Brand new bandsaw blade snapped on me mid-cut yesterday

I was breaking down a big pork shoulder at work yesterday, maybe 30 pounds, and about halfway through the first cut the blade just gave out. Scared the daylights out of me. The steel snapped right at the weld joint, and the tension sent the blade whipping around inside the saw housing. Luckily nobody was standing too close. I had just put that blade on that morning, a 14 TPI from a supplier I've used for years. I checked the tension before I started and everything seemed fine. I had to stop production for about 20 minutes to clean up the mess and swap in a backup blade. Has anyone else had a new blade fail at the weld like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_richard5d agoTop Commenter

Did you check if the weld was cold, Nathan mentioned that can cause snaps in new blades.

the_nathan5d ago

HOLY COW, snapped at the weld? That's INSANE. I've had blades dull out way too fast before, but never just straight up POP at the joint like that. I'd be furious if I wasted a whole blade on the first use, especially with a 14 TPI on a big shoulder like that. That weld must have been total garbage from the factory.