My neighbor gave me one of them, labeled by Wholesale Tools, but the
same old same old one. I just finished cleaning and tuning it and have
a couple of observations that I'll pass along.

1. Blade tension. With a glove on, I put one hand on the tensioning
knob and my other hand over the first. I cranked as hard as I could.
The instructions in the Owner's Manual for the Jet saw (posted by Grant,
thanks) say that the blade will deflect .004 under finger pressure when
the correct tension is applied. HA! It deflects .020 with minor
pressure and it's not hard to deflect it .100. I'd like to see the guy
that tensions it by hand to .004 deflection.

2. Blade guide clearance. Since the blade guides put the twist in the
blade, they are always in tight contact with it. To adjust to .001
clearance, I twisted the blade with a pliers just before it entered the
guide, so the guide itself did not put any twist on it. Then the
clearance could be set.

3. Tracking.
- The Owner's Manual doesn't say so, and in case it isn't obvious, the
blade guides have to be removed before adjusting the tracking.
- The bolt that holds the sliding plate to the draw block has to be
loosened to adjust the tracking. It should be loosened only slightly
(less than 1/2 turn). Otherwise the draw block, and the attached wheel,
will be displaced away from the bow and out-of-plane with the other wheel.

4. The upper casting ("saw bow") is attached to the bed by a pivot.
There are two ears on the bed and on the bow there is an ear and a pivot
bracket. A shaft goes through these 4 mounts. To avoid having the bow
shift back and forth on the shaft, the pairs of these mounts should be
tight. On my saw there was about 1/8" travel. Not Good. I loosened
the bracket and took up the travel. Then there was a binding when the
saw was raised to vertical and a camming action to force the bracket
away. The cause was a bad fit between the cutting-side ear on the bed
and the bow ear. I filed it to fit.

Now we'll see whether it's as useful as everybody says they are.

Bob

Bob Engelhardt wrote:

My neighbor gave me one of them, labeled by Wholesale Tools, but the
same old same old one. I just finished cleaning and tuning it and have
a couple of observations that I'll pass along.

1. Blade tension. With a glove on, I put one hand on the tensioning
knob and my other hand over the first. I cranked as hard as I could.
The instructions in the Owner's Manual for the Jet saw (posted by Grant,
thanks) say that the blade will deflect .004 under finger pressure when
the correct tension is applied. HA! It deflects .020 with minor
pressure and it's not hard to deflect it .100. I'd like to see the guy
that tensions it by hand to .004 deflection.

2. Blade guide clearance. Since the blade guides put the twist in the
blade, they are always in tight contact with it. To adjust to .001
clearance, I twisted the blade with a pliers just before it entered the
guide, so the guide itself did not put any twist on it. Then the
clearance could be set.

3. Tracking.
- The Owner's Manual doesn't say so, and in case it isn't obvious, the
blade guides have to be removed before adjusting the tracking.
- The bolt that holds the sliding plate to the draw block has to be
loosened to adjust the tracking. It should be loosened only slightly
(less than 1/2 turn). Otherwise the draw block, and the attached wheel,
will be displaced away from the bow and out-of-plane with the other wheel.

4. The upper casting ("saw bow") is attached to the bed by a pivot.
There are two ears on the bed and on the bow there is an ear and a pivot
bracket. A shaft goes through these 4 mounts. To avoid having the bow
shift back and forth on the shaft, the pairs of these mounts should be
tight. On my saw there was about 1/8" travel. Not Good. I loosened
the bracket and took up the travel. Then there was a binding when the
saw was raised to vertical and a camming action to force the bracket
away. The cause was a bad fit between the cutting-side ear on the bed
and the bow ear. I filed it to fit.

Now we'll see whether it's as useful as everybody says they are.

Bob

If you can get the blade to track right it will cut fine. IT takes a
little patience to get it right but once you take the time to do it you
will have a useable saw.

John

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:38:21 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote:

My neighbor gave me one of them, labeled by Wholesale Tools, but the
same old same old one. I just finished cleaning and tuning it and have
a couple of observations that I'll pass along.

1. Blade tension. With a glove on, I put one hand on the tensioning
knob and my other hand over the first. I cranked as hard as I could.
The instructions in the Owner's Manual for the Jet saw (posted by Grant,
thanks) say that the blade will deflect .004 under finger pressure when
the correct tension is applied. HA! It deflects .020 with minor
pressure and it's not hard to deflect it .100. I'd like to see the guy
that tensions it by hand to .004 deflection.


I was taught to tighten light duty bandsaw blades somewhat like
tuning a stringed instrument. I pluck the blade while tightening and
listento the sound. When it makes a tone that sounds like a guitar
string its tight enough. Not scientific but it works fine. Listen
for a musical quality, if it's a dead sound tighten some more.
The 4x6 saws need a lot of tension to cut well.

DE

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I have been told and have seen actual results with a blade tension
gauge that its almost impossible for the average individual to
overtighten the blades on those small saws by using their hands no
matter how strong they may think they are....of course there is always
an exception to every statement or rule as I have seen aircraft crew
chiefs tear up steel parts with a rubber hammer.......but I really bow
up on my blades tension and its always cut fine since I bought it back
in around 19 84/85 or so..

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:38:21 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote:
My neighbor gave me one of them, labeled by Wholesale Tools, but the
same old same old one. I just finished cleaning and tuning it and have
a couple of observations that I'll pass along.

1. Blade tension. With a glove on, I put one hand on the tensioning
knob and my other hand over the first. I cranked as hard as I could.
The instructions in the Owner's Manual for the Jet saw (posted by Grant,
thanks) say that the blade will deflect .004 under finger pressure when
the correct tension is applied. HA! It deflects .020 with minor
pressure and it's not hard to deflect it .100. I'd like to see the guy
that tensions it by hand to .004 deflection.

2. Blade guide clearance. Since the blade guides put the twist in the
blade, they are always in tight contact with it. To adjust to .001
clearance, I twisted the blade with a pliers just before it entered the
guide, so the guide itself did not put any twist on it. Then the
clearance could be set.

3. Tracking.
- The Owner's Manual doesn't say so, and in case it isn't obvious, the
blade guides have to be removed before adjusting the tracking.
- The bolt that holds the sliding plate to the draw block has to be
loosened to adjust the tracking. It should be loosened only slightly
(less than 1/2 turn). Otherwise the draw block, and the attached wheel,
will be displaced away from the bow and out-of-plane with the other wheel.

4. The upper casting ("saw bow") is attached to the bed by a pivot.
There are two ears on the bed and on the bow there is an ear and a pivot
bracket. A shaft goes through these 4 mounts. To avoid having the bow
shift back and forth on the shaft, the pairs of these mounts should be
tight. On my saw there was about 1/8" travel. Not Good. I loosened
the bracket and took up the travel. Then there was a binding when the
saw was raised to vertical and a camming action to force the bracket
away. The cause was a bad fit between the cutting-side ear on the bed
and the bow ear. I filed it to fit.

Now we'll see whether it's as useful as everybody says they are.

Bob

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