Thread: Bandsaw throat inserts

Trav, we could do one up on the lathe.

I have some bright red HDPE here, about 10mm thick. Turn it up on the lathe, copy the old one.

We could hold it in place by screwing it to a preturned stub.

There is also a scroll saw that has never been used sitting here, we could make the throat etc like that.

Maybe I could grab the old one when I call over Monday?

Ev

I've got some zero clearance aluminium inserts that were thrown in with mine and a scroll saw etc so let me know if you want to copy them with evan

Another way around it is to cover the whole table with a laminex sheet. That way you get a zero clearance throat. No good if you are cutting sheet metal though because the burr will destroy the laminex. As for cutting a perfect curve you can follow a pencil line pretty closely with a fine blade like 1/8 x 14tpi. The trick is to go slowly. Then there are circle cutting jigs and template following jigs but I've never used them.

Where's your sense of brothership! Spares! Spares!

You'll lend ONE of of your many spares to make one for Trav...

Hehe. Maybe you are lacking sleep from the new bub

Haha yeah possibly. He can just have one but I thought he may need to copy it as it might not just 'slot' into his bandsaw insert slot (technical term right there!)

Originally Posted by Toymaker Len

Another way around it is to cover the whole table with a laminex sheet. That way you get a zero clearance throat. No good if you are cutting sheet metal though because the burr will destroy the laminex. As for cutting a perfect curve you can follow a pencil line pretty closely with a fine blade like 1/8 x 14tpi. The trick is to go slowly. Then there are circle cutting jigs and template following jigs but I've never used them.

This reminds me of a project I was contemplating. Saw it in a very old book on bandsaws from the 80s. Its a slide on sled. It is to be wider than the table, but have a dam on the bottom for back, left and right so it slides exactly in place each time. Then used a wind on bolt underneath to keep it fixed in place.

I was going to use it for circle making. Make a mod so I can slide a rod back and forth for different diameters.

It was for making bowl blanks, but it would make for a very nice "big table" with ZCI.

Thanks everyone for the ideas and offers.

Len - that's a great idea, but how do you get the fence to fit? I've got a halfway decent fence, with the rail tapped into the cast iron top. If I covered the top with melamine, I wouldn't be able to use that fence. I Could use t track to add a new fence, but I'd need to adjust it for drift every time I change its position. But perhaps I missed something, so let me know what you think.

Evan, Delbs - thanks for the offers to help. If your spare aluminium insert fits, that would be perfect Nathan. I'll measure mine today and let you know so you can compare.

Evan - if the aluminium one doesn't fit, I'd be keen to take you up on your offer. It would be shard thing to turn though as it is only a few mm thin? Would the scroll saw be better? Let's discuss on Monday.

Thanks again.

Trav

The laminex cover idea doesn't really work with a fitted fence. I used to do a temporary fence with just one screw nearly level with the blade (use a slotted hole to micro-adjust) holding the fence the right distance from the blade. Then you can pivot the fence on that screw to get your tracking right. When everything is working then use a couple of clamps to hold down the fence front and back to the table and you have a rock solid custom fence. Another good thing is to try doing micro adjustments by backing off the clamps a little and tapping the fence in the desired direction with a mallet.
I didn't usually use a fence much as the laminex was for doing fine cuts through relatively thick material working in very close to a 3mm bandsaw. The zero clearance (which would wear out to 2-3mm before replacement) was so that small pieces didn't fall through the table.

Jet supply the original aluminium ones, or at least did before the distributor changed in Oz. I couldn't be bothered mucking around trying to make them and they also have two?? location slots in them, they would be the easy part of the job.