adjusting bandsaw blade alignment to the miter slot

[Mike Kees]

How does one accomplish this ? I totally get the principle . I have done this on all my table saws with a dial indicator . So what does one do on a bandsaw ?

[Van Huskey]

You align the table to the blade, depends on the saw how easy or a PITA it is. Same metrological method as a table saw but the accuracy is lower since you have far less flat distance from front to back on the flat portion of the blade, you have to do a lot more trial and error cuts or bust out the old geometry text book. On my bandsaws that I actually use the miter slot on I can get close enough for government work with a couple of tries.

[Mike Kees]

I was thinking of taking some scrap plywood and gluing a strip to catch the miter slot and runing it thru the blade then measuring the width of the plywood until it was parallel. It would probally take 27 tries..

[Bruce Wrenn]

Watch Alex Snodgrasse's videos on band saw set up. They will answer a lot of your questions. I don't need the blade to be parallel to miter slot, but to track parallel to the miter slot instead.

[John TenEyck]

You can reduce the number of tries by 10x if you clamp a straight piece of wood to the blade on top of the table, using a light piece of wood as long as the table and a small little clamp. Cut a Dado to fit around the teeth so it sits flat on the blade. Now it's much easier to see and measure how close the miter slot is to being parallel with the blade.

John

[glenn bradley]

Rare earth magnet on the blade, steel rule on the magnet. Magnet acts as spacer so teeth do not interfere. I'm not where I can post a picture but hopefully this makes it.

[Mike Kees]

Thanks john and Glenn . I will start the process with one of your methods (not sure if I can find my stash of rare earth magnets ). I was thinking some more about this and came up with using my miter gauge and my starret combination square to fine tune. Also the way that the trunnions are bolted to my saw uses four cap screws on four corners so I may drill out two holes slightly oversize to pivot the table into alignment if I need to.

[Steve Demuth]

Mike,

I'm hoping that since you're now asking table questions, you got the guide post and guides adjusted without too much trouble. You're almost done.

If you put a reasonably wide blade (probably 3/4" for your saw) and get it running cleanly where it belongs on the wheels, you can square the table using a straightedge to extend the blade and measuring to the miter slot. If the miter slot is square to the machined front of the table (it should be), you can just use a combination square on the table edge and visually verify that the blade and square are parallel.

You are not going to get .001" accuracy on a band saw, but you don't really need to. You're not going to get catastrophic binding and kickback from a bandsaw the way you would with a table saw that is out of parallel, and you're not going to use it for joinery quality end cuts either.

Once you've got it as good as you can get, verify the alignment by freehand sawing with a sharp, properly set up blade a piece of hardwood stock a bit longer than the table is deep in a straight line marked parallel to the stock edge. Carefully stop the saw without moving the stock when the stock spans the table. If your saw is set up properly, the stock will be parallel of the miter slot. If it's significantly off, you're not there yet.

[Glenn de Souza]

Hi,
I highly recommend the simple techniques taught by Michael Fortune for tuning a bandsaw, including the aspect you are asking about. You can watch him demonstrating it in this video: http://www.finewoodworking.com/2011/04/07/how-to-set-up-a-bandsaw

I do not think you need rare earth magnets or any special equipment to align your fence to the miter slot and the miter slot to the blade. Towards the end of the video he shows how to assess your adjustment by closely examining the kerf. The bolts that hold your table to the trunnions should already have oversized holes that allow for some adjustment without needing to enlarge them. Again, what you need to do here is quite simple and should not take you more than about 15 minutes. At least that was my experience.

Good luck,

[Mike Kees]

Glen thanks for that link. I had heard of Michael Fortune having a system figured out for this adjustment but had not been able to find it.

[Mike Kees]

So I finished up adjusting everything on my saw tonite. It was worth the time, I learned a lot more about how my saw is built. I had to repair an adjusting stud on the guidepost assembly that I cracked. I took a piece of steel and welded it in place after drilling and tapping . The new screw adjustment is far better than original. Steel city had excellent engineering on this machine. Everything is adjustable that needs to be,top and bottom wheels in both x and y alignment. Guidepost is the same totally adjustable. The table trunnion is cast iron with three set screws to adjust for level. The cap screws that hold the trunnion to the saw have oversized holes that made it easy to align blade to miter slot. My saw now runs way smoother and quieter . Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my questions. Mike.