Thread: Bandsaw mod?

I feel your pain bodgy.

Somebody donated a 10year old tiny little 1/3hp 9inch Ryobi Bandsaw. I thought it might be good for cutting pine, ply and mdf for kiddies toys. After new tyres and a new blade. I can cut faster and more accurate with a coping saw. P.O.S.

Adjusted and tuned every setting I can. Nowhere near straight. Now for an investment like yours, that must be frustrating.

I hope you're not arbitrarily offseting your fence by 3 degrees. That should be what yoyu measured when straight cuttign freehand.........

Well, my best suggestions:

1. Get a decent blade if you haven't already. The standard issue items are pretty ordinary. Make sure it's not worn, and is sharp.

2. Check and adjust standard guides to within spec. (folded paper clearance on every bearing)

3. Perform the fence adjustment described in the bandsaw books, which basically adjusts your fence for the drift happening on your blade.

Good luck!

Michael

Originally Posted by Bodgy

(I have the fence offset 3 degrees as per common wisdom on blade wandering off)

re the above :confused: :confused: :confused:

Before offering any advice mate, can you fill me in on the following.

1. Is the blade the one that came with the saw?

2. Are the wheels co-planar?

3. Have you read the posts about setting guide gap.

4. Is your table at dead 90 deg to the blade.

Dubious advice will follow your answers.

Woodbe, Yes. I got some library books and a video once I bought it and set up per instruction.

Termite

1. Is the blade the one that came with the saw?

Yes and no, I negotiated an extra few blades when I bought it. I immediately installed one of the after market ones.


2. Are the wheels co-planar?

Yep

3. Have you read the posts about setting guide gap.

Yep, fag paper clearance

4. Is your table at dead 90 deg to the blade.

Good as I can get it, fence is adjusted for drift (thats the word, forgot)

I suspect the blade tension.

What about the tracking?

Originally Posted by silentC

What about the tracking?

Do you mean the drift, Silent? If not explain please. In practice the blade wants to cut ever closer to the fence. If I cut without fence along a scribed line, no worries, works like a bought one.

When you tension the blade, is the spring compressed so that the coils touch? If so, you'll need a replacement spring. The Jet saws now have a higher quality spring-perhaps one would fit. Otherwise, contact Louis Iturra at Iturra Designs in Florida-he has a whole catalogue full of enhancements for these saws. He was a pioneer in the replacement spring biz, and supplies a nice one for not much $$.

Greg

Does you saw have a knob that controls the camber of the top wheel? It allows you to control the tracking of the blade on the wheel and, because the tyre is usually not flat, changes the angle of the blade, toe in or toe out.

Blade tension:

I usually rely on operator tension, however, FWW published plans for a simple tension gauge a while back, and I did upload a copy on a thread somewhere despite my fears of breaching copyright.

In the very latest edition, in the TIPS section, some clown (for those who aren't aware "clown" in this context is a way of describing a nice fellow who may be prone to doing funny things and is not meant in any derogatory context) suggested that one could clamp a set of digital calipers onto the blade then tension it, and measure stretch.

They did note the amount of stretch to convert to PSI or whatever. An interesting thought, and one I may try just to see if it works.

If you want more info, I'll try to track it down tonight.

Cheers,

P

OK, before doing any mods I would do the following

1. Send a blade to Henry Bros and get them to shorten it by 15mm.

2. Fit the modified blade and adjust tension. Set gap etc.

3. Adjust fence square to table, forget drift allowance etc etc.

4. Do test cuts using about 12mm thick timber and use the tracking adjustment to get a straight cut. Only move the tracking adjustment a small amount at a time.

5. Seeing as how a cut in 12mm timber can be straight even if the blade is off a bit, once you have a straight cut in the thin stuff grab a bit of 75mm or 100mm timber.

6. If your blade is a little bit out it will either want to pinch the timber against the fence and put a "belly out" in the timber, or the blade will try and pull the timber away from the fence, and if you hold it tight enough will give you a belly the other way. So you do the really fine tuning with thick timber.

IMHO you should not need to do any mods to your saw. I find that I order my blades a little bit shorter than standard.

Thank you all, I'll try to respond both Chronologically and logicaly.

1. Greg, I'll check the spring, although I suspect it may be just a screw tensioner against gravity.

2. Silent, when I set it up (what a nightmare, Chinglish manual which was not only impossible to understand but wrong) I checked the wheel alignment. I see your point, but would the adjustment for drift compensate for slight toe in/out etc. I'll have another look tomorrow. Its so hot, again, in Sydney that I have begun a commitment to a 6 pack.

3. Midge. I need to see if the blade tension adjuster is at it full extent, and admittedly learn more about the internal mechanism. Was hoping someone could give me a note, ie Octave below middle c, slightly sharp etc.

4. Termite. I will order a new blade from Heny's. You are quiite correct. I tend to only use the bandsaw for thick lumps of wood. On occasion when I cut thinner pieces, ie 12 mm, I do it freehand, no fence. I also set the drift offset after curring a bit of 19mm.

Your point (6) is exactly descriptive of my woes. I just cut a 150mm slab and the cut was like the sea in a strom, despite real slow feed, a rip blade and constant tension against the fence.

Thanks again, I'll investigate tomorrow, meanwhile tides gone out on the Lowenbrau, time to bury the dead marine and seek solace in the next..

Originally Posted by Bodgy

meanwhile tides gone out on the Lowenbrau, ..

There's your problem right there-imported beer.

Hi Bodgy;

From what I've read, I'd be very careful about shimming the tensioner as you may bind the spring's coils so reducing the shock-absorbing qualities it has to effectively nil.

Also, the 3 deg offset you mention: the standard way is to mark a centre line on some scrap and freehand cut, keeping as close to that mark as possible. Stop halfway through the cut, and holding the stock mark the table with a pencil or such along the stock's edge. Subsequently adjusting the fence to that line marked on the table will then provide the drift correction for that type and thickness of stock.

Repeat as required for other sizes and types of timber.

Have you tried to borrow a blade tension guage? May be worth a try - and if the adjuster can't develop the required tension, have some blades made up a few mm shorter

Cheers!

hi Bodgy...

seems that history repetes itself, what you describe is exactly what i went through with my clone bandsaw, i even bargained for some extra blades like you did, thought it was all going to be wonderfull, was i wrong...

so i had to get the books do the reading etc to find out what to do...

i ..

-made sure the table was square to the blade
-filed the blocks nice and flat
-found out the exact size the blade supposed to be(mines a hare and forbs machine so that was easy)
-ordered a 1.3tpi monster blade from henry bros.
-cleaned the tyres
-checked the tension spring was in order, and it was threaded so mine would'nt tighted up properly either, fixed that
-fitted the blade
-tightened it up to so that if the top guide was about 6-8in up then the blade would spring in 1/4 in without your finger going white, not over tight
-the guide blocks and rolers where set a paper thickness from the blade
-tracking was set so the blade rode in the centre of the tyres
- and the most important thing i did was 'chuck the fence away' and made my own tall resawing fence that i clamp at the angle for blade drift

all this done and i can resaw 10in boards without a fuss...