Bandsaw question

[Bill in Buena Park]

Hey all,
I've just replaced the 1/4 in, 6tip blade in my bs with a 1/8 in, 14tpi blade to do some fine curvature cutting. I've been using the 1/4 in blade for a while, and haven't used a smaller blade yet. So even though my dc is keeping the saw and tires clean, I notice that dust is staying in between the teeth (didn't happen with the 6tpi blade). Is this normal, or unusual? I should note I've been working with red oak. Appreciate any thoughts on this.

[LCHIEN]

14 TPI is very fine and the gullets (valley between the teeth) are very small.
If you are cutting material much thicker than 1/4" with that blade, I believe you are packing the cuttings in between the teeth because they have no place to exit while they are traversing the cut material. The material packs in there and then the blade rides on the packed material and compresses it to where it does not fall out. Then you are riding on cuttings instead of the teeth, your work willl burn and the cannot feed well. Perhaps you need to go to a blade with fewer TPI if you are cutting thicker materials, you do not say what or how thick.

Fewer TPI will have bigger gullets and carry away the material without packing it in the gullets. that's why they use skip teeth on resaw blades, to provide more cutting relief.

[final_t]

Loring has it right. The only thing I would add is that, generally, you will want to pick a blade that will keep around 2 or 3 teeth in the wood to avoid packing it up.
That being said, before running out to get every possible combination of teeth & size, just try taking it very very slow so as to avoid having the same tooth cutting so much per pass and see if that helps any.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Thanks

Thank you both for your responses. I'm using a moderate feed rate, and the dust in the gullets doesn't seem to be hindering the cut or causing any burning, which I'm thankful isn't happening. It's 3/4 in thick material, and the blade is really doing a very nice job - just collecting dust in the gullets. Is there any problem leaving the dust there for any period of time, or should I be brushing the dust out when I'm done?

Thanks again.

[final_t]

Thank you both for your responses. I'm using a moderate feed rate, and the dust in the gullets doesn't seem to be hindering the cut or causing any burning, which I'm thankful isn't happening. It's 3/4 in thick material, and the blade is really doing a very nice job - just collecting dust in the gullets. Is there any problem leaving the dust there for any period of time, or should I be brushing the dust out when I'm done?

Thanks again.

If the wood is wet or likely to cause corrosion, yes. Otherwise, that's a personal preference. I always clean up the BS when done and brush it down when done so that I don't have to do it when I need to use it next.