How to stiffen up a bandsaw

[muddstopper]

Interesting suggestions. My blade is new, I changed it after the first cut. I have tried cutting the metal across the flat as well as the edge, Of course cutting thru the flat negated the angle since it only had to cut thru 1in of metal instead of 8 inches. Cutting on the edge results in faster cut thru, and what has been suggested to do by other people. I Still have a piece I want to square the end up on, I think since I just replaced the wheel bushing last night, I will set up and make a edge cut to check for squareness, and then do a flat cut to check for speed. Before I do, My saw is set on its fasted speed, but with no chart, I dont know what that speed is. The saw does have step pulleys, 3step I think like George2615. Would it be better to slow it down, I have to check the HP, I think its 1hp 1725rpm, but have to double check to be sure.
edit
Looking at the charts, How to Choose the Right Bandsaw Blade, it would seem that cutting from the edge is the correct way for cutting plate. It also appears My 14tpi blade is to fine for 1in plate. Chart suggests a 5-8 hook blade, which is in line with what my machinist friend suggested to me last night, I think he said a 6-8. Since I seldom cut anything more than 1/4-1/2 in material, I think i will go for a 6-10 variable hook to give a middle ground for different materials. I am sure I will have to slow down the blade speed to make it work.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Blade height is also very important. If you can go up to a 3/4" tall blade it will improve the situation. There is an exponential improvement in saw blade life when you can use a taller blade combined with a good hydraulic feed. A saw with a 1" or 1.25" tall blade with a very good hydraulic feedrate adjuster makes for a marked improvement in blade life and true cuts.

Watch a video on a huge saw with a 2" tall blade if you want to be impressed.

my buddy recommends sawblade.com

 

[muddstopper]

Well, I just got thru making a test cut. Just fixing the bushing in the blade wheel helps with cut speed and did true up the cut some. 1x8 in plate cut on edge=27min, so it still isnt real fast seemed faster than before, but I didnt really time the other cuts. Machine ran a lot quieter, and much less wobble. I did slow down the down feed, but the speed adjustment on a Carolina Bandsaw sucks. You can see the thin wedge I cut off to square the plate, wasnt thinking about how useful such a wedge would be when I made the cut, but I can think of 1001 uses for a shim like that. You can also see with the square edge against the plate, that I still have about a 1/16 opening between exactly square and the actual cut. Not sure how I am going to adjust that out of the machine. The table bed looks to have a slight bow in it and i suspect the metal isnt laying square with the blade. I guess a 1/16th in 8 inches isnt all that bad, But!!! Anyways, I think I am going to cut a few more wedge shims out of some of the oddball drops I have laying in the floor. ****, those things would be useful lineing up stuff to be welded. I'll have to put some paint on them or they could get thrown out with the scraps. Um, maybe drill a hole in the end to run a ziptie thru for hangin on the wall.

 

[bcp]

Another source of the taper could be that the axis of the saw-motor pivot shaft is not parallel to the bed in the area of the vise.

Clamp a square in the vise, with the upright almost touching the raised blade. Lower the saw and see if the gap between blade and square stays the same.

Bruce

 

[Big Barn]

Well, I just got thru making a test cut. Just fixing the bushing in the blade wheel helps with cut speed and did true up the cut some. 1x8 in plate cut on edge=27min, so it still isnt real fast seemed faster than before, but I didnt really time the other cuts. Machine ran a lot quieter, and much less wobble. I did slow down the down feed, but the speed adjustment on a Carolina Bandsaw sucks. You can see the thin wedge I cut off to square the plate, wasnt thinking about how useful such a wedge would be when I made the cut, but I can think of 1001 uses for a shim like that. You can also see with the square edge against the plate, that I still have about a 1/16 opening between exactly square and the actual cut. Not sure how I am going to adjust that out of the machine. The table bed looks to have a slight bow in it and i suspect the metal isnt laying square with the blade. I guess a 1/16th in 8 inches isnt all that bad, But!!! Anyways, I think I am going to cut a few more wedge shims out of some of the oddball drops I have laying in the floor. ****, those things would be useful lineing up stuff to be welded. I'll have to put some paint on them or they could get thrown out with the scraps. Um, maybe drill a hole in the end to run a ziptie thru for hangin on the wall.

Good idea on the shims!! Maybe polish them up á la BuckitCase!

Terry

 

[stuckmotor]

The Yahoo group 4x6bandsaw might be able to help. It's also interesting reading.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/4x6bandsaw/conversations/messages

 

[CNC Dan]

use your wedge to shim your stock in the bandsaw. Should cancel out the taper.

 

[muddstopper]

use your wedge to shim your stock in the bandsaw. Should cancel out the taper.

Dang Dan, that would get old everytime I need to make a cut, but yea, I thought about it. Right now I am making more shims and I cant find my framing square. Those little tri squares aint long enough to get a good measure while raising and lowering the blade. A good framing square clamped in the vise should work. I cant see any adjustment on the axis, only adjustment would be a big hammer. LOL. Its out of square only a little, I need to be careful to not make it worse. Looks like the axis pivot is welded to the frame, If I decide this is my problem, I might be able to heat shrink around the pivot mount and pull it in line. Metal is pretty thin, 3/16 maybe. right now I need to quit messing with the saw and get back to the real project.

 

[BukitCase]

"Good idea on the shims!! Maybe polish them up á la BuckitCase!"

Careful Terry - now that you've made me famous, there WILL be royalty fees

Mudd, it might help if you get time to post a few pics of your saw guides, etc, so we can see how it was cobbled - (er, designed) - I have an ancient HF 4x6 saw and a 3 yr old Jet 8x12 - the Jet cut perfectly true out of the crate, but the HF required a bit of grinding on the (intentionally) sloppy joints on the two blade bearing sliders in order to get them to rotate far enough to square the cuts to the table surface.

I also found that if I don't check cut squareness (HF saw) every so often, it seems to shift - a new blade usually brings it back so I'm pretty sure the adjustments are NOT slipping. I recently bought some Starrett bi-metal blades for both saws to see if they'd last longer, but haven't tried them yet.

I build most things out of square tube (angle twists too easy) and one of my "tricks" is to clamp one piece in the vise, stand the 90* piece on it, hold a framing square against the joint and tack the two corners that touch the horizontal piece - then, using the square again, I take another piece of tubing and clamp it diagonally across the two tacked ones, keeping it square - I clamp this HARD so it can't move, then do two more tacks on the other two corners, then weld left-right-back-front in rapid succession and IN THAT ORDER, and leave it til it's cool.

I can compensate for SOME out-of-square cuts that way, just takes a bit more whip on the gap welds :laughing:

You're right, if you're in a hurry to finish a project you're gonna have to decide which is more important - tuning up even a good saw isn't a 5 minute job... Steve

 

[muddstopper]

I think i have the squareness fixed. With a square, I could press down on the edge away from the blade and it would square up with the blade. Push down on the square next to the blade and a gap would open up with the blade all the way lowered. Bed had a slight bow in it. I took my torch and heated up the front side of the bed while priseing up with a piece of square tubing and the bow popped out. Laid a straght edge across the bed and it sat flat, square matches blade from top to bottom. Making a cut now to check squareness. I suspect after years of cuts and heavy metal getting throwed on the saw bed, it probably warped it somewhat. If this fixes it, then it was a easy fix. if it still cuts out of square, well, I dont know what to do.

Shiny enough to pass the buckit test?