Bevelling on a bandsaw

[Niall Church]

Is there a way to fo free hand bevelling on a bandsaw 35° approx!!

 

[Spectric]

Tilt the table.

 

[Niall Church]

Yes I can tilt the table,that's a given,but feeding it thru the blade is there a way to do that bit?

 

[sams93]

Yes I can tilt the table,that's a given,but feeding it thru the blade is there a way to do that bit?

I think you need to give some more details and a description of what you are trying to achieve?

what stops you pushing the workpiece through using the table on a tilt?

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Tilt the table and use the fence to support the workpiece - that way the bevel should end up fairly even,

 

[AES]

Tilt the table and use the fence to support the workpiece - that way the bevel should end up fairly even,

Not trying to be unhelpful, but is the bandsaw the right tool for that job?

IF you have one, surely a hand-held small trim router (with a round-over or a 45 deg angle bit) would be better/achieve more uniform results?

If no router, how about a smoothing plane plus shooting board set up to the angle you want?

I am by no means an expert but if I want a small/light bevelled edge I just use a smoothing plane with the bottom edge of the sole running along the bench so angling the plane up to the edge to be bevelled. IF necessary, followed by some fine grade sandpaper wrapped around a square sanding block.

But perhaps I'm reading your Q wrongly?

 

[Niall Church]

A router wouldn't do it,Ionly have a 1/4 router, and it''s 2x2 wood,when I feed thru the wood is drifting to.left,I think the table,fence and blade are square!

 

[Niall Church]

Not trying to be unhelpful, but is the bandsaw the right tool for that job?

IF you have one, surely a hand-held small trim router (with a round-over or a 45 deg angle bit) would be better/achieve more uniform results?

If no router, how about a smoothing plane plus shooting board set up to the angle you want?

I am by no means an expert but if I want a small/light bevelled edge I just use a smoothing plane with the bottom edge of the sole running along the bench so angling the plane up to the edge to be bevelled. IF necessary, followed by some fine grade sandpaper wrapped around a square sanding block.

But perhaps I'm reading your Q wrongly?

Looking for a 35-40° bevel!

 

[sams93]

@Niall can you kindly explain a bit more about what you are doing, are you trying to add a chamfer to your piece of 2x2 like in the photo below?

If this is the case then a 1/4" router would be the ideal tool for doing that, using a bearing guided chamfer bit (such as this one which is at 30 degrees) which you will find in a variety of angles, with 45 degrees being the most common and cheapest

If this is not the case then a better description of what you are trying to achieve will help people advising

 

[Niall Church]

@Niall can you kindly explain a bit more about what you are doing, are you trying to add a chamfer to your piece of 2x2 like in the photo below?

View attachment 166384

If this is the case then a 1/4" router would be the ideal tool for doing that, using a bearing guided chamfer bit (such as this one which is at 30 degrees) which you will find in a variety of angles, with 45 degrees being the most common and cheapest

If this is not the case then a better description of what you are trying to achieve will help people advising

Hi, I want to vut lengthways a disgonal cut,not quite fro m corner to corner diagonal wise!

 

[Tris]

Either use the fence if your confident your saw has perfect tracking, or use a single point fence if not. Quick and dirty way to do this is cut a point on a piece of batten and clamp it to the table so it is just behind the front of the blade, and as far away as needed for the thickness you are cutting. You'll have to guide the cut by sighting through but this will stop the drift. Depends what your end use is but I'd give a bit extra thickness so you can clean up with a plane or sander afterwards

 

[sams93]

So the bandsaw is a piece of equipment that you could use to do that, so long as it is set up right. (If you have access to a table saw that might be a better option though.)

Make sure you are using the fence on the machine, and make sure that you have set it up so that the piece you want is in between the fence and the blade, rather than the other way around. You can then pass as many pieces through as you like and will get the same dimensions coming out.

Then as you pass the piece through you need to make sure the pressure you are applying is towards the fence (to hold the workpiece you want in place).

• You could use manual pressure with your hands as you feed it (what I would opt for), or a featherboard.
• You also might want to consider setting up some infeed/outfeed tables or rollers, as I presume this 2x2 piece is quite long and it can be difficult to hold long workpieces steady on small bandsaw tables. An assistant might be an alternative but unless they know what they are doing it might be more hinderence than help. It isn't hard to put some boxes or equivalent the other side of the saw at approx the right height to catch the piece as it comes out.
• Make sure you use a push stick at least for the last 20cm or so such that you don't end up sawing your fingers off!

You also want to make sure you have an appropriate blade on your saw, particularly if you are suffering with drift - undue stress on the blade will exaggerate that tenfold.

• You said you are using a 2x2 (38mm x 38mm), so ideally you are going to be using a blade with about 4TPI (3TPI would be fine however give a rougher finish, 6TPI would be your upper limit and would require a slower feed rate - explanations all here on how to decide that). The bandsaw isn't a machine which wants a fast feed rate in any case, it is best at intricate work and curves, so whilst there is no reason you can't do this on it, don't try feeding the stock through at speed and expect it to do anything except bog down and drift.
• Given that you are cutting a long straight piece, you should use the widest blade that your saw allows, but probably at least 1/2" wide.
• If you don't have an appropriate blade, I (and many other forum members on here) highly reccomend TuffSaws.

Also make sure you have realistic expectations of what the bandsaw can do and is for, you will get a sawn finish which will require sanding, and likely a few wobbles due to feed inconsistencies and movement along the way. This job would be easier on a table saw if you have access to one, but there is no reason that the bandsaw cannot be used to do it albeit a bit more awkardly.

 

[Ed Weber]

A small block plane and it could be done in less time than it took to read this thread

 

[Niall Church]

So the bandsaw is a piece of equipment that you could use to do that, so long as it is set up right. (If you have access to a table saw that might be a better option though.)

Make sure you are using the fence on the machine, and make sure that you have set it up so that the piece you want is in between the fence and the blade, rather than the other way around. You can then pass as many pieces through as you like and will get the same dimensions coming out.

Then as you pass the piece through you need to make sure the pressure you are applying is towards the fence (to hold the workpiece you want in place).

• You could use manual pressure with your hands as you feed it (what I would opt for), or a featherboard.
• You also might want to consider setting up some infeed/outfeed tables or rollers, as I presume this 2x2 piece is quite long and it can be difficult to hold long workpieces steady on small bandsaw tables. An assistant might be an alternative but unless they know what they are doing it might be more hinderence than help. It isn't hard to put some boxes or equivalent the other side of the saw at approx the right height to catch the piece as it comes out.
• Make sure you use a push stick at least for the last 20cm or so such that you don't end up sawing your fingers off!

You also want to make sure you have an appropriate blade on your saw, particularly if you are suffering with drift - undue stress on the blade will exaggerate that tenfold.

• You said you are using a 2x2 (38mm x 38mm), so ideally you are going to be using a blade with about 4TPI (3TPI would be fine however give a rougher finish, 6TPI would be your upper limit and would require a slower feed rate - explanations all here on how to decide that). The bandsaw isn't a machine which wants a fast feed rate in any case, it is best at intricate work and curves, so whilst there is no reason you can't do this on it, don't try feeding the stock through at speed and expect it to do anything except bog down and drift.
• Given that you are cutting a long straight piece, you should use the widest blade that your saw allows, but probably at least 1/2" wide.
• If you don't have an appropriate blade, I (and many other forum members on here) highly reccomend TuffSaws.?0(

Also make sure you have realistic expectations of what the bandsaw can do and is for, you will get a sawn finish which will require sanding, and likely a few wobbles due to feed inconsistencies and movement along the way. This job would be easier on a table saw if you have access to one, but there is no reason that the bandsaw cannot

Well,I will hsve to at this again,I have noticed the gauge on bandsaw say 3/8, but,it's a 1/2 inch blade

.

 

[Niall Church]

I'm thinking 3 ft lengths,to go thru bandsaw!

 

[Niall Church]

So the bandsaw is a piece of equipment that you could use to do that, so long as it is set up right. (If you have access to a table saw that might be a better option though.)

Make sure you are using the fence on the machine, and make sure that you have set it up so that the piece you want is in between the fence and the blade, rather than the other way around. You can then pass as many pieces through as you like and will get the same dimensions coming out.

Then as you pass the piece through you need to make sure the pressure you are applying is towards the fence (to hold the workpiece you want in place).

• You could use manual pressure with your hands as you feed it (what I would opt for), or a featherboard.
• You also might want to consider setting up some infeed/outfeed tables or rollers, as I presume this 2x2 piece is quite long and it can be difficult to hold long workpieces steady on small bandsaw tables. An assistant might be an alternative but unless they know what they are doing it might be more hinderence than help. It isn't hard to put some boxes or equivalent the other side of the saw at approx the right height to catch the piece as it comes out.
• Make sure you use a push stick at least for the last 20cm or so such that you don't end up sawing your fingers off!

You also want to make sure you have an appropriate blade on your saw, particularly if you are suffering with drift - undue stress on the blade will exaggerate that tenfold.

• You said you are using a 2x2 (38mm x 38mm), so ideally you are going to be using a blade with about 4TPI (3TPI would be fine however give a rougher finish, 6TPI would be your upper limit and would require a slower feed rate - explanations all here on how to decide that). The bandsaw isn't a machine which wants a fast feed rate in any case, it is best at intricate work and curves, so whilst there is no reason you can't do this on it, don't try feeding the stock through at speed and expect it to do anything except bog down and drift.
• Given that you are cutting a long straight piece, you should use the widest blade that your saw allows, but probably at least 1/2" wide.
• If you don't have an appropriate blade, I (and many other forum members on here) highly reccomend TuffSaws.

Also make sure you have realistic expectations of what the bandsaw can do and is for, you will get a sawn finish which will require sanding, and likely a few wobbles due to feed inconsistencies and movement along the way. This job would be easier on a table saw if you have access to one, but there is no reason that the bandsaw cannot be used to do it albeit a bit more awkardly.

Great answer sams93,lots to think about,I have the standard blade in scheppach basa 3 saw,it's 12mm,i could get a 16mm,(3/8"),if it does better job,the lengths will be 3ft! The blades will be from starrett,zi hear they're good,but,I have not used them! Table saw might be a bit dangerous for me,oh,and the wood is pine! What fo you mean by , BETWEEN THE FENCE AND THE BLADE RATHER THAN OTHER WAY ROUND?

 

[Richard_C]

You normally have the fence to the left of the blade, but for this you can put it to the right, so gravity is on your side. Depending on dimensions and column height etc., you might need a spacer, typically a length of something similar x section to that which you are cutting, to keep the fence far enough from the blade. It always takes me a few minutes of hard thinking to work out the angles, fence position and so on.


(A few weeks back I accidentally cut a horrid gash in the end of my push stick, but I still have all my fingers. A persuasive case for always using a push stick.)

 

[Nail]

What’s the end purpose of the pieces?

 

[Niall Church]

What’s the end purpose of the pieces?

Does that really matter?

 

[Niall Church]

You normally have the fence to the left of the blade, but for this you can put it to the right, so gravity is on your side. Depending on dimensions and column height etc., you might need a spacer, typically a length of something similar x section to that which you are cutting, to keep the fence far enough from the blade. It always takes me a few minutes of hard thinking to work out the angles, fence position and so on.


(A few weeks back I accidentally cut a horrid gash in the end of my push stick, but I still have all my fingers. A persuasive case for always using a push stick.)

I do have fence on the right side,asI said there's some drifting of the cut,I wonder, if I put a featherboard at startand end of piece pressed against the wood, would that help lessen the drift?