinery site is very similar to the one that I use. I use .030 diameter solder instead of “shim stock” style solder just because I can purchase it thru my employer. It works just great as the flux will wick the solder right into the center of the scarf joint on these small blades. I have had co workers take the small diameter silver solder and pound it flat with a hammer and then place this small piece in the scarf joint area to resemble the shim stock style solder