I picked up a little bandsaw blade welder recently. It works fine and seems
to make excellent welds. I'm having trouble aligning the blades, though. It
seems that the backs of the blade holders aren't lined up correctly. I figure
I don't have much to lose, and I'm considering just trying to line them up
by running a hacksaw back there, figuring it will ride on the high spots.
I considered removing and shimming the holders, but this isn't trivial and
there isn't any information about it in the manual.

Ideas? Comments?

GWE

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
I picked up a little bandsaw blade welder recently. It works fine and
seems
to make excellent welds. I'm having trouble aligning the blades, though.
It
seems that the backs of the blade holders aren't lined up correctly. I
figure
I don't have much to lose, and I'm considering just trying to line them up
by running a hacksaw back there, figuring it will ride on the high spots.
I considered removing and shimming the holders, but this isn't trivial and
there isn't any information about it in the manual.

Ideas? Comments?

GWE

What's wrong with setting up the welder on a mill and remachining the blade
guides? That way you can guarantee alignment in two planes. It's not even
necessary to dismantle the welder if you use a little imagination. I
followed my own advice when I rebuilt an old DoAll, and the blades come out
in dead alignment. I'd lose the hack saw idea, and fast.

Harold

On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 10:31:23 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:

I picked up a little bandsaw blade welder recently. It works fine and seems
to make excellent welds. I'm having trouble aligning the blades, though. It
seems that the backs of the blade holders aren't lined up correctly. I figure
I don't have much to lose, and I'm considering just trying to line them up
by running a hacksaw back there, figuring it will ride on the high spots.
I considered removing and shimming the holders, but this isn't trivial and
there isn't any information about it in the manual.

Ideas? Comments?

GWE


Which welder? And the teeth should be against the backstops, not the
spine

Gunner

Rule #35
"That which does not kill you,
has made a huge tactical error"

Gunner wrote:

Which welder? And the teeth should be against the backstops, not the
spine

It's the little Dayton one, model 4TJ96. The manual disagrees with your
method, it says "Firmly seat back of blade against back alignment surface
of welder jaw and clamp blade tight with the jaw clamping handle."

To answer Harold's question, maybe a slitting saw would work OK. The
jaws only open about .030"-.035" or so, and the reference surface is at
the back of what amounts to a slot. I'll think about that some more.

Grant

On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 22:39:00 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:


It's the little Dayton one, model 4TJ96. The manual disagrees with your
method, it says "Firmly seat back of blade against back alignment surface
of welder jaw and clamp blade tight with the jaw clamping handle."

The instructions for both of my blade welders say to put the teeth at
the back. Including the Stryco. Shrug.

btw..I found this link the other day..it may be of interest to band
saw users

http://www.bernards.co.uk/bandsaw_bl...bleshooter.htm

Gunner

Rule #35
"That which does not kill you,
has made a huge tactical error"

What's wrong with setting up the welder on a mill and remachining the blade
guides? That way you can guarantee alignment in two planes. It's not even
necessary to dismantle the welder if you use a little imagination. I
followed my own advice when I rebuilt an old DoAll, and the blades come out
in dead alignment. I'd lose the hack saw idea, and fast.

Harold

In the end, Harold, I just decided to try the hacksaw idea. I blued up the
edge of a 6" shop rule and rubbed the back - only hitting on 2 points, as I
knew already. I took a piece of bandsaw blade stock and in about 60 seconds
I had the rule picking up all 4 points. A few more seconds to clean up the
corners and then a test weld -- dead straight, or as straight as I can tell
anyway. I'm sure that setting it up on a mill would be better, but this way
was much much faster.

Grant

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 22:39:00 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:


It's the little Dayton one, model 4TJ96. The manual disagrees with your
method, it says "Firmly seat back of blade against back alignment surface
of welder jaw and clamp blade tight with the jaw clamping handle."

The instructions for both of my blade welders say to put the teeth at
the back. Including the Stryco. Shrug.


That's the way the DoAll works as well. That way the teeth don't lose set
when the clamps are tightened on the blade. That may not be necessary for a
welder that does only one width, but the DoAll I own is capable of welding
various widths of blades.

For my setup, a hacksaw wouldn't have solved any of the problems. The
alignment surface, which is cast brass, had years of use and abuse. So much
that the entire length of the jaws had been chewed away from contact with
the teeth when morons dragged the blade against the back stop instead of
slipping it without cutting the surface. The damage done was not uniform,
so the two jaws formed an arc instead of a straight line. By making a
rigid setup on the mill, I was able to resurface both the back and bottom
faces with an end mill, restoring the jaws to a like new condition.

Harold

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...

What's wrong with setting up the welder on a mill and remachining the
blade
guides? That way you can guarantee alignment in two planes. It's not
even
necessary to dismantle the welder if you use a little imagination. I
followed my own advice when I rebuilt an old DoAll, and the blades come
out
in dead alignment. I'd lose the hack saw idea, and fast.

Harold

In the end, Harold, I just decided to try the hacksaw idea. I blued up the
edge of a 6" shop rule and rubbed the back - only hitting on 2 points, as
I
knew already. I took a piece of bandsaw blade stock and in about 60
seconds
I had the rule picking up all 4 points. A few more seconds to clean up the
corners and then a test weld -- dead straight, or as straight as I can
tell
anyway. I'm sure that setting it up on a mill would be better, but this
way
was much much faster.

Grant

Your setup is obviously different from mine. Using the DoAll properly,
having a simple 4 point contact wouldn't be enough, especially with coarse
blades, where you may have very limited contact. Blade welders typically
use the teeth for alignment, not the back, so the blade can be firmly
clamped without distorting the teeth. By stopping on the teeth, the
clamping mechanism clears the teeth, which would be a problem when welding
on various widths. Hey, as long as you're happy, I'm happy for you.

Harold