Thread: Blade Tension

This has been discussed a fair bit.

I think the consensus was that it doesn't hurt to slacken the tension.

Some people never release the tension, others do it religously.

Personally, if I know I won't be using the BS for a while, I release the tension.

I'm not so paranoid that I'll get up in the middle of the night to do it if I forget though.

It's good for the soul

with the bas -350 there is a deflector plate over the dust extraction uptake anybody know the reason why it's there(something to do with vortexs or something???) and if no good reason do you reckon I should remove it??

Peter

Mebbe it's to stop the dust extraction port from getting dirty?

It might be there so bid splinters cant fall down between the blade and the wheel

I know for a fact that it is good practice to release bandsaw blade tension if the machine is going to sit idle for more than a couple of days. If you leave the machine with tension on, three things can happen:

1) the rubber on the wheels will distort to the pattern of the blade teeth in a permanant kind of fashion, on half the wheel only of course. this repeated to the extreme will lead to tracking, balance and blade flapping problems.

2) the spring steel band that the blade is made of will eventually form itself aroung the wheel and give itself two large wobbles, espcially in smaller bandsaws ie 16" and under

3) with excess tension on the blade, a sticky tension spring and a good range of temeratures from day to night could lead to the blade actually snapping when it shrinks. :eek:

As for releasing tension from the motor drive belts, never found a need to do that myself. do you de-tension you car's fan, airconditioner, powersteer, water pump and alternator belts when you leave it sit for a while????

Me thinks not!

Happy bandsawing.

Good points Chris, never thought about the fan,aircon,waterpump belts

Cheers

Hi Pete,

I back mine off each when I finish. All the things Chris mentioned are also found in many other threads on this forum. I searched for them to and learn't heaps. I can't see any benefit from leaving something under stress/load/tension for no reason.

Cheers,

Buz

Last time I backed off the tension on mine was 2 years ago.

It still cut when I used it 3 days ago.

Al :confused:

Should do it but don't
My B/s has a lever to release tension when not being used.
But I'm slack

The last time I removed the tension was when the top wheel bearings collapsed. No... that was the BS releasing the tension, not me. I'll start again:

The last time I released the tension was when the band snapped. No... again, that wasn't me. Hmmm... try again:

I don't release the tension! Schite, that's still not right...

The last time I released the tension was when I changed the band. It's the only time I release the tension. Maybe that's why my wheel fell off and blade snapped?

Originally Posted by Peter Jones

with the bas -350 there is a deflector plate over the dust extraction uptake anybody know the reason why it's there(something to do with vortexs or something???) and if no good reason do you reckon I should remove it??

Peter

Peter,
Some wise guy in the factory must've thought it a good idea as it will protect the dust extractor fan from blocks of wood hitting it. How these blocks will get into the bottom wheel shroud I don't know. It's a bit like the grids on the intake of dust extractors. Very clever idea but in practice its a pain because some woolly shavings and bits of abrasive sheet blocks it up and then you have zero extraction. Bear in mind that most the staff and manufacturers have never used the machine they manufacture in real life situations.

I used a small angle grinder to remove the one in my BAS350, it is necessary to remove the bottom wheel to do a neat job. (The dust extraction has improved ). While at it,I relocated the closing mechanism on the bottom door to the bottom corner so that it cannot interfere with wide ( 19 mm ) blades.