Bandsaw Tuning

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khogan16

khogan16

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Pittsburgh PA
If anyone can help me I am trying to tune up my bandsaw. I bought it this summer and didn't do anything other than put it together. I am looking to fine tune it now, but I'm not sure what I need to do.

The bandsaw is a 10" jet, It's a nice saw but at the current state I don't feel confident in trying to do some re-sawing on it. Everything I cut has quite a bit of travel. I have read several PDF and the manual on tuning it up, but as usual reading these items leaves more questions than answers.

If anyone has some suggestions on where to start, I would appreciate it.
 
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Most of the 10 inch bandsaws I have seen where great for small detail work. Asking them to do very much resawing is hard on them.
The best I can tell you is have a good sharp band and keep your feed rate slow.
 
Gary Max said:
Most of the 10 inch bandsaws I have seen where great for small detail work. Asking them to do very much resawing is hard on them.
The best I can tell you is have a good sharp band and keep your feed rate slow.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary, I have a new blade on it, Not the greatest though. I am looking into a timber wolf blade. Also I have tried to adjust the feed rate, I did notice travel when I push it too fast. There is more travel than there should be even when I am trying to cut a pen blank. This is why I started to look into tuning the saw.

The problem I am having is when I try to adjust the roller guides you're supposed to set the blade about 1/32" away from the blade. The way the guide is setup you cant get anything in between the guide and blade without pushing on the blade . How do you people adjust your guides?

Also some of the PDFs state that you should be able to pluck the blade and get a ringing sound. Im not so sure that my bandsaw is a guitar that needs to be plucked, especially when there is a tension guide on the inside of the upper case just behind the blade. The manual doesn't give me much help here either. So that's why I'm hoping someone here can help me.
 
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I'd start by having a blade that is no more than 4 TPI.
Next adjust the blade so that the leading edge of the teeth are at the middle of the wheel, not having the middle of the blade at the middle of the wheel.
If you can find or go online read N0vDec 2004 FWW for all you need to know about adjusting bandsaws to run true

Lee
 
I have a Ryobi bandsaw and when I bought it, I didn't even realize that you needed to make adjustments to it!! (besides tightening the bladed aftre installing).
The first thing I did was tighten the blade and center the blade on the wheel. You've probably done that much already. If not, there is a knob to adjust each of these. There should be a window on the side of your saw where you can see the blade's position on the top wheel. You'll want to get the blade as close to the center of the wheel as possible.
Now open up the bandsaw so that you can see the guides (one above the exposed part of the blade and one below the table). You'll either have guide blocks or guide bearings on each of guide units, one behind the blade and one on each side of the blade. Basically, you'll want to adjust the rear and side guides so that they are almost touching the blade, I believe my manual says to get them around 1/64 of an inch, roughly the thickness of a dollar bill.
If you have the tension adjusted correctly and your guide blocks (or bearings) are close enough to the blade, then you shouldn't have much travel or ripples in your cuts. Note that haveing the blad too tight can also cause problems. what I usually hear is to tighten the blade until you can "pluck" it like a guitar string and it makes a certain sound, but that's pretty vague. I have also heard that the blade should not be able to travel more than 1/4 of an inch to one side when you push it with your finger. That's a more measurable way of adjusting the blade.
Does all of this make sense?!?!?! If not, I can try to explain in more detail...
 
Khogan . . if I were you, the very first thing that I would do is get a copy of Mark Duginske's book "Band Saw Handbook". It's full of valuable information. It's a great reference book with lots of step by step directions and illustrations.

My two cents worth is . . . resawing on a 10" will be a challenge at best. Maybe for very smalll jobs with soft woods . . . but even then it's iffy.

Another really good one is Burton's "Cutting Edge Band Saw Tips and Tricks".

Both books will help you set up your band saw properly and keep it tuned.

Also, do a search in YouTube under 'Band saw setup".

Go Pens!!! (I'm from Pittsburgh)
 
Khogan,
A little trick you may try while adjusting the side bearings is to place a 2" length of blue painters tape arount the blade so it is a single thickness on the blade. Then just move the blade up and down by manually rotating the drive wheels at the same time as adjusting the bearings. The clearance is correct when the bearing rotates while the tape passes and doesn't rotate when it is just the blade passing. I find that the rear thrust bearing clearance can also be adjusted this way.

Hope this helps

Steve
 
I would second the suggestion to get Mark Duginske's book.
I usually set the guides as close as possible but so the blade will still turn (not a very technical description) some will say use a dollar bill between the blade and the guides. As for the thrust bearing it should be close to the back edge of the blade but not touching when the saw runs free. Only as the material engages the blade should there be contact.
Also know that every blade will have it's own "drift". When setting a fence to make a rip cut you first have to establish what that is and set the fence accordingly. That is why aftermarket rip fences are adjustable (It won't neccessarily be parallel like a tablesaw fence)
 
I also use Mark Duginske's book and it is how I learned to tune up my saw. I use a dollar bill to again the correct gap between the blade and the bearings on both the sides and the back-above and below the table. Make sure that you have the tension adjusted correctly.
 
Thomas, the plucking of the blade is only one way of checking to see if the blade is tight enough. Usually the blade needs to be much tighter than most people think. Plucking the blade is just one way but unless you have a properly tensioned blade to hear. How will you ever know if you have it to the correct sound? a better way is to measure the flex int he blade. you do not want it to flex more than 1/4 inch. the very beginning of this video shows what I am talking about.
http://www.ehow.com/video_4950952_tune-up-band-saw.html

The rest of the video covers some of the tune up points but is not nearly detailed enough.
Do a google search for Bandsaw Tuneup and you will get several results. I saw a video a couple of months ago that was very good about just how to go about each step in the tune up. IT is important that you go about tuning the saw in the corect order. for example it does not do a lot of good to adjust all the guides and blocks and then tension the blade.
 
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Thanks everyone for the info, I am going to have to pick up the book maybe even the videos.

After watching the video that Daniel had a link to, I noticed that the teeth of the blade are what are centered on the wheels. Is that the way it is supposed to be? I thought it was the whole blade had to ride centered on the wheel.
 
thomas -- you are talking in the recent message about the upper wheel on the saw --

For a 1/4 inch blade, the difference is about 1/8 or less difference. For a 1/2 in blade the differences are larger. I was taught to track the band behind the gullets on the blade at or close to center of the tire on the upper wheel.

Some become highly precise with the tracking and small changes on the way the blade rides on the upper track is said to affect tracking.

There is a ongoing discussion over leaving the blade under tension or backing off tension when the blade is not in use. I lean towards the not remember side, but put the carter tension relief jig on my 14 inch saw - to let the tension down when I think of it, but I tend to run high tension with bi-metalic blades.

making veneer like cuts with a band saw will be a challenge with the little guy you are running, but with followup, you should have some success.
 
khogan16 said:
Thanks everyone for the info, I am going to have to pick up the book maybe even the videos.

After watching the video that Daniel had a link to, I noticed that the teeth of the blade are what are centered on the wheels. Is that the way it is supposed to be? I thought it was the whole blade had to ride centered on the wheel.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry so much where the blade is on the wheel so much as... Is it running true, (staying in the same plane).

Make sure to perform the adjustments in the proper order so one isn't effecting the next. (opps.. like Daniel already said):redface:
 
Thanks every one, I am redoing my tuning tomorrow after reading some of the posts, I now know that I didn't do the tuning in the correct order. I did make some cuts and I have to say that the cuts were much better and I was able to make cut a paper thin, almost like a shaving you get from a sharp plane. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'll post some pics of the saw ( i know it doesn't exist until there are pic to prove otherwise).
 
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