The symptom pattern

A blade snaps — sometimes an old one, sometimes a brand new one within minutes of fitting it — and it’s tempting to assume a bad batch or a faulty machine. Axminster’s own manual for the AP2920B treats blade breakage as a setup problem with three named causes, and none of them is the blade itself.

What’s actually happening

Bandsaw blades run under tension around two wheels and are guided through the cut by bearings on either side. Get any of that wrong and the blade is working against itself: too little tension and it flexes and fatigues where it shouldn’t; guides set too tight and it’s pinched every time it moves; feed the timber too fast and the blade is asked to remove more material than it’s rated for. The manual states plainly that too little blade tension can cause breakage — it’s the first thing worth checking, and the cheapest.

Working through it

Start with tension. The manual’s spec is concrete: with the tensioning lever set to full tension, the blade should give roughly 1cm when pressed at its left-hand side, and the gauge on the front of the upper wheel should read tension on. Blades stretch slightly with use, so a blade tensioned correctly when it went on can still slacken off over time — worth rechecking periodically, not just after fitting a new one.

If tension is correct, move to the guides. The manual gives real figures here too: the upper and lower guide bearings sit around 2mm behind the blade’s gullet, with no more than 0.5mm clearance to the blade itself, and the thrust bearings behind them sit around 1mm off the blade, touching it only once it’s under cutting pressure. A thrust bearing left too tight rides against the blade the whole time it’s running rather than just during a cut, which is exactly the kind of steady extra load that ends in a snapped blade.

Last, look at how the saw is being fed. Pushing timber through faster than the blade and motor combination can manage is the manual’s third named cause, and it’s the easiest one to fix without tools — just slow down.

Verdict

Blade breakage on the AP2920B is a setup problem the manufacturer names in its own words, and every cause it gives is free to correct: retension, reset the guides to spec, ease off the feed rate. Buy a replacement blade for the one that’s already gone, but there’s no reason to spend on anything else, and no reason to suspect the machine itself is at fault.