Thread: Out with the new and in with the old

Hi Ueee,

You have done well. Only 0.2mm to go! How will you do that? Surface grinder? I certainly have no provisions for accurately grinder TC, only by hand on my cup wheel which I bought for my hand scraper.

WRT cutting, It's amazing how much of a difference coolant makes, mind you the other day I turned on the coolant pump and…….. Nothing! Turns out that our little hot spell took care of all my coolant. Bone dry! The coolant reservoir is pretty much completely open under the saw, once I finish my sheet metal folder I think the first job will be to make an enclosed coolant tank to help reduce evaporation. Kinda getting expensive….. it didn't even get a chance to go all smelly like I hear they are supposed to!

No projects going on at my place ATM. All projects are on hold until the kids go back to school. Can't wait! Just been cleaning. Boy it's a novelty to have a clean shed!

Can't wait to see your saw in action!

Simon

Well the saw is now running. I still need to sort out the coolant pump (broken wire somewhere). I also may need to replace the drive pulley. As i said before it has been knocked about a bit, but no i have it on and running it has a huge amount of run out. The gearbox shaft is fine, no run out, there must be 5mm on the pulley. This is setting up some nice vibrations of course.
I finished grinding the carbide pads on the surface grinder, damn carbide makes steel looks soft! But then i guess it is in comparison.

I spent a few minuets on one of the taps this evening, pretty simple really. Just need to finish the head and drill a cross hole for the coolant to flow through. Some O rings and hopefully it doesn't leak....

Once i have this done i can get back to the telescope mount.....

Ew

I finished the 2 taps today and fixed the electrical gremlins. Now the coolant is working fine except it is on when the switch is on whether or not the main motor is running. It looks like someone has been playing in the electrical box but it seems overly complicated for what it is. I think partially because it is designed to be able to run off several different voltages without to much messing around. Now i need to think about this pulley....

Ew

Hi Ueee,

Good work!

One thing I have been meaning to ask, which direction (looking from the front) does your blade run?

Mine runs right to left, against the movable jaw. I'm used to it now but I'm thinking my saw must be the only one to do this.

Simon

Hi Simon,
The Startrite runs the "normal" way, against the fixed jaw. It just occurred to me that you would have fun turning the blades inside out to get the teeth going the right way!
On that not, what sort of blade/teeth count are you using? The one that came with the saw is missing about 25% of its teeth but still cuts ok....

Ew

Hi Ueee,

Mine came with an 8 tpi (which is a little worn but i still use for big stuff) but I bought a variable pitch 10/14 bimetal. I think it was more a lucky guess than anything but so far it has been a great selection for me. Certainly a good all rounder. As a hobbyist it's difficult to choose a blade to do everything but also too expensive to justify multiple blades. With a little TLC, the 10/14 and my old 8 tpi can cut most sizes.

WRT blade direction, when I first bought the blade I was worried that it may have had the teeth facing the wrong way, I didn't realise that turning it inside out would make it go either way!

Simon

When i was an apprentice i was shown how to change the big timber bandsaw blades pretty early on. One day i fitted a blade and went to use it....only to notice the teeth were the wrong way. I took it back off and rather sheepishly took the blade to the boss and said "there is something wrong with this blade, the teeth go the wrong way". This was met by a chuckle and i was told to go and think about it for a few minutes.

Since then i've never forgotten about what happens when a blade goes inside out. It happened a lot with the wood BS blades, especially the narrow ones. These blase were probably 8 meters long too, i think that made it even easier for things to go wrong.

Ew

Mine is only 3.6M long but it nearly gives me a Chopper Reid hair cut when I turn it the right way around!

Simon