Re: [Emc-users] Bandsaw guide advice please.

[gene h. <ghe...@wd...>]

On Wednesday, May 04, 2011 08:01:16 AM Erik Christiansen did opine:

> On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 08:22:59PM -0400, gene heskett wrote:
> > My thoughts are to replace it with a tall carbide plate, warped so its
> > a few microns high in the middle.  So I would need a couple pieces of
> > flat carbide, say 1/16" thick, 1/4" wide and an inch long that I
> > could mount so the blade would back into the 1" high by 1/4" wide
> > face when the sawing pressure pushes the blade back enough to touch
> > the carbide, wheels etc adjusted so the blades back clears by 10 thou
> > or so when running freely.
> > 
> > Anybody know where I could source something like that?
> 
> That sounds very much like one of the two recently discarded carbide
> planer blades from my Ryobi (hand) power planer. They're about 1/4" by
> 3", so cut in half, each would make two.

Now that you mention it, I have a Dewalt planer that uses a similar blade, 
but about 3.25" long.  Being the packrat I am, I should dig into the steel 
box it came in 20 some years ago, there should be a set of nicked blades 
cuz I had to replace the ones in it when I bought it from a pawn shop for 
less than a bill way back then.  It probably has a good 100 hours of run 
time on it that I've put on it as our split rail fence is short spaced so 
when I have to replace a rotten rail, I have to cut about 20" off the ones 
I can get, and reshape the tapered end & those blades have probably done 75 
or more such rails in the last 21 years.
 
> They have a shallow groove in the back, about the width of a bandsaw
> blade, if my mind's eye is properly calibrated.

Trying to locate them so the blades back sits in that groove wouldn't be a 
good idea, I would much rather the blade touched a dead flat surface, so 
I'd use that side of them,

> ... Ah, they're 7/32
> wide,

Wide enough.

> and 3.25" long. Thickness is 2.23mm = .088". The bottom of the
> groove is rounded, and it's nearly 1/16" wide at the lip.
> 
> Might have to use a little diamond wheel to relieve the ends, even if
> the complete rounding you describe becomes too bothersome?

If I braze them to a gently rounded steel backer by clamping the ends to 
bend then a thou or so over the 1.5" length, and break the ends with the 
diamond wheel to keep the blade from accidentally being shaved, that would 
seem to work, in my mind at least. 3/4" long would seem to be sufficient 
though, so I'll probably use less than 1/2 a planer blade for each shoe.

Thanks for the reminder Erik, until you mentioned it, I had plumb forgotten 
about them.  Now I have today's project.  And ATM the weather looks good to  
go.

> Erik
> 
> P.S. Never did get my 24" bandsaw to resaw worth a damn. Even making an
>      angled fence, to match the natural cutting angle revealed by
>      freehand cutting to a straight pencil line on a piece of plywood,
>      then measuring the angle it makes to the 90� fence, didn't fix the
>      wander. Maybe a roller to keep the flitch hard against the (angled)
>      fence would help. (Mind you, selling it would make room for a
>      bigger mill.)

Probably the wrong blade Erik.  I am a great fan of the "Wood Slicer" 
blades carried by Highland Hardware in 1/2 and 3/4" widths and lengths up 
to nearly 200".  As I was playing around yesterday, and had cut all the 
poplar already, I grabbed a small piece of white pine and proceeded to cut 
some slices off it, maybe 20 thou thick.  My resaw fence is carried in and 
out by a chain drive made from those sprockets I made a year or more back 
with Andy's help, is a 12" by 36" bit of 3/4" melamine coated fine grained 
OSB, sliced in two and glued/screwed so it gives me a pretty rigid vertical 
surface about 7" tall, and I twiddle the table level to make exactly plumb 
with the blade.  If blade wander ever becomes a problem (so far, as long as 
the blade is sharp and well centered on the wheels, there is no wander), so 
my ready thread bolts and chain drive coupling so the front of the table 
screw and the back of the table screw are sync'd, keeps the fence within 10 
thou or less of exactly parallel to a miter slot.  Generally speaking, 
sharp blades, running well centered on good tires, will not wander unless 
being pushed VERY aggressively.

I also have a 12" Craftsman tilt head saw, but it gets used as a power 
hacksaw, and blade wander within the kerf is a major problem with it.  In 
cutting a 6"x6"x28" block of rotgut soft alu I stumbled over at the 
recyclers, I can get a bow over 1/16" deep in the middle of that 6" span.  
But that is where I have been getting my raw stock for milling alu parts 
from. It also has kool blocks but I expect they are badly worn by now as I 
haven't screwed with their adjustment in yonks. That, and a fresh blade 
might work wonders but I'm not taking bets... The tilt frame itself is 
pretty flimsy.  :-)

I wish someone would take it out of my driveway.  Covered by a tarp, I have 
now replaced the tarp 3 times because the 4 sale sign on it must be written 
in Swahili. $200, includes about that much in brand new blades! About 15 
blades would go with it, 7 or 8 still in the blisterpack.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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