Bandsaw question, what does this gauge represent?

[justinpeer]

Missed that quote.
Can you adjust the cable to put the gauge to the bottom mark then try again?

Not sure, will have a look tomorrow. Spent the afternoon giving it a clean, taking the guides apart and cleaning them as the threads were pretty gummed up and sanding and waxing the table.

Tomorrow I’ll look at the guage, refit the blade and have a go at tuning it up. Need to sit and watch videos from Steve Maskery and Paul Sellers on setting it up properly this evening.

 

[pgrbff]

My small Hammer has blade widths on the indicator but it is pretty much meaningless.
It's all part of learning to set the saw up for effortless drift free cuts.

 

[Nick.]

I'm sure the marks on the scale are for blade width in mm. Looks like max 1" (24mm)
Most bandsaws I sold used this type of scale, although as already said - it's only an approx. reference - all depends on blade material etc. and you are best working the correct tension out yourself by just using this as a 'ball park' guide to get close.
When you unwind the tension, also try manually pulling down the top wheel - it may well drop some more if it's gunked up or stuck on the threads - I've seen that on new machines with grease that has hardened.

 

[Sideways]

Numbers are blade width in mm.
The idea is to tell you to use a high tension for a wide blade, low tension for a narrow blade.
It is out of calibration.

Be aware that if you or any perious owner wind up the tension screw to the point where all the coils of the spring are compressed to touching, you have overstressed the spring beyond it's elastic limit and it will not recover to it's original length. Each time you repeat, the spring will take more set.

Some experimentation with bandsaws has suggested to me as mentioned above, that even quite reputable bandsaws can fall short of their claimed specification and are not strong enough to properly tension their largest size blade. Certainly not if using M42 alloy steel rather than simple carbon steel blades.

 

[Noel]

Write to Meber in Italy and they might send you a manual, most of which come in 4 languages including English [email protected]
or fill in the form, worth a try: https://www.meber.com/en/contatti-2/

 

[pgrbff]

I picked up an old Meber bandsaw that works well but is in need of some tic. I've not been able to find a proper manual online, just an exploded diagram so I'm not sure what the 10-15-20 means on this gauge, which looks to be blade tension related but I'm not sure if it's percentage of something like wear or how tension should be set relative to it. Has anyone seen anything like it before?

View attachment 190285

The saw in question, needs some cleanup and fettling which is a winter project.

View attachment 190286

If you have a model number I can see if I can get a manual. Italy not really very up to date in the digital world.

 

[pgrbff]

Write to Meber in Italy and they might send you a manual, hopefully in English [email protected]
or fill in the form, worth a try: https://www.meber.com/en/contatti-2/

In my 12 years in Italy I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of replies I have had to an email. Telephone still rules here, and fax.

 

[Noel]

In my 12 years in Italy I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of replies I have had to an email. Telephone still rules here, and fax.

Maybe. Fancy helping if the email option doesn't work?

 

[pgrbff]

Maybe. Fancy helping if the email option doesn't work?

already offered

 

[justinpeer]

If you have a model number I can see if I can get a manual. Italy not really very up to date in the digital world.

Thanks very much, that's very kind of you, I'll get the exact model tomorrow.

 

[justinpeer]

OK, so I did a bit more cleaning and then installed the blade. Went through all the setup and think I have it running nicely. Blade tension I set the way Paul Sellers recommends which is to raise the guard up and then, with a block against the blade, push on the blade and see how far the gap is between the blade and the block when the blade returns. I adjusted it until the the gap was 4-5mm which seems to be about right as he said between ⅛"-¼". Adjusted the table to get it square to the blade in both directions.

I need to fit the Kreg fence before I can check, and adjust for, drift and to fit the fence I need to drill and tap both the fence and table, which is a job for the weekend.

Blade deflection

This is where the gauge currently sits with this blade tension. Blade is a Tuffsaws super premium ½" 6tpi

 

[justinpeer]

If you have a model number I can see if I can get a manual. Italy not really very up to date in the digital world.

This is the plate on the side.

 

[justinpeer]

So today I fitted the kreg fence. Not straightforward as there are no holes in the side of the table so those had to be measured, drilled and tapped which was fiddly.

Then I discovered that the sides of the table aren’t square which seems rather daft and made the fence sit up at an angle. I have put some pieces of uhmw tape under each of the tapped holes which has helped but it’s too soft so I’ll probably cut some pieces of drinks can as a more solid shim and glue them in place.

Once set up and square to blade and mitre slot I ran a test cut and it appears to have pretty much zero drift, so I’m pleased with that for now.

 

[J-G]

[...] Then I discovered that the sides of the table aren’t square which seems rather daft and made the fence sit up at an angle. [...]

You surely didn't expect the rough casting to be 'square' ???

The top 10-12mm ish has been machined and that should be 'square' but the casting below could be anywhere. The absolute minimum I would have done would be to spot-face the hole to provide a flat surface to bolt against.

I presume that you took the table off and machined the holes parallel to the top surface and square to the side rather than use a pistol drill and a guess?

 

[justinpeer]

You surely didn't expect the rough casting to be 'square' ???

The top 10-12mm ish has been machined and that should be 'square' but the casting below could be anywhere. The absolute minimum I would have done would be to spot-face the hole to provide a flat surface to bolt against.

I presume that you took the table off and machined the holes parallel to the top surface and square to the side rather than use a pistol drill and a guess?

Honestly, yes, I expected it to be square to the table. Why wouldn't you make it like that.

I don't have anything other than files to face that with and, even with the holes done, the fence would still get pulled out I think. I drilled and tapped freehand because my drill press doesn't have enough height to put the table on it's side under it. It's close enough for government work

 

[J-G]

Honestly, yes, I expected it to be square to the table. Why wouldn't you make it like that.

It's a 'Casting' - to get the dimensions within the tollerance that you observe is a great achievement. The manufacturers didn't 'make' it out of square per se, they took the casting and machined just a part of the edge that needed to be square for their mating part. The fact that you wish to add a third party accessory could never be of their concern.

I don't have anything other than files to face that with and, even with the holes done, the fence would still get pulled out I think. I drilled and tapped freehand because my drill press doesn't have enough height to put the table on it's side under it. It's close enough for government work

In that case you may well be a contributing factor to the 'out of square' error.

 

[cowtown_eric]

This is clearly an older machine....with an aftermarket fence (WOT- no adjustments??)

Way back in ?the late 70's when import machines came on shore, the MFG was with totally subcontracted to small foundries, and I recall that many green castings were machined, but subsequently warped....I had one such beast in a jointer. Fence was slightly concave. This was also well documented in WWing mags of the era

Stuff like this is commonplace in older machines, and that is why the supreme being invented shim stock?

But if it really frustrates you, simply give it away and spend 3k$ CDN on a newer imported version, maybe likely more precisely made, or not.

Or just shim it square for few dineros, but befor you do, check out causes of bandsaw blade "drift"

 

[Sachakins]

You could file down just a 1" area over each of the holes, add a flat washer and then bolt down.

 

[justinpeer]

I guess my surprise was that if you were going to machine a small part of the edges, why not do all of it, can't imagine it would take much longer to do the whole edge.

Despite that, it's a great, solid saw and I'll shim the fence mount to get it properly square.

 

[J-G]

I guess my surprise was that if you were going to machine a small part of the edges, why not do all of it, can't imagine it would take much longer to do the whole edge.

Despite that, it's a great, solid saw and I'll shim the fence mount to get it properly square.

I don't know the machine but - as an engineer but this is only a guess - I suspect that it could be that the machined part is being used as a datum in two directions - both horizontally & vertically - such that the 'mating' component (of their manufacture) sits upon the 'lip' that is created with a partial machining.

The other factor is of course that 'time is money' so saving even minutes is worthwhile.