Thread: Bandsaw Update

Bryan.

No I hadn't seen this idea. It will be given thought.

One thing I am a bit concerned about is that the coolant makes the blade slightly sticky and carries swarf with it. This then catches in bearings. As mentioned previously I broke a blade last night. When I had a look at it today I found the blade was curved and the ends did not line up because of this. Scrap that blade. Too much preasure on the bearings, or I hope that is all it is. I would like to get rid of swarf before the bearings as much as possible. A machine I saw (ha ha) at eng firm I worked at in 80's had a small wire wheel which was free to revolve as the blade brushed over it. Spring loaded maybe? Need to think of something but do not want to intrude into cutting space! Looking at the saw there is unused blade length between the back of the fixed vice jaw and the bearings. If I move the vice back towards the motor end I will get more cutting width. Any suggestions?

I have found that both adjustment cam bolts for the bearings are at the front. Have left them there and moved coolant nozzles to back bearing bolts so adjustment does not involve fiddling with nozzle bracket and visa versa.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

Bryan.

No I hadn't seen this idea. It will be given thought.

One thing I am a bit concerned about is that the coolant makes the blade slightly sticky and carries swarf with it. This then catches in bearings. As mentioned previously I broke a blade last night. When I had a look at it today I found the blade was curved and the ends did not line up because of this. Scrap that blade. Too much preasure on the bearings, or I hope that is all it is. I would like to get rid of swarf before the bearings as much as possible. A machine I saw (ha ha) at eng firm I worked at in 80's had a small wire wheel which was free to revolve as the blade brushed over it. Spring loaded maybe? Need to think of something but do not want to intrude into cutting space! Looking at the saw there is unused blade length between the back of the fixed vice jaw and the bearings. If I move the vice back towards the motor end I will get more cutting width. Any suggestions?

I have found that both adjustment cam bolts for the bearings are at the front. Have left them there and moved coolant nozzles to back bearing bolts so adjustment does not involve fiddling with nozzle bracket and visa versa.

Dean

I have never had that problem with swarf getting carried around, maybe you need to up the flow of the coolant? My nozzle is set around 20-25mm in front of the bearing block.

Some times you get a blade that just breaks for no reason at all, I think it is just a bad joint. Save it as you can weld it back together with a simple jig and a propane torch. Most saw blade service places will weld them for free as well.

With moving the fence back, the only thing it would upset is angle cuts, as they wouldn't fit. I would recommend making a new fence out of angle iron that goes right over beside the blade. This allows you to cut shorter pieces as well. If you make up one jaw you may as well make a pair and drill and tap a hole in the end of the movable jaw for bit of thread rod for holding small pieces.

I regularly remove the jaw for cutting larger things, I have cut up to 150mm I beam which is the max for my saw doing it in one cut, mine is the 115mm saw.
Sometimes I use a C clamp and other times I use a bolt through the T slot.

If you haven't seen it there are a pile of links to bandsaw mods here. METAL-CUTTING BANDSAWS - (Grizzly/Jet/HF/Enco/Delta 4x6, 5x6s, etc.)

Some of the links take you to a another page of links, like this.
Sources for 4x6 Bandsaw Modifications....

There is also the Yahoo bandsaw group with heaps of pictures in the photo albums.
4x6bandsaw : 4x6bandsaw

Dave

The blade is stuffed. When you lay it down flat in one long strip it has a serious curve with the teeth on the inside of the curve. The outside is stretched from bearing pressure or whatever. When I fitted the second nozzle I did not realise it was fitted to the cam adjustment bolt for the bearings. I over tightened the post cut bearings when doing up the bolt. This is probably what stretched and broke the blade. My fault! I now know that the adjustment is done on the outer bearings LOL. Will remember in future.

I agree with making a new fence out of angle. I would move it toward the motor end as far as possible for extra cutting width as well as the other changes you mentioned. I have already seen these mods on other web sites and had intended using them. Will look at those links you gave me to see if anything else can be done.

I have a 6 x 4 saw but I need to cut some 200mm channel for a wood lathe stand. Don't know if it will stretch that far. The cutoff saw will but it is a smelly noisy thing now I have a bandsaw.

Dean

I have cut 25mm plate standing up, I think it was about 250-300 high. I just cut as far as I could and flipped it over. The saw needs to be set up to cut dead true though.

I did it this way because it was raining outside and I didn't feel like getting the 9 inch grinder out, which would have taken forever anyway. I was also not going to stand there pushing it through with the saw in vertical mode. LOL

Dave

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

When I fitted the second nozzle I did not realise it was fitted to the cam adjustment bolt for the bearings. I over tightened the post cut bearings when doing up the bolt. This is probably what stretched and broke the blade. My fault! I now know that the adjustment is done on the outer bearings LOL. Will remember in future.

Hi Dean, I thought all the bearing bolts were eccentric? Which ones are the 'outer' ones? As Dave mentioned - I've been thinking about a few different arrangements but will definitely involve coolant at the back and front of the blade. I had a bit of a play this morning and think I will try the arrangement in the photo for the back end of the blade. I borrowed the irrigation riser idea, which I think will work well. I just used the screws for the little bearing guard - which haven't got any adjustment function. The risers that I happened to have lying around are the 90 degree fan type. If this is too messy, I'll just pop the ends off and rotate the pipes to jet directly onto the blade. For the infeed end of the blade I'll use a fexi-hose.

Cheers

- Mick

Mick

Bearing guard, what bearing guard? OH that one. My saw is old and has never had one of those since I have had it. The holes are however the ones to mount the table for vertical operation. Thats not happening on my saw. These screws are in a perfect position for the post cut coolant nozzle/s. I fitted the pre cut nozzle first and just followed suit on the post cut side. Didn't even look for a better method.

On my saw the bearing bolts nearest the vice are normal, only the ones on the outside of the saw are eccentric. This would be the right hand one in your picture.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

On my saw the bearing bolts nearest the vice are normal, only the ones on the outside of the saw are eccentric. This would be the right hand one in your picture

All four on mine are eccentric - I just checked to make sure my memory wasn't playing tricks on me. Cheers - Mick

Originally Posted by WelderMick

All four on mine are eccentric - I just checked to make sure my memory wasn't playing tricks on me. Cheers - Mick

So are mine and its an old saw.

Dave

Well you know I broke the blade and had to fit a new one. I did that last night and adjusted everything again and as I had to adjust the bearings I checked all 4 bolts and guess what...... I was right. Mine are two normal and two eccentric.

Dean

Finally got around to posting my latest updates.

Attachment 188491

Replacement Pivoting vice jaws and the nut for vice with a section of threaded rod and the grub screw used to lock it in place with allen key. I don't have to reach underneath to operate. I can change jaws by using the hand wheel to lift the vice screw / nut up thru the slot.

The top jaw is normal length at blade end but extends to end of fixed vice jaw at the other end. The lower jaw extends to close to the blade at blade end for close clamping and same as the other one at far end. Both can be used with screw jack as shown. This screw jack is just a bit of threaded rod and two nuts and will be improved on one day when I have time.

Attachment 188489

The jaws do not slide and are locked by an extended nut with a removable bar so it does not get too closely involved with other parts of the saw when I am not looking. The angle on the end of the jaw was part of the piece I used and serves no known purpose yet.

Attachment 188490

The left side blade adjustment slide is now operated by a similar locking nut. The right side one also but I cannot find the picture I thought I took weeks ago. The right side one has the threaded rod welded into the nut via a hole drilled into the side of the raised nut. I decided a grub screw was neater with later versions.

One advantage of the twin coolant nozzles is that most of the swarf falls onto a bit of stainless steel mesh I have sitting there for this purpose, below the second nozzle. Makes it easy to clean up. I have cleaned out the filter in the drain pipe once and tipped out the swarf on the mesh a couple of times in the last few months. That is all I have done. Piece of cake. I think it is working just great.

Dean

I was reminded when posting in another thread about bandsaws that there are a couple more small modifications I have made since my last post here.

Attachment 208861

This picture shows the fixed, but pivoting vice jaw on my bandsaw. If this picture is viewed full sized you can see two arrows indicating how I have arranged to move this jaw further back giving me about 30mm more cutting width. A hole has been drilled and tapped M8 at the top edge of the left hand arrow. The M8 cap screw at the other end of this arrow screws into a "T" shaped block I made to fit the slot, also tapped and drilled M8. This makes it far easier than having to poke around under the saw to adjust the angle especially considering the coolant tray under my saw. When used in the extended position this cap screw goes into the tapped hole.

The cap screw at the other end mounts thru the related hole which was drilled and then undercut with a milling cutter to ensure a flat surface. The original bolt on the right which unfortunately is a 5/16" thread is not used in the new position. I would like the same allen key to work on all. Maybe I should try a 5/16 cap screw and see.

There is no way to adjust the angle in the new position. It is not convenient to leave it there as the moving vice jaw will not close completely with it. This may seem like a lot of work for such a small gain but I had a lot of rectangular sections made of 45mm X 5mm angle which I needed cut into pieces. This turned out to be the easiest and also the safest way to do it. Anyone who has tried to cut up a closed steel rectangle with an angle grinder may know what I mean.

Dean

G/day Dean, I posted, in the link below, about mods to my bandsaw, I like the jaw set up you done.

I had trouble also with the cuttings building up on the band wheels, I broke a blade and felt it was due to that so I put a spring loaded wire wheel on it and problem solved, it folds down to change the blade.

I also had the same problem with the coolant spewing out the back as it flung off the band wheel so I bolted a couple of plates to the blade guide wheel mount with a couple of bits of car window wiper blade squished between them, that nailed that.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/sh...ml#post1478909

cheers john

John

Wiper blades sound like a great idea. The coolant dripping off the back of my saw was just running along the base and dripping off the switch cord which goes thru the end of the base. I have thought about a wire wheel as I have seen this used on big saws but the coolant nozzle after the cut seems to flush off all the chips. This nozzle is a 3mm poly tube which is split so it sits right over the blade as per this pic https://www.woodworkforums.com/attach...le-coolant.jpg This also helps and as the cost of a new piece of this poly would be about 0.25 cents it appeals to my extravagant nature. I only have a small flow of coolant. 2 X 3mm poly tubes fed from a small pond fountain pump.

Another mod I am considering is to remove the spring loaded force adjustment and replace it with a sliding weight which would be about 100 times quicker to operate.

Dean

Are you gunna put the sliding weight on the back as a counter balance ?

There is quite a bit of weight on that little blade without the spring balance, as you would know, stopping the blade tearing through the thin stuff is the challenge and that's why I put a hydraulic cylinder on mine.

Have a look at my pic's again and maybe think about using a truck or car shocker, the controlled smooth down feed makes a huge difference in ease of operation and band life.

john