So my wife bought me a BS tension gauge

[Gary Herrmann]

I was going to put my 1" Olsen on the MM16 last night, and she comes down and says "ooh, use your new gauge." Luckily, my son also came down and wanted to chase the kitten so she got distracted.

So, what should the PSI reading be for a 1" Olsen on my saw. She's an engineer. I know she's gonna ask me. I think I've seen 15000 psi for a 1/2" carbon blade. Same for the 1"?

Thanks for helping me look like a responsive hubby.

[Alan Turner]

I think that info will need to come from Olson. I run Lennox's at about 25,000.

[Ken Garlock]

Gary, the size of the blade is not a consideration. The gauge is measuring the elongation/strain of a section of the blade in between the two clamps on the gauge. That elongation is determined by the steel in the blade. As said above, 25,000 psi tension/stress is a good number.

What you will find is that you will have to crank down harder on the tension spring to get that 25,000 psi for a larger blade. IIRC and you do the arithmetic, that 25,000 psi will really turn out to be about 400-500 pounds tension/stress in a 1/2" blade. It all has to do with the cross section area of the blade. Ask you wife to recall her strength of materials course and fill you in on stress/strain diagrams. ;) (it is OK to ask a woman about engineering things :eek: )

Last thing, call up Ittura Designs and get a copy of their catalog. It is an education on bandsaws.

[Mark Duginske]

Which tension gauge do you have?

Are you trying to resaw?