On rec.woodworking, one question often leads to others. Case in point ...
a weekend woodworker asked if the tension on his band saw blade should be relieved
during the week ... while the saw sits idle. He was quickly advised that,
yes, that would be a good idea for both the blade and the saw.
Then another poster jumped in and asked for help with his band saw. It seems
the blade on his new 9" Harbor Freight band saw kept tracking to the left
... so that the cut shifted from the right to the left side of his cut line
during cutting. He got back several ideas for the source of the problem
and solutions:
The sliding blade guard is set too high for the work. The saw is not adjusted
properly ... this requires performing the adjustments in sequence outlined
by the manual.
Swap blades ... all blades have a "set" or "lead angle"
that pulls the wood in one direction or the other. Since no two blades are
the same, the currently installed blade may have too much "set".
To check, mark a line on a piece of scrap with a straightedge and cut freehand
as close to that line as possible for about eight to 10 inches. Now look at
the angle the scrap is being fed into the blade. Adjust the rip fence to this
angle and you're set. (According to one contributor, this course is also recommended
by Art of the Band Saw author Mark Duginske and Bandsaw Book
author Lonnie Bird.)
Order a Timberwolf blade, which does not track right or left, but just goes
straight ... according to one poster.
To allow sawdust to escape, saw blade teeth are set at a fifteen-degree
angle to forward. Minimize the impact of this by always using a sharp blade.
Get a new blade and carefully tune the saw.
More tension, wider blades, and closer guides will reduce the lead angle,
but won't make it disappear entirely.
Use a thin 1/16" blade for resawing. Recalling something he read in
Duginske's book, a woodworker thinks a thin blade will deflect rearward, instead
of bowing to the left or right.
And from the same poster and Duginske ... to allow bowing to occur properly
with thick wood, set the blade guard higher above the work surface than normal.
All this talk of band saws must have gotten to one newsgroup member who
thought he could scrape together $300 toward a purchase and asked what other
members thought he could/should get. A couple of posters agreed that he
could get a good used Delta/Rockwell 14" open stand band saw and still
have money left over for new paint, bearings, etc.
