$200 bandsaw tuneup?

The 3 most frequent reasons for blade wander I have found are Worn blade Too fast a material feed Blade not parallel to cut

John

Try

Before you blame the saw, try something other than bed frame, and try a new blade. Some bed frame is really tough stuff, and you may have taken the set out of your blade, or dulled the teeth.

John Martin

On my 4X6, I found the cause of slanted cut to be worn guide roller bearings, they let the band turn inward. My slant was to the inside tho, not to the outside. Replacing the worn bearings fixed the problem, cuts as good as ever now.

You mention bed frame which can be quite hard. If you are using carbon steel blades, especially cheap ones, that's probably the problem. I'm using 14tpi Morse bi-metal blades and frequently cut bed frame. A recent cut on a piece of 1"D steel round stock only required a 10 thou facing cut to clean up the end.

Ted

I might add, buy a new brand-name blade. Lenox makes good ones, they're on the shelf at the my local hardware store, MSC would be one web source. The chink ones seem to be made of old banding iron.

Stan

I think a variable tooth 10-14 blade (bi-metal is preferred) might be a better general purpose one to use (28 tpi is pretty fine) and I would not use the slowest speed. Most of time the middle pulley setting works for most stuff unless it is something really hard.

You don't say how old your saw is, but unless you use it a whole lot and/or you have had it for quite a while, it might just could use an adjustment in the bearings that guide saw blade to make it cut more square.

Well, that's three for a new blade. I never thought about the relative hardness of bed frame having an effect on the thing. That's by no means the *only* thing I cut with this saw, but I have cut up more than a few bed frames as a cheap (ie free) source of material.

It still cuts anything I run it through, but there's no telling how long I've had the same blade on there. I have a tendency to run things until they break, long after they've stopped performing well. Sanding belts, saw blades, guitar strings....

I have an extra blade on hand. Maybe I'll just try that.

Thanks to you, and everyone else for the tips...

Hey, cool ideas there indeed!

I have a 4x6 from a Homier tool truck sale (and most of 'em are the same), and there were some very poorly fit parts on it, just out of the box.

The saw was nearly fully disassembled before I started using it, and the one particular part that would've made it cut poorly (on a compound angle), was the strut/arm that props up the back side of the saw (from the pivot shaft). This strut bolts onto the saw casting, and needed about 3/16" of shim to get the cross-section of the blade pointed vertical. Longer, graded bolts and washers were used to hold the strut securely.

If the sides of the blade guide bearings aren't square to the bed, I don't think you'll be able to get the 90 degree cut.

WB ..................

Hi Chuck, this bounced when sent to your yahoo address..

I sent a reply to your request shortly after I received it in Oct, but that's email for ya (like most things), it's great when it works right.

I put a couple of web pages together that show most of the modifications and refinements that were done on my saw.

WB

----- Original Message ----- From: To: "Wild Bill" Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:51 PM Subject: Re: $200 bandsaw tuneup?

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 07:56:56 -0400, in rec.crafts.metalworking you wrote: WB, Chuck here, (retired ironworker) I have the same problem, all of my cuts get welded, but I would still like them to be 'right'. If possible could you do me a favor,,,, I 'see' ,,,,,, almost,,,,,,, in my minds eye what you are talking about aligning the saw,,,, but it would be sooooo much better if you could send some pictures. If you can. Apprecaiate it very much. Chuck Lorentson 73

Grant, the master of understatement sez:

"Nice page, Bill. I added a link to it on my 4x6 bandsaw FAQ page."

Much better than "nice", Grant! It was esp. good to get both your's and Bill's files in directly printable forms.

In order to prolong the life of the original Chinese motor, you can open the motor and drill some ventilation holes in both end bells. Use a small drill, say 1/8", and drill holes close together, forming a screen. Take care to not drill so many holes as to substantially weaken the end bells. This will allow some cooling air to flow into the motor and the 1/8" "mesh" will prevent larger swarf from entering the motor.

Bob Swinney

Cant seem to find the OP, But just fore reference - next time you're cutting aluminum, cut it on your TABLESAW instead much better almost perfect cuts. - be careful and practice slowly first - all the other suggestions for bandsaw tuneup are good to

Tom

modifications

I tried that before I got my bandsaw. I get almost as good cuts on the bandsaw every time compared to the best I got on the table saw. Never tried cutting anything as big as the 5"D piece I cut the other day. I think that would be *really* dangerous. Add the noise and need for constant undivided attention and I'll stick to the bandsaw.

Ted

Tip: One of the woodworking magazines was using aluminum for guides and had to cut a bunch. The guy cut through the store price(upc?) sticker and found there was a nice clean edge. After that he ran masking tape along the edge to be cut and didn't have to clean up the metal after the cut.

Joel. phx

I stopped this practice after the saw blade lost a few teeth. Wonder where they went :(