Hope I don't get flamed for reviving an old topic. I'm only on my first bow, but I know a bit about bandsaws.
For starters, if you skimp on your first bandsaw's capabilities because you "only need to do this one task I'm looking at now", you will be sorry later on. You will find that you can do more things with the bandsaw. I like the fact that the blade has such a thin kerf that I can choose from a lot more different wood sizes at the yard (NOT Lowes or Home Depot), bring it back to my shop and usually have a good sized piece of scrap and a LOT less sawdust. My most recent example of this was cutting ¼” x ¾” strips for a boat from 1” x 7” redwood. I saw a significant savings in cost by the thin kerf. My bandsaw gets more use than any other major tool in my shop because it’s versatile and I can setup for more larger cuts safely when I’m alone.
Now, I’ve had cheap blades last for hundreds of feet of cut and I’ve had expensive blades throw their carbon tips after just a few feet. Blades are sensitive to heat. The more friction you have, the more heat, and subsequently, less life. The two major causes of heat on a bandsaw (besides the raw density of the wood) are turning radius of the cut against the blade and the sheer amount of wood you are cutting through. If you are trying to perform a cut through a thick chunk of wood, you generally want fewer teeth per inch. If you are trying to perform a curved cut, start with cutting some perpendicular relieve cuts so the blade doesn’t bind.
Next are the adjustments where the cutting takes place. A good table has the following adjustments:
• blade guides (for different size blades) above and below the table.
• rolling blade backing, above and below the table.
• A blade guard that moves the previous two parts located above the table up and down according to the thickness of cut you’re about to make.
These adjustments are key to blade life because your own machine, no matter what the cost, can literally destroy key components while happily dulling down blades. The blade guides should always be positioned behind the valleys in the teeth of the blade. They should also be adjusted (this changes as they wear) so that the blade travels from side to side as little as possible. This is an easy adjustment above the table; the bottom guides are often neglected because they are harder to get to. You can also by aftermarket cooler running guides.
The backing bearing keeps your blade from being pushed back to the point where the teeth might come into contact with the guides. I’ve seen some of these so badly adjusted that pushing a hard cut will take the blade completely off the wheels that drive it. Again, take the time to adjust this for each different blade you put on and don’t forget the bottom bearing. When you’ve put a new blade on and made your adjustments, spin the wheels by hand and listen for the blade doing something abnormal. Run a few scrap pieces of wood through and check your adjustments again to see if anything came loose.
The blade guard is pretty straightforward, until you get into making bows, as I’ve just learned tonight. The cuts I had to set up went from a thin tip to a thick center. I’m comfortable enough with my bandsaw that I just set the guard to the thickest part and go. Normally, I would try to make these cuts first while all the wood is the same dimension going through, but obviously this is not the case with bows!
You should also check the adjustment of your table to the blade. Raise that blade guard up all the way and take a square to the table and blade. You can double check this by squaring a line on a piece of wood on both sides of the cut and running it through. If your blade nails both you’re good to go.
Your table should have a place to put a shop vac hose for dust collection. USE IT! A good machine will handle excess dust ok, but a marginal machine will be downright unusable with inches of dust collecting on its insides.
Three more things to consider. First is power and speed; get at least 1 h.p. and have at least two speeds. Second is table size; A 24” x 24” inch table is light years better than a 12” x 12”. Finally, mobility; I’ve just spec’d out a decent size machine and you want a darn good base on wheels that you can drop down just about anywhere in your shop. I have a hard time not laughing at friends who have setup a really nice machine on a fixed base in the corner of their workshop.
Finally, I love this tool because as I’ve learn how to tune it and use it I get closer and closer to that line I’m cutting. This means the less elbow grease I have to use “bringing it home” after the cut. Set a goal for a level of bandsaw based on its capabilities and start saving money for it. Keep an eye out on **** and Craigslist for one. Take a friend with you if you’re going to look at a used one at a garage sale or Craigslist; it’s easy to be wearing those rose colored glasses when your goal is within your grasps; your buddy might point out that ripped up wheel or shot bearings on the motor that you might overlook because you’re so close to getting your “dream machine”.
Topic: bandsaws? (Read 754 times)
