Dave Stuve
12-22-2016, 3:05 PM
About 5 years ago I purchased a Jet jwbs-16 16" band saw because it was the biggest saw I could afford at the time. The blade it came with was awful, so I did my research and ordered 3 blades, all Lenox from Spectrum Supply: 1/4" for detail work, a 3/8" diemaster 2 for general purpose sawing, and a 1" Woodmaster B (BiMetal I believe) for resawing and ripping. I used the 1/4" and 3/8" often and really liked them, using my band saw mostly for curves and oddball cuts.
This weekend I wanted to rip some 2x4s in half and thought it would be fun to try the Woodmaster at last. It was pretty stiff, and plenty sharp, and I shed some blood in the hour that I struggled to put it on. I searched the web for clues on how to put on a problematic blade. I took the top wheel off the band saw and studied the tensioning mechanism to verify that it had bottomed out and was as loose as it could go. I compared its length to the blade that came with my band saw, and it was 1/2" shorter. Then I checked the length of all my blades, and they were all 1/2" shorter than the blade that came with my band saw. Despairing that I had purchased the wrong length blades, I went to bed.
Today was a new day, and I got the bright idea to put on leather gloves and after a 10 minute wrestling match with the Woodmaster I managed to slip it onto the wheels, adjusted the tracking, and was happily ripping 2x4s with ease a few minutes later. The Woodmaster is impressive!
What I learned and might be worth sharing:
use work gloves when handling big band saw blades
one site I visited said band saws can tolerate an inch or two of blade length difference from design spec
a Fine Woodworking video said the right tension for a blade is when a single finger can comfortably deflect the blade about 1/4"
I tried applying some Olson blade wax to the Woodmaster and thought it cut a little smoother afterwards (okay, not scientific)
I need to apply some labels to my band saw so I know which way to turn the tensioning wheel (got it wrong every time for the first 10 times or so)
bright light in the shop makes everything better - I bought an LED shop light from Costco yesterday, and put it right next to the band saw - everything is clearer now
don't give up when you're stymied in the shop - keep trying or at least sleep on it
This weekend I wanted to rip some 2x4s in half and thought it would be fun to try the Woodmaster at last. It was pretty stiff, and plenty sharp, and I shed some blood in the hour that I struggled to put it on. I searched the web for clues on how to put on a problematic blade. I took the top wheel off the band saw and studied the tensioning mechanism to verify that it had bottomed out and was as loose as it could go. I compared its length to the blade that came with my band saw, and it was 1/2" shorter. Then I checked the length of all my blades, and they were all 1/2" shorter than the blade that came with my band saw. Despairing that I had purchased the wrong length blades, I went to bed.
Today was a new day, and I got the bright idea to put on leather gloves and after a 10 minute wrestling match with the Woodmaster I managed to slip it onto the wheels, adjusted the tracking, and was happily ripping 2x4s with ease a few minutes later. The Woodmaster is impressive!
What I learned and might be worth sharing:
use work gloves when handling big band saw blades
one site I visited said band saws can tolerate an inch or two of blade length difference from design spec
a Fine Woodworking video said the right tension for a blade is when a single finger can comfortably deflect the blade about 1/4"
I tried applying some Olson blade wax to the Woodmaster and thought it cut a little smoother afterwards (okay, not scientific)
I need to apply some labels to my band saw so I know which way to turn the tensioning wheel (got it wrong every time for the first 10 times or so)
bright light in the shop makes everything better - I bought an LED shop light from Costco yesterday, and put it right next to the band saw - everything is clearer now
don't give up when you're stymied in the shop - keep trying or at least sleep on it