Bandsaw blade woes

[Bradford]

Okay.. so I finally upgraded my bandsaw.  Went from an el cheapo 9" to a craftsman 12" - and I love it.  Cut's wood like butter.

But damn fiberglass.... As soon as I hit the fiberglass in the riser, blade is shot.

For cutting the fiberglass to size, I use a dremel tool, but when I have a piece of fiberglass in the riser and cut to shape it.. it's all over.

what are you guys doing?  Any ideas.  I have to cut up the risers shape.

[Robertfishes]

I bought a Carbide Blade,so far so good.. use the search function for previous threads about BandSaw Blades

[jess stuart]

I try my best to never let my blade touch fiberglass.  I use a hacksaw to cut through fiberglass accents in the riser then resume using the bandsaw.

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

Braddord

I have the craftsman 12" Saw too.
Accept the fact that the blade will die after about 1 inch on fiberglass.  I have two blades that are reserved for any cuts going through FG.  I take them off after cutting and wrap a piece of tape around them and mark FG only.  I have never bothered with Carbide.  When I start questioning the sharpness of a wood only blade,  IT becomes my new FG blade and the oldest one goes in the trash.

pete

[Bradford]

I might look into carbide if they have them in 80 in.  I thought about the two blade idea, but when your cutting a riser with FG accents, it just burns the wood and requires a bunch more sanding.

I like the hacksaw idea... will probably try that tomorrow since I am on a 5 bow build.. I have 5 kids and they are all getting bows this year for christmas.  I just threw bow #1 into the oven.  First time I have ever done a one piece recurve.  Hoping all goes well.  I usually do 3 piece take downs.

Any way.. thanks for the ideas so far and keep them coming if you have another way.

[Dick in Seattle]

I had the same problem when I started up.  The cost of bandsaw blades was killing me.  I finally went to a combination of Jess's approach, make all short straight across cuts with a hack saw and miter box, and never putting fiberglass in the bandsaw.   I've always felt that I had a bit of a touch with belt sanders... years of using them for the rough shaping of production wood carving on ventriloquist figures and carousel horses.   I do true longbows and my practice now is to do the layup, grind out the blank to square using the drum sander, then put new clean tape on the back of the bland and draft the bow (no template) right onto the tape.   Then I grind the bow to shape on the drum sander.   When it comes to the shelf (which I'm not a big fan of anyway) I either skip it in favor of shooting off the hand or rasp it in Nicholsons.

Using either of my belt sanders (I have 48 and 80 inchers) I can grind a bow to shape ready for bench sanding with a mouse in less than 1/2 hour.   Felt kind of hairy at first, but it's just normal procedure now.  I do the bulk work on the round end, grinding to "close to" my pencil line. Finished line isn't straigh... little dimples in it.  I smooth it out with the long flat surface, then do my finish sanding with the mouse.

If you can get a lengthwise vertical belt sander it helps a lot.  I've seen guys take a standard 36 or 48" and mount it on its side to make it lengthwise vertical.   My 80" is both vert. and horiz  but is overkill for a lot of things and I'm thinking of having a side mount frame welded up for my 48".

Hope that gives you some ideas.  It's what's worked for me.

[Andy Cooper]

It has be awhile since I asked an ignorant question, so I'm due. What's the difference between cutting the fiberglass accents in the risers and cutting the fiberglass on the limbs? Is it only the thickness of the riser that makes a difference, or what?

[jess stuart]

Bradford I to hate ruinning bandsaw blades. Year ago I began cutting the sightwindow out of the riser before layup, I wrap with plastic wrap and reinsert into the riser.  I have always been able to get the out without much problem, it does however predetermine which will be the top and bottom limb.  I just mike and use the thinner limb as the upper.  Here is a very poor picture of what I mean.
 

[Bradford]

Andy.. there really is no difference.  I ruined my blade on the accent glass.  So that means my blade got hashed cutting thru .030 of glass.  When I cut my limbs, I thru it on the 9" bandsaw with an already bunged up blade.

I like the window idea.. I thought of that, but was wondering how that would work out since all the lams will get glued right over it and will need to be cut open again.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas.

[Joey V.]

What I do it change blades.  I have one that if ruined because of glass and preety much burns through wood slowly now and fiberglass too.  I use thois old blade to trim excess from limbs and cut risers. I will then change blades for pure wood applications.  So far I have made a lot of cuts with the old crap blade on limbs and risers without issue.  The thing about hte blade is that when it hits glass it damages the kurf of the blade but the tips are still pretty sharp so it will cut...

[Bradford]

Yeah.. I notice it still cuts.  I was hoping there was a one all solution.. but no biggie.  I just hate cutting the window out with a blade that burns the wood.. it takes forever to sand it all down nice.. And since this round of bows I am building are using FB in the risers.. there is no way around it.

[jess stuart]

Bradford if I understand correctly you can't cut the sightwindow out before glue up due to the fiberglass accent stip.  If my assumption is correct, this is what I do when I use fiberglass in the riser.  I tape the pieces of wood in the riser together withou the glass and cut out the sightwindow.  Then put the pieces back in the riser along with the fiberglass strip, after I wrap them with plastic wrap.  I then gule up as normal, you will have to take the thickness of glass off the riser pieces you cut out before putting them back in.    This allows me to make my riser with fiberglass accents strips and never having to cut the fiberglass with my bandsaw.  Hope that make sense, not to good at explaining it.