On 9/21/13 10:35 AM, Leon wrote:
On 9/21/2013 8:41 AM, woodchucker wrote:
On 9/20/2013 10:26 PM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 9/20/13 8:18 PM, Gramps' shop wrote:
For -MIKE- and anyone else interested:
Received the Carter look-alike guides and they fit my JBS 14MW
nicely. It appears that the spacing between the two rollers is
not adjustable, so the gap between the rollers and the blade is
a tad more than I've been led to believe is appropriate.
Solid construction and at $55 is about one-fourth the cost of
the Carters. Ran a couple of test cuts and am quite satisfied.
Larry
Thanks for the update, Larry. I'm going to bookmark that ebay
seller.
I wouldn't worry too much about the gap. I learned a lot about
which adjustments on a bandsaw are truly important and which
aren't when I was needing to re-saw some 8" bamboo plywood.
Proper blade tension is so much more important than the guides.
This is the original post I made on the topic...
http://goo.gl/J7Z3vs
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec....I/OM85a1vy8HIJ
I disagree with that. I have my band saw set up very nicely now and it
all matters. I can resaw without variation (minimal). Those guides
prevent it from twisting to some degree. Twist at the top and you
will not track. I use cool blocks just slightly touching so that
they don't pinch the blade.
Of course my fence is set accurately too.
It all depends on the particular BS and blade. My old Craftsman had
to have everything just perfect and the blade had to be retentioned
often during an operation.
Enter my Laguna LT16HD. Guides are handy on tight radius cuts but
totally unnecessary for moderate cutting.
Exactly. I jokingly wrote in my other post that I'm convinced blade
guide were invented for poor saws, dull blades, and poor technique.
Unless I'm turning tight corners, like you, I keep them up at the wheel
all the time.
If the back bone of the saw flexes when under tension the blade will
loose tension and the blade will not track properly. How ridged a
saw is built is directly related with how critical or not critical it
is to set up. The more the saw flexes the more the blade will rub
the guides and the more heat generated.
You bring up another great point. What I also learned in all that
research I did and the subsequent practice is that most people put *too
much* tension on their blades. I think the default practice for many
users when a saw that isn't tracking well is to tighten the blade. An
overtightened blade causes its own set of problems.
After installing new tires and shimming the wheels so they were
perfectly *coplaner, and marking the lead angle for each blade, I was
amazed at how little tension was needed to get the saw cutting
perfectly. This is when I also became aware of the problems with too
much tension on the blade, some of which you mentioned.
(*Coplaner means on the same plane. The top bandsaw wheel can be
adjusted easily so it is parallel to the bottom wheel, but that doesn't
mean it's on the same plane, just a parallel one. The two wheels must
be truly *coplaner* in order to cut perfectly.)
--
-MIKE-
"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com
---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply