Band Saw Sled

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tipusnr

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I want to make a sled for my band saw for cutting pen blanks (both vertically and horizontally). I have read a lot of postings and tutorials but there is something I am still unsure of. How do you account for blade drift?

I am getting a replacement guide bar from Delta for the underside runner. If I attach this at right angles to the back of the sled bed will it run true to the blade? Or do I need to draw a right angle line on the bed, try to cut along it angling it to match blade drift, and then try to attach the guide on a parallel line? Additionally, if the second method is correct how do I account for the fact that (I read) each blade has it's own amount of drift?

Am I overthinking this? As you can tell I am relatively new to bandsaws. But I want to be able to use the sled (along with a triangle jig with hold downs) to cut fairly small (and thin) pieces for my pen blanks. One idea is to cut green and gold lengthwise slices of the acrylic blanks to sandwich in pens to have a "Packer" stripe running down the length of their birthday pens.

P.S. The reason I ordered the runner was that ripping a wood runner that small on my table saw was not worth the less than $5 of the part.
 
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Daniel

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Bill,
The way I have always ripped on a band saw is to clamp a fence on the table.
I start cutting the material (to determin the direction the blade is actually going to cut) and then align the fence to the edge of the material and then I will get a straight rip on the material. this does not work well for material of varying thickness as the blade will deflect more as the material gets thicker. from how I understand it to use a sled you need a blade sturdy enough to eliminate the wondering. my saw can only hande a 1/2 inch blade which isn't big enough for really thick wood. bottom line if you use a sled your blade needs to cut straight.
 

tipusnr

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I hear what you're saying but my point is to cut small pieces of wood without my fingers getting near the blade. That's what the sled in the download section does. I have a fence but it would put my fingers too close to the blade to rip slimline blanks, much less rip them in half!
 

txbob

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Maybe I don't understand your concern about fingers being too close to the blade, but the standard solution is a push stick.

As for compensating for blade drift, I simply don't. I've taken a couple bandsaw classes at Woodcraft, read the Band Saw book, and heard all the arguments. My experience is that if I buy a good quality blade I can set the fence at 90 degrees to the edge of the table, and if I don't try to go too fast it rips just fine.

Keep on turning,
Bob S. in beautiful downtown Wyoming
 

Daniel

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For small pieces of wood say pen blank size that will be under 1" thick I could set a sled parallel with the blade adn a 1/4 inch blade should not have trouble cutting it. Plus as Bob says, a quality blade goes a long way. both in Cutting life and in cutting straight. where I start having problems is in resawing logs when they start getting 2 or three inches thick. My saw should be able to cut up to 6" thick. but without a top quality 1/2 blade I wouldn't even try. but for small cuts I woudl simply set the sled withthe edge of the table or miter slot if your table has one adn go at it. If you have problems look at the blade as the cause.
 
G

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Before I "knew" anything I just incorporated a sled with my miter gauge. I have an extra full size one that I don't use on my TS.
works slick.
I can use it to both cross-cut and rip.I use an auxillary square against the miter gauge end of the fence to rip and have a gig to knock off the corners if I think they will pose a problem.
 

tipusnr

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Thanks Eagle. That's what I was looking for. Unfortunately neither the miter for my Table Saw nor the one for my Router Table will fit in the slot of my Band Saw - hence ordering a replacement miter guage guide strip.

The more I think about it the less likely it is that the hold downs will work for as narrow of cuts as I envision. May use two try squares to form a channel that the blank can sit in. That way the blade can't get pinched either. If the part gets here be Wednesday I can try it out otherwise I need to wait until we get back from vacation.

Hope to post the pens I made yesterday on Tuesday or Wednesday. My computer stopped recognizing the scanner as it shares a port with the printer. Never was a problem before but that's the way XP is.
 
G

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Guess I was just lucky the extra miter gauge fit the slot in my JET.
It was an old rockwell that was given to me.
It worked so slick I don't know why I've never seen it in a tip section.
Using the Miter sled the way I do it's easy to cut a 45* in a block to hold the blanks to ease the edges or an additionional block to act as a temp straight edge to rip.
No clamping needed.The sled also makes cutting bone or antler a little less scary.
 

jrc

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I posted a photo of my bandsaw sled that I've cut 10,000 blanks. I used a miter gauge from an old table saw. The old cheap bandsaw is being replaced in a couple of weeks as soon as I can find a good used or new one. Delta or Powermatic
 

timbertones

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Hi Group,

I'm new to this group, but have some experience to share on this topic.

If your saw blade is wondering it is most likely due to an uneven "set" on your blade, your blade tension is too low, or a combination of these two factors.

I just restored an old bench-top band saw with the help of a frind in the shop machine repair business. When he saw what my "new" saw was doing --wandering cut-- he whipped out his cutters, cut the blade off of it, threw it in the trash, put a new blade on it, tensioned it (way tighter than I would have thought necessary), and I haven't had a problem since.

His words: "If it wanders it's a bad blade... replace it immediately before you cut off a finger!"

This may not be gospel, but my old saw cuts better than most new ones. I'm able to resaw 6" thick material with a 3/8" hook tooth blade as long as I keep the saw in tune and don't feed the stock too fast or with too much pressure; just let the blade do the cutting.

Hope this helps!
 

tipusnr

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Actually, now that you mention it, I do have to tension the blade almost all the way to it's limit (it's the blade that came with the saw as I haven't done much with it yet). I might just change the blade to see what difference that makes.

Still everything I've read states that all band saw blades have some amount of drift.

Sure hope that part comes soon so I can stop theorizing and start cutting!
 

PopaBear

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My first question would be...What kind of band saw do you have?? If you have a little 9" Ryobi youwill never get the blade to tension right unless you get a blade that is a smidge smaller than what is recomended and tension it as much as you can. If you are working with a larger one I have to agree with Timberstones. I have the HF 14" saw and i have never had a problem with the drift. I have never used the blade that came with the saw either. for riping you will also want to use the widest blade your saw will handle and make sure when you put it on that it is centered on the wheels as best you can. If your blade is not centered it will also cause drift in the blade.

ALso if you are RIPPING length wise you wont need a sled you will need a fence. If you are crosscutting a blank to berrel length you can make a sled pretty simply. The design I used was from book on Pen making. Its a simple 1/2 inch thick Baltic birch plywood about 5 inches wide with a strip of maple across the back edge about an inch wide. On top of that in the center is another block of maple about 2 inches long that acts as a stop against the blocks of the bandsaw. The length of the base is a little longer than the table so I could have a runner on the end along the edge fo the table. There is also a maple runner that fits into the miter slot. I have a stop block fixed on one end with a screw in it that can be used to cut full length blanks from longer stock. The I made special blocks to go between the screw and blank that determine the proper length of the halvs based on the mfg and style of pen I am working with.

I dont have a pic of the sled but I could probably draw up something for you if you need it. The Pen book I used to get the sled was by Kip Christiansen. They have pics in there of a couple jigs I made.

If anyone is interested in a drawing send me an email off line at dmckay@socal.rr.com.

Mack
 

tipusnr

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Thanks to all who've commented. I have a 10" Delta band saw. No that I'm informed (somewhat), it's up to me to "get it done". The crosscutting seems fairly straitforward now - so thanks. I WILL find a way to use a sled of some sort for ripping. One of the designs I envision would mean cutting 1/8" strips off of 3/4" blanks and I won't put my fingers that close to the blade nor can I find a push stick thin enough that would maintain the control I would need.

Once again, thanks.
 

PopaBear

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Originally posted by tipusnr
One of the designs I envision would mean cutting 1/8" strips off of 3/4" blanks and I won't put my fingers that close to the blade nor can I find a push stick thin enough that would maintain the control I would need.

Once again, thanks.

tipusnr

Excuse my ignorance but why would you need to rip off a 1/8" strip from a 3/4 inch blank. Just drill it and turn it. The majority of blanks you will buy on the open market are 3/4 inch anyway. What are you going to do with the strips afterward??
 

tipusnr

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The strips are going to be laminated into other blanks to make customs pen blanks with colored stripes running the length of them. Kind of a racing stripe.
 

tipusnr

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I could - but then I would have to come up with Japanese cartoons for the backgrounds of my photos. I think I'll concentrate on R&D and let marketing take a back seat.

Remember a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single...OK!! Who didn't clean up after their pet again!?!
 
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