Record Power's Bandsaw Masterclass with Alan Holtham

hello hi Milan Holtham welcome to this record bandsaw masterclass to me the bandsaw is the most useful machine you'll ever have in your workshop and the problem is a lot of people don't realize the true potential and buy a slightly inferior machine not realizing just what they can do with a bandsaw and forwards there's quite a few misconceptions about band saws one is a lot of people think I don't cut straight the other is they think they break a lot of blades I hope by the end of this masterclass you'll see that these are totally incorrect I'm going to show you how to set up the machine how to use it and how to enjoy its use now think about it a bandsaw will do so much so versatile you can rip with it which means you can cut long thin strips off a board you can crosscut with it now a snipping piece off the end of a board or even cutting joints right Tenon's you can cut bevels with it by tilting the table you can cut miters using the miter guide though I must say on a bandsaw miters aren't particularly accurate you can cut thin material you can cut thick timber you've got metals you have to be non-ferrous of course you can cut plastics and of course a whole range of different types of timber so it really is a most useful machine the other good thing about a bandsaw is safety of course no woodworking machine is totally safe they all involve cutting blades you think about it with a bandsaw all the forces are pressing down on the table the blade is revolving like this and this pushes the timber down hard on the table when any other woodworking machine you're actually pushing Ord into a cutter that is revolving fast towards you there's always a potential for kickback as totally unlikely on a bandsaw so it is very much safer they're also quieter when this machine is Ronnie can almost hardly hear it so you feel quite confident about putting hands close to the blade but of course always do be careful but of course the most useful thing about a bandsaw is its ability to cut curves and profiles so if you're a cabinet maker you can cut shapes on pieces of timber and of course if your wood turner you cut all your turning blinks I'm gonna be basing this masterclass on the BS 300 machine would have records most popular models this particular one has an 8 inch depth at cut which realistically means you're going to cut 6-inch material quite happily let's take a closer look at some of the details or a bandsaw of course all these machines have two wheels the upper main wheel and down below the drive wheel itself now if you think you're buying a bandsaw a couple of really important points to look for first one is the frame of the machine itself this needs to be really strong and rigid you think about a bandsaw when it's running all sorts of forces involved you've got the dynamic forces of the wheel spinning round around at speed and then you've got the static forces when you tension this blade up the frame itself tries to squeeze together this frame needs to be rigid enough to withstand that just have a look here you can see how solid that is that's not going to move anywhere really really strong the other important thing is the wheels themselves on some machines are may be solid on this particular machine this boat it doesn't really matter the main things they run really smoothly if you take a close look you can see these have been properly balanced with little wheel weights that have been stuck on really important they run really smoothly they're also a couple of controls on this top wheel I'll talk about them in detail later on but just for now on the top here you'll see the tension control by winding this knob I can raise and lower this top wheel up and down and that tensions the blade also on the back there's a tracking control if I turn that knob I tilt the wheel backwards and forwards and that allows me to position where the blade runs on this top wheel when I'm actually cutting with a machine I want this blade to be somewhere near the middle of that wheel I say we'll look at those in detail later on another very important feature the table itself this needs to be plenty big enough to provide loads of support when you're actually cutting with a machine needs to be nice and flat so that timber slides smoothly across it it needs to be really strong as well just have a look at this one solid cast iron this isn't going to go anywhere and you start dropping bits of timber on it really strong really rigid the rip fence is important as well this slides easily across the table and locks with a single knob there nothing could be easier than that and look how tall this is probably plenty of support that's going to give us super accurate rip cuts we start making long cuts down the grain now most bouncers are supplied with a mighty guide of some sort as well this just slides from side to side like that for cutting angles how much say if you wanted to cut really precise angles a bandsaw is perhaps not the machine for the job you need to buy yourself a proper miter saw but for work I tenoning or is it carrier for jigs this is a really excellent feature the table also tilts to 45 degrees or any angle in between and that you achieve with a hand wheel underneath just come have a look at this just release the table lock and then twist the handle there to set any angle you want up to 45 degrees and there is a scale here you can see which gives an indication of the angle you've set and when you want it back to nor degrees there's a little stop under there then we can see it that make sure the table sits back perfectly each time I know that spot on every time whilst we're on the back of the machine just have a look at some of the controls are talking about on the top his attention no just by twisting this I raise and lower that top band wheel and that's what applies attention to the blade I'm stretching the blade between the two wheels also isn't quite a unique feature on the record machine is this cam rock just by releasing that handle I take all the tension off in one go and that allows me to change the blade very quickly and very easily once I initially set the tension with a knob on the top also here this is a tracking control release the lock twist the knob and now we're moving that top band wheel backwards and forwards and that allows me to control exactly where the blade runs on the top band wheel though the controls on the back here the guides themselves raise and lower with this hand wheel I just lower them down to let just above the work and then lock them in place with that knob there have a look lower down down here we've got the main motor that drives a machine on a machine of this side you'd expect it to be about 3/4 of a horsepower 550 watts plenty big enough for a machine of this capacity if you think about it a bandsaw is only driving a very small blade there's not much frictional resistance it's not like a circular saw where you're driving a blade eight or ten inches diameter a huge amount of friction to be overcome so on a machine like this a bandsaw you don't need a huge motor this will run quite happily off a normal 30 now domestic supply just across here is a dust extraction spout we're all becoming more and more aware of the dangers of fine dust and a bandsaw does produce a lot of dust so it is worth investing when you buy a bandsaw in a small extractor of some sort it don't cost a lot of money these days and what price really is your health this is actually a two-speed machine you vary the speed by changing the position of the drive belt on this two-step pulley you can see the moment is on the fastest speed just slip the belt across adjust the tension with this idler pulley by turning the handle there that's all there is to changing the speed a fine for most jobs just cutting timber the faster speed is all you need it's about eight hundred meters a minute if you are cutting non-ferrous metals or plastic you might want to drop it down onto the slowest speed the machine comes with a really good stand really is stable just look at this as well press down on the foot the cast is engaged and now I can angle a machine round anywhere really easy to move release the lock machine goes down and again it's stable when you buy a bandsaw there are few settings you need to check or maybe adjust before you actually get using the Machine you want to make sure the blade is at 90 degrees to the table itself you also need to make sure the fence is at 90 degrees to the table and you also need to make sure the blade is parallel to the RIP fence unless you check these adjust them and get them spot-on there's no way you'll get the bandsaw to cut accurately but most of these checks are initial checks only once you've got that right it should be okay for a considerable time you don't have to do them every time you use a machine so we'll start by getting the blade at 90 degrees the table all you need is a standard square put it on the table bring it up to the blade and see if you can see a gap you can see on this one there's quite a big gap at the top so I need to slacken off the table screwing the adjusting stop and now if I just tilt the table down nearly there just a fraction more bring it down to the stop engages on the frame you can now see that blade is perfect Square to the table itself so I tighten up the locking screw there that holds the bolt in place I can readjust the pointer to 0 degrees and now no every time I come to use this machine that blade is a 90 degrees to the table the second check is to make sure the fence is at 90 degrees to the table I can use a small square just bring it up sight along it you can see that's actually just a little fraction now there is adjustment for that slacken off the fixing bolts underneath the fence and now you've got a little bit of play up and down just bring that up to spot-on turn up the bolt and lock it up with a spanner just check it again that's perfect now and finally we need to check the blade is actually parallel with the fence so again use your square bring it up against the blade put it in a gullet of it of the blade itself rather than against a tooth bring the fence up and make sure and check they are parallel you know actually see this is spot on there's no gap at all there if you find it is out at all just slacking off these two allen screws on the fence you can twist the whole fence assembly slightly and line it all up and then just retighten them so those are our three adjustments of course the acid test is will actually cut straight in practice so you will have to make a few trial cuts check them with a square and see how it all looks right let's see what's involved it's setting up a blade perfectly let's assume this blade is blunt and he's changing obviously we got to take the old one out so pin the doors up get them why don't get them out of the way now we need to release this table locking screw this just holds the two halves the table together stop some distorting relative to each other when you've carpeting bits of wood onto the table lower the blade guides down as well that just makes it easier to get the blade past them and now can release the tension remember that cam lock leaver on the back I'll just swing it over can see straight away how this tension is released once that's free I can now release the blade putting it forward threading it nice and steadily between the guides don't rush it take your time and feed it out through the frame pull it forward he now free the machine maybe this is a good time to have a look at the procedure for folding a bandsaw blade it's actually very simple but now a lot of people struggle with it everyone has their own way of doing it my way it's totally new your arms outstretched your thumbs up keeping left hand still your right hand rotate your wrist as the loops begin to form gather them together and there's one neatly fold your bandsaw blade let's just try that again so we undo it hold it out arms outstretched thumbs up keeping left hand still he right hand just gradually rotated over get the loops together good little shake loops form equally and now that will hang really neatly on your workshop wall much easier to store in the blade that's undone right let's fit this onto the machine just don't do it carefully now a lot of people don't realize it's actually possible to undo a blade the wrong way around if you have a look at this one if I put this onto the machine you can see the teeth are actually pointing upwards there's no way that blade will cut it isn't welded up the wrong way around what a lot of people think all you have to do is turn it inside out and now you can see the teeth are pointing the other way before we actually fit the blade it's a good idea just to move all the guides back out of the way you notice these side pressure guides are unscrewed adjusters slacken them off pull them well clear where the blades going to go the back here there's a thrust roller this takes the pressure when you push the wood in against the blade so again slacken this off moving back out of the way needs are the same thing down below the side pressure guides are now on allen keys so slacken those off and pull them out to one side same on this side just pull it clear in this case now the thrust roller is on a screwed adjuster so just whine this back a little bit again to get it well clear the blade putting the blade back on is obviously exactly the same as taking off just thread it through the table between the guides over the top wheel through the frame and you have to bend down a little bit thread it between the bottom guides make sure it does go between the guides and not round them it's okay at the bottom just check it on at the top somewhere near right and now I can pull the cam lock on you can see the tension come on straight away make sure that cam lock is rather way over and now with your finger just spin the wheel by hand a few times and let the blade settle down and now we're ready to tension the blade up properly although this is preset on the cam lock not all band saws have this facility and it isn't necessarily the right tension if you change that the width of the blade if we're different width our blade on you will have to change the tension so how do we set the tension this is another one that seems to cause people no end of trouble as usually they mess about the tension because they're trying to get a blade to cut straight and usually is nothing to do with the tension on the blade that's causing it to cut off he's down to the quality of the blade unless you use a top quality blade in the first place no amount of messing about the tension or the tracking or setting with the guides will make it cut straight if he's struggling with a blade he's cutting off when you're working against the fence it isn't necessarily the tension probably isn't the tension it's not the tracking he's not the way you're using it it is probably down the quality of the blade you've got so is really important you start off with a good quality blade so this is a good blade this is a record blade we've got fitted in this machine so we need to adjust the tension don't overdo the tension most people whine the tension up really high you want just enough to stop the blade slipping on the wheel if you overdo it you'll end up crushing a flat stop a flat spot on the rubber on the wheel and you'll also stretch the spring that provides the tension here so don't overdo attention you want to say just enough so that the blade doesn't slip on the wheel I can just plug that I can hear and I can adjust the tension by twisting this knob on this machine also we have a little gauge and we can see this here if you come in close you can see as a gauge that gives us an indication for the correct tension you can see as I change the knob the pointer moves this is only an indication as I say don't get too hung up with this tension business it isn't that important providing it is tight enough not to slip on the wheel so I think that's about right once we set the tension we now think about the tracking what I want to do is try and get the blade so it runs in the middle of the wheel on the top it's not precise again it doesn't matter this is a thing with a lot of settings on a bandsaw nothing is critical when we look at the planer thing is throw on a different master class you'll see the settings on that are really really critical at our accuracy makes all the difference on a bandsaw it doesn't really matter provided you have a good quality blade so won't adjust the tracking so the blade runs somewhere near the middle of the wheel you can see this is running quite a bit towards the front so I need to move it back if I release the lock on the tracking control around the back when we look to that earlier and what I need to do now to make the blade move backwards I need to tilt the wheel backwards so I whined the tracking control in just a fraction don't tow we do this business for the tracking control don't start whiny three or four turns just a minut turn and then again spin the wheel by hand to let the change take effect it's still a little bit too far forward so again I'm winding it in again and again I spin it you can see the blade has just moved back a fraction that's probably near enough it hasn't got to be slap-bang in the middle and also if one other thing you'll notice if that's in the middle on the top it isn't necessarily in the middle on the bottom wheel don't worry about that long as this top one is somewhere near the middle as soon as you're happy with the tracking control just lock up the knob on the back we now know it's tension correctly is trapped correctly or could do now set the guides and again this is another area that seems to cause a great deal of problems what you want to do is to get the guides so they are just clear of the blade again it isn't that important that there are five through ten power they want to be just clear you can quite easily do that by eye you don't have to mess around with feeler gauges and spend hours setting it up once again if the blade is good it will cut through I'll show you later on a cut with no guides in place at all and it'll be spot on the guides only really come into their own when we're cutting profiles or curves so I've set those two by eye again now need to do the same on the bottom just bring them in probably easiest whereas bring them in today touch the blade then just back them off a fraction and tighten up with the allen key and again the same on the other side bring it in two touches the blade just back it off a fraction needs to be just clear the blade that's tight now the thrust role is the next one so what I want to do is set that bring it forward she's just clear and again lock it in place the only key same again underneath except now we've got a threaded adjustment just wide that roller forward again it's just clear and now once again I'll lock it up now something else I haven't mentioned but is really important when you set the thrust roller I want to make sure that is in such a position that when you apply pressure to the blade with the timber the gullet or the teeth on the blade cannot go between these side pressure guides these side pressure guides are hard and metal if those teeth go between the side pressure guides you'll knock the set off instantly at no time was these teeth you see the teeth there and their gullets go between the blade guys themselves so you want to make sure the thrust role is in such a position to stop them ever moving far enough back to get between the rollers and say one touch on those rollers the set of the blade will be gone and the blade will not cut straight soon as the sets gone the blade will start cutting off at an angle so hopefully that's all set up now and we can make a few trial cuts before we do that though one important point it's pretty easy to forget replace the table locking bolt just keeps the two halves of the table level keep them nice and flush it's quite a bit of confusion about or blades themselves as well if you look in the manufacturers catalogs it lists all sorts of different sizes different weights different tooth pounds don't worry about that it is actually quite simple I've got quite a collection different blades here if you look at them closely you'll see they vary in width and they also vary in tooth pattern a machine like the BS 300 in working will take all these different widths of blades so what are they all for obviously the tighter the radius of cut you want to make the narrower the blade you use so down here we've got a quarter inch wide blade you'll notice though he's got a quite a coarse tooth pattern this is actually three teeth per inch what we call three TPI this one a little bit wider this is a 3/8 wide and this has six teeth per inch six TPI half inch one but this is much much finer this has 14 TPI and on this side we've got the widest play this machine will take a 5/8 4 TPI now as well as the number of teeth per inch so there is another little confusion that's added you can vary the tooth pattern this particular pattern the 4 TPI you'll notice has quite a wide gullet quite a wide gap between the teeth this is skip pattern a skip refers to the width the distance between those teeth with a skip pattern blade you find it will cut quite a lot quicker the finish you get straight off the blade won't be quite as good but the cut will be quicker because that gullet will clear this Wharf very much more quickly the majority of work something like a 60 P I skip pattern is ideal the narrower blades use for the title curvature if you're onto very thin materials ply or MDF or non-ferrous metals or even plastics you might want to look at something like this one which was a 14-2 thought a regular pattern the gullit's are much smaller the gap between the teeth is much smaller this is regular pattern so if you're confused already I'll just recap the main blade you want the majority work you all do is a 3/8 6 TPI blade and then also think about buying yourself as a standby a 5/8 wide force get blade for those deep ripping straight cuts right I've gone on quite a bit about the quality of the blade you have it is important we buy a good quality blade how would you tell if it's a good quality blade can you look at it and see what some extent you can look and see there are few pointers to look out for first thing is to look how the join itself obviously a bandsaw blade is made up for a continuous strip which is just butt welded together at the ends to make it into a continuous loop notice the join here rub your finger along it does it feel smooth can you feel a definite bump there you shouldn't do on a good quality blade that should feel almost continuous run your finger along the back as well that should be nice and smooth no step no jump there otherwise you'll find it'll bang as it goes through the guides when a blade is welded up to pieces here the ends are brought together aambat welding on a good quality blade that join should be nice and straight like that on the poorer quality blades the alignment is obviously sometimes not as good and you get slightly exaggerated obviously you get that sort of effect whereas a definite bow in the blade when you try and run that on the machine itself you'll find the blade will surge backwards and forwards as it's running through the guides it'll not bang-bang-bang as it goes through those guys eventually it will spoil the guides so you need to take a poor-quality blade light hat off and swapping for something it's a little bit better I'm often asked of course how long a blade lusts very difficult to say obviously depends how much you use it there are a couple of symptoms to look out for has the blade doors down you know obviously have to start pushing harder to get it to cut also you'll find if you're doing ripping cuts the blade may start pulling away from the fence do remember the blades do need replacing on a fairly regular basis don't think they'll last forever very very rare to actually break a blade has a machine is running these blades are twenty five thousand there are thick blade it is very very unusual to break one of these while the machine is run but just occasionally it's worth you've had a blade in for just have a quick look at it look out for any cracks or anything that's likely to cause problems he notice on this particular bait there's a little crack developing there this is most unusual does happen very very occasionally and quite often he's not because the blade is old it's often because the blade has been over tensioned when rambling with setting up the blade I talked about not over tensioning the blade this is another symptom of putting too much tension on the blade now once the blade is in place there's something else you can do to try and make it cut a little bit better if you're cutting a lot of curves I do a lot of wood turning Bowl blanks if you're cutting a lot of curves particularly with a fairly wide blade cutting tight curves you may get a little bit of burning this Bernie is caused by the back of the blade not actually by the teeth themselves and he can improve this by dressing the blade what he do when he dresser blade is to hold a stone this is a diamond lap hold a stone on the blade as the machine he's actually running so this blade is spinning as it's spinning I'm holding this diamond lap on the back what I'm doing is taking away those two sharp corners I'm printing a radius on the back of the blade and that makes a tremendous difference and it will get rid of a lot of this Bernie effect you see on these blank here fortunately with a bandsaw there's very little you have to do in the way of maintenance we've already covered the procedure for changing the blade when it does eventually dull down but one other thing you can do with a blade is to give it a good clean occasionally this is particularly important if you're cutting off soft word or resinous woods which tend to clog up on the blade you find the area behind the teeth gets clogged up with resin and that will affect the cutting performance a good way to get rid of all this is to put it in an old Bowl get some oven cleaner just give it a good spraying all over just leave that to soak for about half an hour or so and then wipe it all clean with a cloth it's amazing how that will restore the cutting performance of the blade back the machine itself the only thing really to look after is the guides remember these are bearings you've got bearings on the sides and a bearing on the back to take the thrust just give these a spray over occasionally with some silicone just helps lubricate them make sure they stay free running and while you've got the silicon in your hand just give the table a good clean wipe it all off and again give that a nice spray over with a silicon and you'll find I'll make a huge difference to the way the timber slides on the table as you're working on the table also you need to regard the table insert as a consumable item this will eventually get worn when ticking when you start making profile cuts you'll twist the blade and this will get cut so just occasionally you may need to replace this they are available as a spare part now then the other thing is to look at the wheels themselves the band wheels are perfectly fine they will last forever just occasionally though you may get some damage to the tire if the blade snaps on a very rare occasion it might snap or if it starts skidding on the tire the tires can become a little bit tude but again these are a replaceable item the other thing to check on the wheel as well is this little brush this is designed to keep the band wheel clean again useful if you're cutting Reznor's Timbers just adjust it make sure it is in contact with the wheel at all times and that's all there is to maintenance on a bandsaw very simple very straightforward now at last it's time to actually make some cuts and as you can see we've moved into my workshop full we start though just a quick word about safety whenever using the machine always wear safety glasses of some sort really important always use a push stick if there's a chance of your hands ending up near the blade and finally always connect up the machine to a dust extractor just take away some of that fine dust the first cut I'm going to make is a straight rip cut and this is really just to dispel the myth you can't cut a canoe with the bandsaw just watch this you'll see I've got a piece of hard wood here about two and a half inches thick I've set up a 3/8 six TPI blade and the guides are all set correctly as we've seen before the first thing to do is lower the guides down until they're as close as possible to the work and then lock them up tight on the back put on your glasses start the Moschino making sure the woods well clear of the blade and now just feed it very gently into the blade constant pressure don't force it to save me the knife great cut looking at rough saw in the back of the guide see how that is spinning of the blade you pushed against to see the pressure writing constant don't force it up when you get near the end of the cut you place your fingers with a push stick just carry right through [Music] there we are look at that perfect I think you can see you can cut actively with a bandsaw if you're still not convinced just watch again I'm going to bring the fence really close to the blade and try and take off a veneer thickness lock it up tight same procedure again nice steady pressure [Music] donkeys one hunts and movies don't keep stopping and sausage I've been pushing it in the face there we are constant veneer thickness I think you can cut actively on the bandsaw to remember earlier on I talked about how important the guys were or more importantly how unimportant the guides were providing the blades in good condition now just watch this I'm gonna make that same veneer cut without any guide taught so ever just to prove the point I'm gonna back them right away look no support whatsoever there bring the fence up again a really fine cut lock it up tight let's see what happens [Music] none that we've got no guide supporting that blade and he's perfectly through nice sandy fresco keep the timber moving into conscious speed all the way along every day now it's relaxed oppressive I need to get towards the end of the cut there we are bears of an air look at that I think that proves the point don't you and now for something completely different I'm going to show you a deep crosscut using the same three eight six blade and then cut a turning blank to illustrate the profile cut raise the guides up again and set them so just clear the timber watch how easy this cuts through what must this be five inch material nice getting pressure again don't force it just relax the board pressure a bit as you get near the end of the cut look at that perfect cut perfectly straight no distortion 5-inch material now we'll cut the profile usually best to start cross grain sometimes it's awkward to use a push stick here so you might have to use your fingers but do be careful come in across the grain start twisting the blank round now you can get your fingers well clear constant pressure turning and pushing forward at the same time be careful where the blade might emerge through the side we always find he cuts much more teasing anything across the grain rather than down the grain keep twisting remove those pieces after weight from the final quarter just starting with your fingers and then replace with a push stick there's our perfect disc in five-inch material now I've used a 3/8 blade for all the cuts so far the width of the blade really determines the radius of cut you can make if I reset now on a piece of slightly thinner material I can demonstrate the problems of using two wider blade we've made a diamond to cut there of about five inches a 3/8 blade will cut quite happily four inch diameter to stop the cockpit see again how much easier it is across the grain and down it you feed it well clear [Music] [Applause] that's a four inch diameter blade you do three inch in the threads plate notice it's going round they're not stalling the blade at all it's cutting nice and freely nice function pressure twist at the same time no that's probably about as tight as you see err ethically go with a three splayed you might get away with something about two inches diameter just listen to this you may hear the blade start story [Music] you'd hear that if I go a little bit too tight you hear the blade slowing down I'm going to take this sort of curvature this radius of curvature I really need to go back to a quarter-inch played just a little bit too tight in here I'm struggling to get around the corner they're mine we're nearly there you can see we've used a 3/8 six TPI blade we've got a big diameter and really thick material who have got a really tight diameter all using the same blade cabinetmakers of find a bandsaw really handy as well as always profiles to be cut as well as the straight stuff we've already seen look at this for instance this is a pediment off a tougher cabinet a nice smooth curve this is a piece of cake for a bandsaw there is however one snag if you look closely you'll see there's a blind cut here we can't get round that in one go with a bandsaw so before you make any profile cuts have a good look at the cut plan ahead of it we're gonna have to put in a release cut to allow us to work either way let's see that in action as before lower the guides down so they're just clear the table make a release cut first and now we could put in the profile he's a timber moving forward I'd you turn around and now the other curve the other day [Music] when you're funding the cut remember you do have a definite throat distance so just rehearse the cut before you start to make sure you've got enough room to swing the timber around there's our perfectly cut profile the bandsaw is perfect for a jointer as well we've already seen a variety of different cuts there's something else you can do you can make simple joints say for instance you wanted to cut a tenon on another piece of timber perfect job for the bandsaw combination of a rip cup and a crosscut make the rib cut first set the fence to cut the exact width you want just feed the timber in nice steady pressure again now you can make the cut by eye as you just seen if you forget a whole series of these tendons to cut you can use a stop very simple to set up this is a piece of timber and a clump fix that to the fence the length you want the tenon to be and now when you make your next cut you just push it in until the wood stops against the wooden stock we put on the fence very simple repetition cutty cutting made easy now we've got to withdraw the timber from the blade always be careful when you pull it back this is called backtracking providing the blade is set up correctly and is running somewhere near the middle of the wheel there's no problem with that whatsoever but just be careful as you draw it back now we can turn the timber over push it in stops against the stop we've set up we now know both those tenon cuts for exactly the same length what I do now is making shoulder cut take the stop away and now we use the RIP fence in conjunction with the miter fence so I replaced the miter guide make sure it is set on naught degrees to under nice straight cuts and now set the RIP fence to be the length of the tenon so that's spot on back up against the timber and that now acts as my length stop nice and steady don't force it first cup maid turn the timber over up against the fence to get the same length and there's perfect tenon wasn't that easy now as well as cutting straight with a mighty guide you can obviously cut miters themselves you can set any angle you want say I wanted a 30 degree angle on that piece of timber I set 30 degrees on the scale lock it up tight and now just push the timber through making sure you hold it really firmly against the fence there is a tendency when you're cutting angles for the timber to creep along the fence a little bit as you make the cut so make sure you hold it really firmly now again quite straightforward you have a super accurate angled cut don't forget the table tilts as well so you've got bevels we'll make compound angles just watch this slacking off your table tilt the angle you want lock it up tight and now just push the timber through in exactly the same way keep a firm hold against the miter guide feed it nice and steady there's a compound angle so far we've made all the cuts with just the one blade the three-eighths 60p i we've got thick stuff we've got thin stuff we've got straight we've got profiles we've got bevels we've got miters all with just that one blade I did say you wouldn't have to change too often just occasionally however you will need to change the blade to suit a different application in this case I need to cross cut some pieces of Korean which is a plastic material a 360 flies far too coarse for this for a normal cut so what I'm going to do is swap it for half-inch 14 TPI blade and that will give me a much smoother cut before I do make any changes to the blade whatsoever before I start messing in the Machine the first thing to remember of course is always to remove the plug another application where you might need to think about changing the blade is for re soaring that's the process of cutting deep ripping cuts in a log or solid timber you can see here I've got a piece of U which are resore into a series of thin strips for box making I'm going to show you how to do exactly the same thing on this log of a laburnum in a minute we can use the same principle for square edged timber it's a piece of oak here about an inch and a quarter thick too thick for Danny so I can restore it down into two thinner strips and for this I will need a wider and corsa blade something like a 5/8 for skip blade I'm halfway through changing this blade for a wider one for you no further just come have a look at this very important point when you change the blade for one of a different width you will need to adjust the position of the guide holder see it moves backwards and forwards so because I put a wider blade on I need to move it forward so again the side bearings are just clear of the gullets normally if you change one blade for another of the same width you won't have to make this change if you change it for one of a different width always check that the guide budge holder doesn't need pulling backwards or pushing forwards so I just need to look at up tight now and I think we're gonna be ready to go cutting logs on the bank so it's quite straightforward there are a couple of things you need to be aware of the first you've got to get the log stable somehow if I put that directly on the table it's going to roll about I try and push you through and more snatch so put a flat of some sort on one face I've done this on a plane a machine or you can use a portable planer once you've got that flat surface when you put it on the table he's nice and side the other thing to remember is you just never cross cut a log in a bandsaw even with a flat there's always a tendency if you try and cross cut against the blade the blade will snatch it and roll on the log if it doesn't crush your fingers you would kink the blade so never ever cross cut logs on the bandsaw I already see a straight cut now I'm use the RIP fence initially just to give me a bit of a guide but a flat face firm on the table and I can make the first cut again feed exactly the same way nice and steadily [Music] notice how I've set the guys to be just clear of the word and using my first pick let the timber cut in its own time nice and steady [Music] really that out that's the first cut we've now got two good flat faces I can set the width I want the Y boards and just continue ripping them down [Music] [Applause] [Applause] so you just keep ripping off strips until you've got exactly what you want he's a perfect for box making you've managed all those cuts easily that's mainly because I'm using a new sharp blade and that's the key to using a band saw the blade must be in good condition there are one or two symptoms to look out for if you think the blade is dulling down for start the quality of finish you're getting will be quite as good as you expect another symptom is when you're ripping if you're using the RIP fence trying to cut a nice straight piece as you push the timber through it may pull away from the fence and you end up with a tapered piece that's nearly always a sign the blade is blunt or probably more likely you've not cassette off one side of the blade that's usually because you've been cutting a lot of discs or profiles the woodturners will be aware of this he cut lots and lots of blanks he working just on one side of the blade all the time you removed the set on this side of the blade only and when you try and start making a straight cut it wanders off if you are cutting blanks on a regular basis say one blade only just full blank cutting put a new fresh one in when you want nice straight cuts couple of things to look out for as well first one is barreling instead of being a nice straight cut you often find the cut is that sort of shape a barrel shape in effect that again is usually down to the blade being blunt you then start forcing the cut to make it cut can also sometimes because because they're not enough tension on the blade so do check that as well another one is washboarding you can see on this piece here see these ridges here too slight diagonal angle that's called washboarding when this happens you usually hear a screeching sound from the blade as well it's a vibration and that is always caused by the insert around the blade you can see the soft insert there around the blade that drops fractionally below that side to the table and you don't get even support of the cut just pack that up if it is too low and that's all there is to it really I guess the bottom line is the cut will only ever be as good as the blade put a good plate in change it regularly you'll have no problems

Channel: Record Power

Views: 282,257

Keywords: bandsaw, workshop, woodwork, woodturning, woodshop, tool, power tool, wood, timber, craft, art, guide, buying guide, buyer's guide

Id: g5N91MGx420

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2017