Wooden bandsaw project

[Jeff Wittrock]

I have finally gotten to the point of having a working saw.
To start with I am using a low cost Starret 133"x3/4" 3TPI skip-tooth blade.

I have nothing to compare too as I don't own another band saw and have not used one for wood since high school ~35 years ago.
That being said, I am very happy with the few test cuts I have been making.

Going by the compression of the die spring I am using for blade tension, I am using ~20,000 PSI which is the Starret's recommended for this blade. I also verified the tension using a guitar tuner app and measuring the frequency of the tone produced by the blade when plucked.

I was curious just how bad the deflection of the frame would be with this tension so I performed a simple experiment.
1. I tension-ed the blade to 20000 PSI
2. I placed a thin piece of wood flat on the surface of the table.
3. Lowered the blade guide down to the point it was just touching the thin wood on the table surface and lined up 90deg corner of the blade guide with a 90deg corner of the wood.
4. i slowly released tension on the blade to the point the blade was just going slack.
6. i measured the distance in the X, Y, and Z plane that the blade guide corner and thin wood corner moved away from each other.

There was no movement I could measure in the X and Y plane (horizontal). I measured less than 1/32" deflection in the Z plane (vertical).
I am very surprised the deflection is that small.

What this doesn't tell me is what the long term movement would be if I were to leave the blade under tension. I suspect that is where the real disadvantage of wood is as compared to steel. In any case, I plan on releasing tension when not in use.

Some things I still plan on doing:
1. make a fence
2. Add some kind of blade brush to reduce sawdust buildup on the wheels. I suspect the softish gorilla tape makes this worse.
3. Replace the castors with larger ones. The ones I am using right now are some that I had just laying around. I move the saw by leaning it back on to the castors.
4. Add the work light. I have the box in place for one, but haven't wired it up yet.

I have no doubt I will be tinkering for some time.


All the bits and pieces

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Working condition
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