Band saw blade question, Help Please!

[wirewrkr]

Most of you fine folks already have horizontal band saws, I just purchased my first one the other day. Been watching Craigslist and found a local guy who wanted $75.00 for a small Enco unit. He told me $50.00 when I called him, so I jumped on it. He says it throws blades, and by looking at the sloppy tolerances on the wheel adjustment, I can see why. Will be upgrading that right away to be sure. My Question is, What blades do you folks like best? There are so many out there all are $10.00 each or more, I want to spend the money wisely and buy something that will work well the first time, I don't mind spending money on quality.
I have a hand held Rockwell that works great with Milwaukee blades, a Plasma cutter that does other cutting very well, but once in awhile I need to plunk in a chunk of bar stock or tubing and not hover over it while it does its thing. What say you learned folks, I'm all Ears.
Robert,
Santa Cruz
The weather is here, wish you were fine.

[JoeFin]

Get some 18 tpi or 10 tpi Morse blades from Enco and you'll be glad you did.

It is slow cutting but the fine teeth will track evenly through the cut

[Evan]

I use Lenox bimetal blades. One blade lasted me through nearly all the deck railing and stair fabrication I did this summer. When it finally broke I was tempted to give it a proper funeral.

[Bill Pace]

I find the blades ENCO offers hard to beat --- good prices, hold up well,...and, with a little planning you can work in free frt with a few other purchases (I can always manage to do THAT!)

The Morse and/or Agressor brands are almost always on sale

BTW, I picked up WEBRN97 as Sept frt code off another forum, havent tried it yet......

[Paul Alciatore]

I look for the bi-metal blades. They cost about twice as much but last many times longer than the cheap ones. I haven't broken one yet.

I like a medium to fine toothed blade for most work but this is not in a volume production situation. I do have several different pitches for when I need them. I know others would have different opinions on this.

[Peter Neill]

Lenox Diemaster 2 bi-metal blades every time.

Superb blades, I use a 6/10 varitooth blade in my 4"x6" on everything from pre-toughened mould steels at around 30-34Rc to aluminium and brass.

The 6/10 means I can't cut anything smaller than 1/2" dia in the saw, as you really need a minimum of 3 teeth always in the work, but stuff <1/2" dia is easy enough with a hacksaw anyway.

Avoid Starrett bandsaw and hacksaw blades like the plague, they are absolute junk.

Peter