Bandsaw setup

[Emstuv]

So I took delivery of my first bandsaw, assembled and installed a blade. Adjusted table to blade (90 degrees on blade). Drift on fence etc etc.

I set the wheel to place the gullet in the center of the wheel (i.e. Snodgrass method), this causes the blade to be not 90 degrees when I measure from the back of the blade. Is this an issue? Should I shim the table so that the blade is 90 degrees in all directions?

 

[MikeK]

What brand and model of bandsaw do you have? My Record Power BS350S bandsaw has grub screws in the trunnion base to set the table alignment relative to the back of the blade.

 

[sunnybob]

The cutting is the thing to go by. Cut a piece of scrap soft wood, holding it tight to the fence.
Any adjustments should be made to correct any faults with that cut. If the cut is square and true, leave the damn thing alone.
And most important of all with a bandsaw, set the rear guide so that the blade teeth CAN NOT be pushed back far enough for the side guides to squeeze the teeth together. If that happens for 10 seconds, the blade is useless.

 

[Emstuv]

Laguna 1412.

I couldn't see any grub screws. If I am going to fix it I think I need to remove the table from the trunions and shim it, but if I move the blade back to the "normal" position on the wheel then its true.

It cuts straight I think.

As I am new to the bandsaw I'm quite sure what the tolerances should be when cutting a veneer. But with the resaw blade (3 TPI - so not the ideal blade rather rough finish) I did a test on some pine (L: 20cm, W: 12cm) and the cut was ~3mm. It was off my 0.2mm front to back and 0.1mm top - down. Now granted this was a rough blade so there might be some error in the measurement.

 

[novocaine]

less than 10% variance and you say your a newbie at it. the saws fine, that's fine, you'll learn to adapt and bring that 10% to more like 5%.
go forth and cut young padawan.

 

[MikeK]

Here are two screen shots from Laguna manuals. The first is from the 14/12 showing the exploded diagram of the trunnion. The screws, item 33, are used to adjust the angle of the table in one axis.

The second image is from the 14/BX manual that describes how to make the adjustment. The jacking screws 1 and 2 are the same screws in the image above.

 

[Emstuv]

Ah cheers, the manual that i got with the saw fell apart as it hit the ground. I have later found that the US manual is much much better than the one I got. I got it from the local dealer here in Norway, but the saw is labelled IGM (they have a serious selection of kit in their online shop). I´ll give it a go, but like I mentioned earlier this would have to be done between blade changes as the camber/tilt on the upper wheel is adjusted between blades......not sure its worth it(like SunnyBob mentioned if it cuts ok, leave it).

@novocaine yes this is my first bandsaw, picked it up from the shipping company on Monday because I couldn't be bothered to wait until Tuesday especially when they said "we will not assist in carrying in, we leave on road". When it comes to tolerances I might be on the anal side of the spectrum. The callipers are used a lot, perhaps too often (the engineer in me). There should be an option to reduce decimal places on digital callipers.

Did some more trials on actual resawing. 2 years ago I help my wife´ colleague splitt a massive beech tree they had felled. The tree was roughly 70-80cm in diameter. The logs (quartered, 50cm long) where chucked under the porch to be dried as firewood, but I figured "what the hell" lets test the saw. Made a jig, ran it on the planer to give some straight edges and sawed some ~20cm thick boards. Worked pretty well, a few grubs lost there lives. Sparks visible from the ceramic guides, but all in all I am well impressed. The deepest (highest?) cut through the beech was probably 25cm. Cuts were very nice, even with my stop and start approach (still learning feed rate).

 

[MikeK]

The adjustment for my bandsaw was not in my manual, but a member here provided pictures from an earlier version of the saw showing the adjustment.

If you are cutting straight through, then the angle of the blade won't matter. However, if you want to cut tenons or anything else where the blade does not pass completely through, then you will want the teeth edge perpendicular to the table.