How to Safely Unfold and Fold a Bandsaw Blade

A simply task like folding and unfold a bandsaw blade and be one of the most frightening tasks through your project. Here at Techshop, a DIY workshop that enables the everyday person to make their dreams come true, the staff manages this task on a regular basis. In the follow few steps I will outline the steps to take to safely unfold and fold a bandsaw blade so you can practice these techniques at home in your own shop.

BE SURE TO USE HAND AND EYE PROTECTION AT ALL TIMES! The blades are sharp.

The secret to unfolding a bandsaw blade to to find the right coil to grab from. With the teeth facing towards your palm, grab a coil. The correct coil will leave a coil free hanging in the middle. The other two coils will leave crossed sections.

Using the hand you picked the coil out with, reach for the free hanging coil and lift it upward. It will form a triangle.

Release the free hanging coil upward and away from you. This will straighten out the whole blade letting it unfold easily.

Folding a bandsaw blade is a little trickier. The goal is to keep the teeth from hitting each other and the blade from touching the ground.

Grab the blade holding it out in front of you, you want to grab it so that your hands will be able to rotate inward.

Twist the blade. This will cause the blade to want to bend in half, make sure it it bending in half away from you.

Loop the top section of the blade under the bottom lead slightly to the side so that in one hand two coil will be forming and in the other only one coil will be forming. The top will loop up underneath to form a coil.

Once the coils are formed simply join them together and store it away.

The following step will show another series of photos of the same folding technique.

Another view of the folding...