Band saw

Blades. Once these are setup with a decent blade and cutting square leave them alone. If for any reason it goes off square it's the blade, never the machine, always the blade. Get Lennox blades as a first choice, second choice use Lennox and if you have to buy any others use Lennox.

DON'T buy Starrett at any cost, use string soaked in sand and water it's better.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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Can't speak directly for Warco but I've been very happy with the small one I got from Chester when it was on very special offer.

The only problem I've had was when it suddenly stopped cutting. Turned out the grub screw on the motor pulley was totally loose, the drive key had worked its way out of the slot and there was no longer any drive. The screw on the other pulley was loose too. Refitting the key and putting the screws back in tight fixed it.

I'd suggest going over it and making sure everything is assembled right and tight. After that there isn't much blade adjustment - its nowhere near as fiddly as a woodworkers band saw.

Which model did you buy?

Brenda

-- anotheri

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The Mitre Arm Universal Bandsaw one with black base and no wheels cost £170

Adrian

I was wondering about that one - what's the gain over the one wit wheels? Does it come with a table for vertical cutting?

I'm hoping to get to Warco's Open Day in a couple of weeks time so can have a look at the various saws they sell.

Brenda

-- anotheri

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This machine does not do vertical cutting, it is quite heavy at 70 kgs and I guess is more meant for a permenant position then the other with wheels.

As to any benifit to either not sure just know it works.

Adrian

A follow up to my earlier band saw post as I may need a bit of assistance with it.

I very quickly wore all the teeth off the 14 TPI blade that was fitted to the machine and assumed I was running to fast with the middle speed.

I also managed to rip the teeth off the 10 TPI blade very quickly indeed. So I fitted my last 14 TPI blade and had a go at setting up the machine as per the instructions or at least how I understood them.

One pulley is obviously fixed on the motor driven shaft and the other pulley can be adjusted to provide a slight tilt to ensure the blade runs over the pulleys without running off.

So carefully I removed all tilt from this pulley fitted the blade through the roller guides and tensioned the band. The tilting pulley then slowly adjusted with the minimum adjustment to keep the band to the bottom of the pulleys as possible.

This would leave the back edge of the blade approx 3/16" from the bearings only going into contact when cutting and the weight of the band saw carried on the moving blade. Now I assumed this to be wrong and adjusted the guides so that under no downward cutting force the rollers would just touch.

The blade was now prone to snagging and coming off the driven pulley, no matter how much tension was put on the blade this would always happen. I thought at first it was due to too few teeth on too thin a metal but would still happen when I bought and fitted a 24 TPI blade.

So now I am back with the slight gap to the top rollers and it is better. The question is have I done it correctly when following the book I am wrong so guidance is needed here?

Cheers

Adrian