Oh dear, bandsaw blade goes airborne...

[head clansman]

hi olly

not a nice experience is it , good job you not peter crouch, could have taken your head off, or some serious cuts , don't bear thinking off , usually when there about to go you feel the timber trying to pushing back at you whilst your trying to cut with it . now you'll know next time switch off straight away, happy your ok though first time it happened to me it frighten the sh*t out of me, if you can picture an old domino which stood some 8 ft tall when the blade went one almighty bang and the blade flew straight out the side of the machine , lucky then no other joiner was within easy reach , makes the mind boggle what could easily happen . hc

 

[OPJ]

Bob, thanks for clarifying. Not to worry too much, though - I've had another look at it is only the 45° mitre. I guess it was a kind of optical illusion when I looked this morning, with the curve of the wheel and everything. :roll:

Do you have any other advice on doing this though? Is there an easy way to cut the correct length and any tips for keeping it central as I glue it on?

When I've got it going again, I'll fit a wide blade on the wheels and show you how it looks. I don't think I've seen this on any of the other large bandsaws (Axminster, Record Power, etc.) though, I could be wrong. There are certainly a couple in America that bear some similarities to the modern Startrite designs.

HC, thanks. I've had a few blades break on me in the past (several different bandsaws) but they've always remained mostly inside the saw! I've heard that the worst ones are those large resaws, where the blades are at least 3-4in wide - of course, in a sawmill, you'll be ripping thick stuff (12in plus) all day, meaning the blade has plenty of room to escape if it decides to go! :?

 

[9fingers]

Bob, thanks for clarifying.

Do you have any other advice on doing this though? Is there an easy way to cut the correct length and any tips for keeping it central as I glue it on?

Olly, I've not done this before. I wrote earlier of my intentions as and when my bandwheels need attention.

I'm assuming the adhesive is a contact type.

I would cut the material over long, scarf one end only and apply glue from the scarfed end leaving 50mm or so unglued from where you expect the joint to go. Fit the band and once that has stuck, offer up and trim the rest of the band to fit, then glue that part.
I guess band clamps would be ideal to keep everything in place.

Good luck

Bob

 

[xy mosian]

I've not had ANY experience of this but, to stick my neb in. If the wheel is flat across the rim and the tyre is essentially flat how about scarfing the start of the tyre and running the end over the scarf, trimming afterwards. The scarf line would be better as a tangent to the wheel but this way might take out a tricky length cut.

Please shout if this is a load of b*lls

HTH
xy

 

[Jake]

My 401 doesn't have a hole in the top (but its the version before they scraped some more cutting height out of it).

 

[Eric The Viking]

I've heard that the worst ones are those large resaws, where the blades are at least 3-4in wide - of course, in a sawmill, you'll be ripping thick stuff (12in plus) all day, meaning the blade has plenty of room to escape if it decides to go! :?

It's like airliners: don't stand (or sit) in line with the spinning bits! If I remember correctly, n the case of the former, electronics conduits and hydraulic pipes are strengthened in that part of the fuselage, in case a turbine blade gets terminally bored.

"It's bein' so cheerful as keeps I goin..."*

Cheers, E.

PS: sorry about the incident - if you need saw-table time in the week, I've got a 5/8" blade on at the moment and it's cutting beautifully. You'd be most welcome.

*courtesy of my late grandpa, who heard it in the trenches of WW1 and ran a 'full-size' bandsaw for most of his working life. It's 35 years ago, but it ate whole trees and I think the blade was about 6".

 

[OPJ]

My order from S&S (placed about 24 hours earlier) arrived at 8am this morning - very impressed!

What I did in the end was to cut it over length, offer it to the wheel and temporarily held it in place with masking tape, while I marked the the cut (I had to do this at least three times ). The joint isn't 'perfect' but I'm hoping it will be good enough. [-o<

I did secure it with a band clamp, which seemed to work quite well. I haven't dared take it off yet though as I'm not sure how long this contact adhesive 'gel' takes to cure - the instructions are written in German, French and Italian only!! :roll: My GCSE French (going back nine-years...) got me through most of it but I still couldn't see a curing time. :?

I'll probably leave it until the weekend now, as I'm at college for the next two days. Then, it should "simply" be a case of truing the tyre and adding a camber - I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[Gary M]

Over the weekend, I was resawing some oak and I think that just about finished off the 1/2" x 3tpi blade I had been using

Completely wrong choice of blade to resaw with your machine, you would be much better with a more substantial blade more suited to resawing.
Perhaps 1" x 2tpi. Bigger machines like the startrite are made to take bigger blades, cutting tight curves is the only real need for a smaller blade.

You may remember my previous post, where I indicated that the tyre had a few gouges missing from the front edge.

Seems that perhaps there is a fault with your wheel, as its the same sort of damage.

I've said this before but, as I would have to 'scrap' the old wheel anyway, I feel it's worth at least trying to do something with it. I appreciated their advice and that fitting a new wheel with a factory-fitted tyre would be the best possible solution. But, if I can save £50 and put that towards some new blades...

I think that you would have been better off following the manufacturers advise and replaced the wheel, as by your own admission the new cork tyre is not fitted very well. I dont think you will have as much confidence using the saw with the repair.

Startrite have also come back to me and have found a wheel from a scrapped machine (it fell of the lorry! Shocked) and I could have that for around £100.

You should have bit their hand off :wink:

 

[OPJ]

Well, I got home about an hour ago with more energy left than usual so, I decided I couldn't wait until the weekend and have just been out to true up the wheel. It was dead simple with 60g paper, even adding the camber (counting the number of rotations on each edge). The join isn't as bad as I thought (plenty of excess glue to clean up, though! ). It doesn't seem to be loose anywhere from what I can see.

I've already tried fitting a blunt 1in blade (don't worry, I won't use it!! ) and it looks good so far. I've got a couple of unused ¾in blades I'd like to try shortly and, having seen how my widest blade performs, I am confident that it won't be falling off over the weekend.

If I had £100 to spare, yes, I would have considered it the replacement. But then, what would I do with the old wheel??? I got the impression that KV Rollers might also have done it for much less than £100, also (though, don't quote me on that! :wink.

 

[mickthetree]

Hi Olly

You still using the bandsaw with the cork tyres on? How did they fair?

Many thnaks

 

[OPJ]

Hi Olly

You still using the bandsaw with the cork tyres on? How did they fair?

Many thnaks

Hi Mick,

Yep, it's still fitted to my top tyre (but then, I haven't had another blade breakage since to test the strength of the glue! ;-)).

It was easy to fit but I never got around to truing and crowning it properly. It's okay, but not perfect. Sometimes, a narrow blade (½in or less) will 'drift' along the wheel while the machine is running, from front to back. It's never come off and I always try to track centrally on the tyre. There are ideas for jigs and trimming tools on the 'net, it's just been somewhere on my 'tuit' list for far too long...

Have you had a recent problem with one of your own tyres?

 

[mickthetree]

well I took them into work today and everyone was making those sucking noises through their teeth and saying they'll need to be replaced, admittedly they look pretty ropy, but I put them back on tonight and I get straight cuts.

The drive wheel has a small crack and slight wobble but again, no real issues to note.

Costing everything up I have found online the urethane tyres look a fair bet.

I'm not sure the wheels are that true so might not throw any more money at it.

I have a salid cast iron frame bandsaw, think it is based on the grizzly saws from America. Lovely little machine really.

 

[9fingers]

As and when my bandsaw needs new tyres, I plan to try cutting up poly vee belting and gluing that on.

Bob