Bandsaw tooth count question

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Batmanacw

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I just bought a new saw that takes 93" x 3/4" blades. I do a lot of everything so one day it could be aluminum or steel angle iron and the next day solid steel bars. I'm running a 10-14 variable on my little saw and it does okay with everything.

What should I run on the new saw?
 
same tooth geometry if it works for you.
I generally use the 10-14 on my small saw, but will go up on thin stuff.
you always want 3 teeth in the cut, otherwise you risk the blade.

If you are doing 1" thick stuff consider 3-4 tpi.
 
I went with 5-6 this go-round and immediately wished I'd' gone with 10-12 instead, because the usefulness as a general-purpose blade falls off steeply as tooth count goes down. When you really need the more aggressive blade you can always just install it for the job as needed. And with that fancy gearbox, changing speeds is a breeze, I bet!
 
@woodchucker has the key point, 3 or 4 teeth across the width of whatever you're cutting. Even in soft material like aluminum, fewer teeth in the cut will cause the stock to vibrate and be very difficult to control. As he said, in harder material the blade is at risk.

For thicker material, too many teeth in the cut means slower cutting and higher pressure to push the material through the saw. Less critical than too few teeth, but makes the cut more challenging.

10-14 is probably a good number for general use.
 
one more thing about too many teeth in a cut.
less chip clearing, and way higher heat. So you need to go slower so you don't pack the gullets, and increase the heat. The more time the blade is cutting in a spot the hotter, the more chips packed in, the more compression of material and higher heat.

So balance is key. Just like any other cutting... speed and feed.
 
6 for aluminum and wood , maybe even a skip tooth for thick stuff .
14 for steel .
YMMV .
 
Once I get paid I'm thinking about ordering a couple 10/14 and a couple 6/10 for solid material. I'm going with IMachinist for now and I'll look into some Lenox later.
 
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