record bs 400 bandsaw

[Ttrees]

Dude , that's a ripping blade ....
you need way more TPI for cross-cutting .
Even if you did manage to get straight cuts ,there would be a very rough surface left and
it would probably blow out underneath the timber and the end of your piece would suffer
severe spelching aswell .
Not to mention I would not be using a blade that wide in a saw like that .
You could have damaged your saw allready !!!
I presume that if you made your fence parallel with your mitre slots and adjusted your table
mounting for drift on say a 1/2 " blade RIPPING long grain and got perfect results ,
you would still notice drift crosscutting .
A tablesaw or mitresaw is the tool for the job really ...or cutting by hand with a shooting board
to clean up .
Good luck
Tom

 

[pike]

Tom has a very good point. If I understand this right, a narrower 1/2" blade with at least 6 TPI for example would do a better job of general cutting unless you're wanting to resaw veneer, rip along the grain. In a BS400 I think a 3/4" is good enough for that anyway.

Although blade tension and straight good cuts are two different things.

mock: thanks for the tip on adjusting the tension limit. I've read about that in another thread so may give it a go.

 

[Tetsuaiga]

I have the same bandsaw but have been using 3/4" blades.

Are you using the tracks with the mitre gauge? If you've adjusted your fence angle which I do with each new blade, then it won't be parallel to the slot for the gauge which would cause a problem. I haven't really used the slots with mine but thought about it and I think for cross cuts you need to have a system that references off the fence not the tracks.

Why would you not set the machine up for the blade to be parallel to the mitre slots and cut in the same plane?

Setting to accommodate blade mis-alignment or drift is surely accepting a setup error or blade defect.

Surely a bandsaw of the quality being discussed should be capable of being set up to cut parallel to the table slots and therefore automatically crosscut at 90 degrees.

I must admit that I ignore all the talk about blade/wheel positions as long as it's sat reasonably central on the top tyre and just check that its aligned to the table slots before I close up the guides. Admittedly it's a much lighter weight machine but it's how we always set up the metal cutting machines in my last shop.

I'm just talking from what I've found works for myself. I do some quite thick resawing a bit over 20cm so maybe my own requirements are a little different.

But it seems logical if your fence is adjusted then your slots should be too. But that's not possible, when I want to make cross cuts I usually just put a 90 degree piece behind and slide it up against the fence when making the cut.

 

[CHJ]

...But it seems logical if your fence is adjusted then your slots should be too. But that's not possible, when I want to make cross cuts I usually just put a 90 degree piece behind and slide it up against the fence when making the cut.

But that's the whole point, the blade should run parallel to the slots, as should the fence, the small adjustments possible in the initial table fixing should be enough to compensate for manufacturing tolerances and to allow the table/ blade alignment to be set up, if it was not the case and the design criteria for bansaws then the tables would be designed to swing.

You would not expect a table saw blade not to be parallel to the mitre slots so why accept that a bandsaw wheel alignment and blade should be any different.

For the blade alignment not to be parallel to the slots prevents any realistic chance of doing sensible angle cuts with the table tilted or using circle jigs without constant fiddling.

I know setting a fence to compensate for a misaligned blade or one that is drifting due to poor sharpening, set or wear can get you out of a rut if it's all you've got to hand, but to me it's a very limiting mode of operation preventing full use of the machines capabilities.

 

[user 19915]

Well thumbs up for tuffs I spoke to Ian about the blade in my previous post wondering so after a trying several different things Ian decided to send me a replacement blade to eliminate my set up and i am glad to say it,e perfect so it looks like a faulty blade thumbs up TUFFS bandsaw blades thank,s for all your suggestion every body and Ian from tuffs excellent communication and service
Mock

 

[pike]

Good to hear mock. I'm having the same issue now funnily enough.. twists towards the fence whatever I do (3/4" ripping blade).