Help please with setup on BAS 316 bandsaw.

[devonwoody]

You mentioned that the fence was square when cutting that 4" oak,
if you mean vertical position OK but if the tracking position, this will most proably be one of your problems. Most fences need to be set to the cutting track of the blade, my fence is around 10 degrees at the moment to the c.i. table edge and can vary with each blade fitted.

 

[Rogerthedodger]

well you learn something new every day.

Thanks for the relay. To clarify, the vertical line is OK. As the oak (about 100 cms long) progresses along the blade, it progressively moves further away from the fence despite side pressure being applied to hold it to the fence. My experience is with tablesaws and of course it is a different kettle of fish.

If I have understood you correctly, you are saying that the angle of the fence needs to be adjusted from 90 degrees to compensate for this condition?

Weird or what? can't get my head around that. Sorry to sound thick but how do you know what angle to set it to? Experiment with various trial cuts to see how it performs and adjust the fence to suit?

Regards

Roger

 

[StevieB]

Roger,

Pretty much that, yes. The problem with bandsaws is that the blade is thin and not that well supported. As a consequence it tends to wander and follow the grain rather than your pencil line to a certain extent. One way round this is to use a point fence, the other is to use a sharp good quality blade. Keep the feed rate slow and let the blade cut the wood rather than forcing the blade into the cut. I have a BAS316 and sometimes get the same problem. I tend to treat the bandsaw as a roughing out tool rather than a precision tool, allow some margin for wasteage and then PT down to required final thickness.

Hope that helps,

Steve.

 

[devonwoody]

Roger

My technique for setting the fence angle is to put a cutting line down a scrap piece of wood (everytime I change the blade) and cut halfway along this line FREEHAND, I then make sure the scrap piece of timber has not moved from its cutting angle and mark a line on the cutting table using a pencil (chinograph is handy) along the outside of the timber side.
This has most probably resulted in giving you the angle you need to set your bandsaw fence angle too, and most probably will not need changing unless you do a blade replacement.

After that it is a pleasure to use a bandsaw for many cutting operations, even saves getting out the tenon saw/rip saw for small cuts.

 

[woodshavings]

Hi Roger, I agree with DW although I use a scrap piece of mdf which is grainless to determine the offset angle.
John