NEED HELP

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William Menard

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Joined
Aug 21, 2013
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317
Location
Lafayette, Louisiana
quick scenario, small shop, pens are a hobby, would love to make segmented pens, bought a band saw and noticed it isn't cutting quite square, changed blade and checked all alignments, still same. Bought another band saw ( both table tops ) same problem. Bought a Rockwell Bladerunner, upside down jigsaw, wood bounces all over creation. What do I try next to get clean 45's. Thank you in advance.:crying:
 
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If they have a service department where you bought it from take it back to them for adjusting. Or look for local wood workers who may know how to do the adjustments. I gave up and sold mine. I just recently ran into a guy who said he would set one up for me. He told me it would take like 2 hours to do it all. So going to give it one more try but he gets it still in the box.
 
you can't make a benchtop bandsaw cut straight, in my experience - a 14" grizzly, sure - but a 10" delta or Porter Cable is just going to be for 'rough' straight cuts and scroll cuts.

For cutting pen blanks, though, you should be able to approximate straight cuts - its' a small piece of wood - make sure your guide blocks are fairly tight (dollar bill thickness spacing), your tension is correct, and your blade is sharp (the stock blade is NOT usually sharp enough) - shouldn't need to press on the blank at ALL.
 
maxwell_smart007 said:
band saws don't generally cut straight or square as a rule - especially table tops - there is a lot of drift in those models...
Click to expand...

........I "kinda agree. I solved my problems by making the cuts "slowly". I had a appreciable improvement. I now like it!
 
Get a good quality blade. You won't fine one at Lowes for sure. Woodcraft might not carry one in your size either. I use a blade from Woodcraft Bands (not the Woodcraft store) and it changed the whole experience. I do all of my segmenting on my bandsaw now. It is indeed a cheap tabletop model as well.

Call Woodcraft Bands (don't bother with the website) at 1-800-582-1328. I'm a very satisfied user.

Sandy.
 
How many teeth per inch does your blade have? You should have 3-4 teeth engaged in your material at all time…so on a pen-blank sized piece, 6-8 TPI would be the minimum I'd want…higher should give a smoother (but slower) cut.

You might do better with a decent chop saw or a bench top table saw. Replace its blade though with a thin kerf blade if possible.
 
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I couldn't get my 14" Ohio Forge bandsaw to cut straight, no matter what I did. Largest blade it could take was 3/8" I got my dad's old (1946) 14" Delta with a 3/4" blade and it cuts almost as straight as my table saw. I can resaw lumber with it. I barely had to adjust for drift...there was almost none. (The old one I couldn't move the fence far enough to completely correct the drift.) For perfectly square ends on blanks, I use the miter saw. (I was having trouble getting square cuts with my crosscut sled on the bandsaw....then discovered that the sled was SLIGHTLY out of square! Have to make a new one. Until then, the miter saw.)
 
Segmentation requires flat surface against flat surface.

This is most likely to be accomplished by a sanding unit, with jigs to keep things flat.
 
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