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Anybody have any bandsaw tips or tricks? I have had a small Delta bandsaw for years and my lack of proficiency with it never really bothered me because I had limited uses for it. But just recently my father gave me his 14 inch Ridgid bandsaw so the possibilities are great. The only problem is I can't seem to get a straight cut with it. I seem to have it adjusted right but I don't have any fences or guides for it yet.

Thanks, Dale

Dale you must have blade guides. Right?

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Sharp blade is a must, properly set up guides, wheels and blade tension is also critical to keeping the blade straight during a cut. If the tension is to tight or to loose, the guides and thrust bering not set right the blade will go all over the place. Also the proper tooth pitch for the task makes a big diff.

Hi Dale:

I recently gave my bandsaw a major tune-up, including a new Timberwolf blade and some new "Carter-style" guides. These along with some careful set up has made it a joy to work with. There are some resaw experts here that will probably chime in, but I would start with the basics.

First off make sure the wheels are coplanar - I had to shim one of mine to make them so.

Check that the table is at 90 deg. to the blade.

One thing I did that really helped smooth out my machine was to make sure the drive pulleys were also coplanar - then I added one of the linked belts you can get at the woodworking supply houses. What a difference!

Good guides and adjustment of them are essential! I like the bearng guides, but know folks that use the solid "Cool Block" style and think they are just fine.

Finally, get a high quality blade...

There are several good books out there, but I can't think of the names right now. I'm sure someone else will have them at hand.

Regards,

-Mark

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Dale - Once the bandsaw is set up properly the most important thing is to set up the fence to follow the lead of the blade. Almost all bandsaw blades have some lead, they don't want to cut exactly 90 degrees to the front of the table. Take a piece of wood about 18 inches long and straighten one edge. Then draw a line parallel to the edge. If you start sawing down this line you will notice that you have to angle the piece of wood to follow the line. Saw down the line six of eight inches until you find the angle that lets you follow the line, and then turn off the saw. Set a bevel square to the angle between the front of the table and the edge of the wood. Then use the bevel square to set your fence. If your fence can't be set off of 90, then make a tall fence that you can clamp to the tabel at the right angle.

Hope this helps, Paul

Yes, I do have blade guides don't know how good they are though. The saw is basically brand new and still have the guides that came with it. When I mentioned guides in the orginal post I was referring to something else that might be out there like a fence. Sorry if I missled you on that one.
I don't know about the quality of the blade but I'm going to make sure that it gets replaced with one of good quality. But now the blade tension and the saw tooth pitch I was unaware of. Is there a general rule to use when choosing a blade and setting blade tension?
I do need to get a good fence,any suggestions.
Paul I wasn't aware of that, I'll give it a practice on some scrap when I get a fence.

Get the BANDSAW BOOK by Mark Duginske. It's an excellent book on how to use and tune a band saw.
You can make you own fence just fine, no need to buy something fancy for a band saw. I'm sure they're nice and work just fine however.
Spend some of the money on the book and you'll be ahead of the game.

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Jim Watts
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Dale
Paul's description of dealing with blade drift is excellant. The combination of tension and getting the fence set to compensate for drift will help insure gettiing a straight cut. I like to make a test cut after the drift is set by re-sawing a piece of scrap to make sure that the back of the blade is centered in the kerf. You should have an equal amount of space on either side of the blade. It the blade is rubbing on one side or the other the fence needs to be adjusted a bit more. Also check that the table is square to the blade or you'll be cutting wedges. The Timberwolf blades from Suffolk Machinery as well as the Wood Slicer from Highland Hardware are good for occasional re-sawing. Both of their websites have good info on re-sawing and setup.Bobc38722.2216087963

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(716) 874-1498

Dale,
I like the The Bandsaw Book by Lonnie Bird (Taunton Press)Lots of great information.

I'll second the recommendation for Mark Duginske's book, that's good stuff. (I'm sure Lonnie Bird's is good, too, I just haven't read that one).

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

One htthing I read recently about blade drift, and minimizing it is to have the wheels and blade set up such that the blade tracks in the middle of the tire - if it rides front or back of that, it will certainly take on a bit of twist as the tires (at least on my 14 delta) have a bit of round to them. I use a canadian mfrs industrial hardened blade, from R&D bandsaws just north west of Toronto - about the same price as a Timberwolf. I find that they will resaw just about anything, and last a fair ammount as well.

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Tony Karol
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"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I have found that properly crowned tires are essential. After a sharp blade, it
is the most critical element in making a saw cut well.

There are a number of ways to do it. I think Duginske has a description in
his book ( I think the co-planar requirement is hooey BTW.)

With a sharp blade properly tensioned on well crowned tires, the guides have
so much less to do that they become much less important - actually that
goes for a lot of the potential aftermarket gizmos you can buy for a BS.

Cheers,
-Dave

I would third the recommendation for Duginske's BAND SAW BENCH GUIDE. Also, Michael Fortune has written some great articles about band saw use for Fine Woodworking magazine. You can search for those on the Fine Woodworking web site, find out which issues they were in, and buy those back issues.

One thing I've found for routine ripping on the band saw (as opposed to resawing) is that if I use a relatively thin blade - say, 1/4" or less - it doesn't matter so much if the fence is perfectly set with regard to blade drift. The blade, because it turns so easily in its own kerf, will follow the line of direction in which you're pushing the board, i.e. the line of your fence (this assumes the blade is properly tensioned and the blade guides are properly set up). A wider blade, by contrast, will be more captive in the kerf, so if it starts to wander, it will want to keep following the line of its own wandering kerf. It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but for this reason I find it much easier to rip with a narrow blade.

For resawing, on the other hand, I use a 1/2" wide blade (Wood Slicer from Highland Hardware) with the Kreg fence and curved resaw attachment (my saw, btw, is a Jet 14" with a 6" riser block). That set-up works for me. I just follow the line by eye, and blade drift and wander (which can happen even if your initial set up is good, if the teeth set to one side of the blade get more dulled mid-cut) aren't issues. Mind you, I only do occasional resawing.

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Achieving "proper" band tension is rarely possible with small saws. These bands are designed to function best at about 21,000PSI measured with a tension meter. Generally small bandsaw frames will bend before coming close to proper tension. The best one can do is crank it down until the wheels/axels groan and back it off to where it spins free and quiet. Properly crowned tires are important for tracking, but have no affect on tension or band drift.

Dave Galas.....Nice to see a fellow Eugene, OR guy here

One htthing I read recently about blade drift, and minimizing it is to have the wheels and blade set up such that the blade tracks in the middle of the tire

Tony, this is one thing I've long suspected, but never got around to testing. The usual explanation of drift is that one side of the teeth are more worn than the other. While that may be possible, like you say, if the blade is more forward or backward on the wheels, you'll get a blade that faces left or right at the band saw table. Unfortunately, I've found that making the wheels coplanar is usually in conflict with centering the blade on them. I think it's time to play around with this and see what's actually happening!

In the end though, I think the procedure will remain the same. You measure the drift and compensate the fence. Or, maybe it'll turn out that it's real easy to adjust for zero drift just by turning the tracking screw once, without iteration!      Wouldn't that be cool

Next time you're "freehand" cutting on a band saw following a pencil line
without a fence, try this little trick. As you push the stock through, apply
pressure inwards toward the throat of the saw. On most band saws, the
throat is on the left, so you'll be pushing the stock lightly toward your left
using your right hand. Once you get the feel of it, you'll be able to let the
wood "ride" against the back edge of the moving blade, and you can use
it like a pivot to guide your cut more accurately. If you look closely, you
should see where on the left side of the cut, the blade isn't touching at
the back edge at all, and on the right side, the blade is leaning right
against the freshly cut surface. At first, it may seem counterintuitive, but,
believe me, it works like a charm when you get the hang of it!

Frank Ford38722.5819907407

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Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
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With careful setup I can adjust my Craftsman 10" at zero drift. The four things I find critical for me to achieve this are as follows.

1. Good tensioning: I too find on my small saw that I have to tension over tight then back off a bit. I flex the band as a guide till I get only about 3/16” push before my finger starts turning white from the pressure to flex the blade.

2. Good tracking: I also believe that if the blade is tracking forward or backward of center, then the band is tilted in or out and forces drift to accrue.

3. Careful guide block and thrust bearing setup: I set my blocks with a dollar bill clearance on the guides and a 1/120 clearance on the thrust bearing.

4. Use the right size tooth pith for the job at hand: If the tooth pitch is not large enough to clear the gulet fast, the blade will over heat weaken, drift and dull. My saw will take up to 1/2" blades but they don’t run well on it due to the wheel width and tire crown, so I run mostly 3/8" 4TPI bands. I find that 3/8" 6TPI over heat due to the inability clear the gulet fast enough.


Square and level table is assumed here.MichaelP38723.4516435185

[QUOTE=Larry Davis] Achieving "proper" band tension is rarely possible
with small saws.

Properly crowned tires are important for tracking, but have no affect on
tension or band drift.

Dave Galas.....Nice to see a fellow Eugene, OR guy here[/QUOTE]

And nice to see a fellow Eugene, OR guy here that I agree with on
bandsaws!

I have found I can adjust the drift SLIGHTLY by adjusting the tilt of the
upper wheel. A properly crowned tire will pop the band top and center of
the wheel and make it track wonderfully. Adjusting the tilt of the upper
wheel then adjusts the angle of the blade as it goes over wheel, changing
the drift a touch. Michael Fortune talked about this a bit in a recent FWW
article. I reproduced his results so I am a believer!

Larry, I need to check out some of your wares some time soon!

Cheers,
-Dave
dgalas38722.6257638889

If you are looking for something a little less volumous than Mark Duginske's book (which I agree is a great book). You should try "Care and repair of Shop Machines" by John White. He gives very clear and concise step-by-step procedures for setting up a number of tools.

I used his method for setting up my 18" delta and it runs like a champ

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Clear the guilt !!! I never feel guilty about cutting wood - I think you mean gullet, the space between the blades teeth.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Man lot's of good stuff here! I'll look for all of the publications & I copied and pasted the thread on ms word for future reference.
Now it's time to mess up some wood

Seriously though I've been getting more request for builds and actually have a short waiting list now (which isn't hard to do when your a part timer.) I'm hoping the new bandsaw will be a time saver on my neck construction. If I can get the hang of it!

Thanks for all the help Guys, Dale

oops gulet