Bandsaw zero clearance plate- how'd he do that???

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I clicked a link elsewhere on this site that led to a bandsaw for sale on Craigslist somewhere nowhere near me- just because I like to dream. I'm looking at the image of the zero clearance throat plate, and I zoom in to see if my eyes are fooling me. Now tell me- how did he get the blade to go through the plate without leaving a kerf behind the blade? I can only imagine a few things:

1. Cut the blade, insert through throat plate, weld blade.
2. Fill the gap with something.
3. Some sort of sorcery or magical powers.

Zoomed in image:

image.jpg

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Maybe he/she sliced the insert say with a utility knife or razor blade and then pushed the insert in to place in to the blade? Afterwards they would turn the machine on and the teeth would cut the correct width on the insert where the teeth are.

[Allen Jordan]

Looks blurry in the photos, probably just can't see the kerf. Could be filled with dust (mine does this a lot) or closed some with use.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Maybe he/she sliced the insert say with a utility knife or razor blade and then pushed the insert in to place in to the blade? Afterwards they would turn the machine on and the teeth would cut the correct width on the insert where the teeth are.

Could be that. I tried that with a nylon insert and it didn't want to open up for the blade to slip in. It also wasn't easy at all to cut.

I believe the guy is a sorcerer. That's the best explanation.

[Earl McLain]

Any chance that it might be covered by painter's tape?
earl

[Matt Day]

Regardless of how, why would it matter?

I think the kerf is filled with dust in the blurry photo.

[Charles Wiggins]

If he has a band saw blade welder it could be that he buys his blades by the coil and makes them up as he needs. If that's the case he could put the insert on the blade before he welds it. I could see this if someone was that uptight they probably have a custom insert for each size blade.

That said, it seems more likely that there is a kerf but it's just filled with sawdust and obscured by the angle and blurriness of the photo.

[Erik Loza]

Any chance that it might be covered by painter's tape?
earl

My thought as well, or something similar. If you expand the photo, you can see a shadow around the perimeter of the throatplate, telling me it is a bit proud of the cast iron table. Like, the original throatplate has been covered by something.

Erik

[Pat Barry]

Painters tape wouldn't be a very good zero clearance insert

[Al Launier]

Hmmm. I'm suspecting a hoax as the insert looks like it might be plastic or light metal. That holding true, it would be easy to slice a slit into the insert with a sharp blade. file a width to accommodate the blade, then twist the insert at the cut entry point to slide the insert around the blade, then glue the slit.

[Ben Rivel]

What about using that thick tape/plastic stuff people use on their table saw plates to make them zero clearance inserts. Like this stuff: LINK. Couldnt that be cut to cover a bandsaw plate?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Here is the link to the ad on Craigslist: http://newjersey.craigslist.org/tls/5609810424.html

Now that I have the big computer to look at the image again, I can see where there may be a tiny slit, as suggested- from a razor knife, behind the blade. It's just one of those things I noticed and thought interesting. Seems like overkill to me, but overkill is better than underkill.

[Prashun Patel]

The only place it matters is where the teeth cut. Given that closing the area behind the blade would be tricky and irrelevant, I vote that it's just an optical illusion.

[Chris Padilla]

I think "newjersey" is code for "hogwarts".

[Charles Wiggins]

I pulled a copy of the photo. Enlarged it. Did a screenshot, then made a negative of the image. You can plainly see from the negative that there are shavings in the kerf.

Inverted.jpg