"better-built" RIPSAW portable sawmill - replacement blade recommendations?

mr kanta · Dec 31, 2019

grampy666 said:
Hi,

New user and occasional lurker. This site seems to have the most recent traffic on the "better-built" portable bandsaw mill, so I thought I would ask my question here.

I bought one of these machines from the original manufacturer 25 years ago. I can't say "I love it" but it has become extremely useful, once I got though the learning curve of how to use it effectively and ruined a lot of boards in the process. I primarily like it because I can bring the mill to the trees instead of dragging the trees out of the woods to the mill by hand.

I used up the last of a batch of blades that I got from the company that bought the manufacturing rights to the machine and which has since gone out of business. I bought a new batch of blades from "timber wolf", who claims they've been making the blades for this machine since it was invented.

NONE of the latest batch of blades (5) will track on my Ripsaw. I have taken the driven wheel off and on a million times, trued it up, shimmed it this way and that, replaced bearings, checked co-planarity, etc. Nothing works. The blade gets to a certain point in its rotation and starts to shift off the driven wheel. That certain point is the same for every rotation of the blade, I verified that by tensioning the driven wheel until it just catches the blade, turning the driven wheel by hand to the point where the blade starts to shift and marking that point on the blade, untensioning the driven wheel and sliding the blade past the shifting point, re-tensioning and turning the driven wheel by hand again. The only conclusion I can make is that it's the fault of the blades, not the saw.

Any recommendations for a different blade manufacturer? There aren't a whole lot of vendors for 90" band saw blades?

thanks in advance!

I have a RipSaw with powerhead, blades and Aluminum 2X6 guide rail for sale.

grampy666 · Jan 11, 2020

mr kanta said:
I have a RipSaw with powerhead, blades and Aluminum 2X6 guide rail for sale.

Thanks Mr Kanta and Ripturner, but I completed the sale for Ryan's saw last month and no longer have need for a parts saw. I was away from Maine for a month and just before I left, I was working with TimberWolf to determine whether the blades are indeed my issue. I am 99% certain that they are the problem and if I can't get satisfaction from TimberWolf, I have a tip from another member on an alternate source for blades

aardquark · Jan 22, 2020

I know this reply is a little late, but for what it's worth, the original blade thickness specification for the ripsaw is .025", and when I tried to use blades that were thicker (I recall about .040), it had all kind of problems tracking. Back to the original thickness, no problem. Can't say more than that, as I sold the saw about 5 years ago.

grampy666 · Apr 28, 2020

This has FINALLY been resolved!
Life and firewood needs got in the way over the winter. I ordered replacement blades from a different manufacturer (LENOX), set both rudimentary tracking adjustments on this mill to their full travel and presto, the blades stay tracked! Did a balsam fir the other day for some 12' 2x6.

Stay tuned for a "better-built ripsaw 101" FAQ