Aussie BAndsaw Woes

[lou2u]

Gidday

Lou from Australia here..................Hope all is well!

I'm presently looking at ways of reducing vibration on my Bandsaw. I have an 18inch European style Bandsaw thats good quality and delivers good results.

I'm presently working on my technique to resaw very thin veneers. As all that do this kind of work on the bandsaw know having a well tuned saw helps deliver great results.

I'm attempting to reduce vibration as much as possible and am wondering if any Bandsaw owners out there have come across some innovative solutions that work really well.

Mark Duginske in his bandsaw handbook mentions a visc-elastic polymer (A black rubbery material designed to absorb shock and vibration) does anyone know of any suppliers of this material in matt form???

I'm really keen on tracking down the supplier of this product!!!

REgards Lou

 

[Newbie_Neil]

G'day Lou

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry I can't help.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Waka]

Lou

Welcome to the forum.

 

[David C]

Two ideas.

My old Robinson has hard vulcanized rubber tyres. These were rough and out of true so we "turned" the surface true again, with a woodturners scraping tool and improvised tool rest.

I have read that this is also possible with a belt sander. Assistance needed to turn the wheels , this is done with the blade off and not under power.
The only other things that might be causing vibration are out of ballance wheels or shot bearings.

best wishes,
David Charlesworth

 

[Shivers]

Not really sure which model you have pic might help,

with some models you can relocate the motor position lower down the base & reduce vibration that way,or stack a lovely pile of housebricks down there,
if you move the motor you'll obviously have to get a longer belt.

regards digger.

 

[Scrit]

One technique which works with very hard timbers is to use a variable pitch blade. This reduces the chances of "harmonics" starting up in the blade and the whole saw starting to vibrate like a jelly. Whilst it isn't the finest kerf I've been using a 1-1/4in Lenox Trimaster III 2 to 3 tpi vari-pitch hook tooth blade for ripping for some time now. Cuts like butter

Scrit

 

[MikeW]

... Whilst it isn't the finest kerf I've been using a 1-1/4in Lenox Trimaster III 2 to 3 tpi vari-pitch hook tooth blade for ripping for some time now. Cuts like butter

Scrit

While expensive, the TriMaster is one of the best blades out there for cutting hard timbers--and Lou has some tough ones down there. Benefits include very long lasting. Downside is resharpening.

Take care, Mike

 

[ivan]

What did you want to do with the rubbery stuff?

If it's a saw from Taiwan/China it may also have a very badly made* V belt. This also needs quite high tension, if it's a long belt, to stop the belt vibrating.

* A belt with a variable cross section changes tension as the 'lumps' run over the pulley. This is often enough to vibrate the motor and thus the whole saw. A new belt with ground flanks will help. Some folk (not tried them myself) like those belts made up from links made by Fenner.

 

[Lee Brubaker]

I don't know if the product is available in the UK but after installing a link belt on my 14" Delta bandsaw, vibration became non existant.

Lee

 

[Shivers]

One technique which works with very hard timbers is to use a variable pitch blade. This reduces the chances of "harmonics" starting up in the blade and the whole saw starting to vibrate like a jelly. Whilst it isn't the finest kerf I've been using a 1-1/4in Lenox Trimaster III 2 to 3 tpi vari-pitch hook tooth blade for ripping for some time now. Cuts like butter

Scrit

I'm pretty ignorant of this 'Tri tooth blade ---i've never heard of it before---does it beat a well tuned up skip tooth?.
as i'd rather have the opprotunity to sharpen my own well shaped blades -is the the tri blade a flavour of the month item or does it hold up to industry conditions--just curious,as i always thought skip tooth is the one which if sharpened correctly cant be surpassed.(for wood that is)
regards.

 

[MikeW]

Tri-Master blades are made by Lenox and are carbide tipped.

Many/most commercial shops which resaw hard timbers use them in the states. That and Uddeholm, who makes the blades for Laguna and a few Italian BS makers [and probably others].

While I do use Woodslicers as general use blades, and resaw quite a bit with them because they are cost effective and do a very nice job, the Tri-Master blades are what I use for spendy exotics if cutting veneer, or sawing something like African Blackwood and the like.

Here's a link to one vendor in the states with a bit of text about them.

http://www.kci2.com/st_main.html?p_catid=10005

Be a little prepared for sticker shock if you haven't priced carbide bandsaw blades before. My BS takes 133" length blades. A 3/4" wide Tri-Master costs me about $140 US.

Take care, Mike

 

[Niki]

G'day mate

Welcome to the forum

niki

 

[Shivers]

Tri-Master blades are made by Lenox and are carbide tipped.

Many/most commercial shops which resaw hard timbers use them in the states. That and Uddeholm, who makes the blades for Laguna and a few Italian BS makers [and probably others].

While I do use Woodslicers as general use blades, and resaw quite a bit with them because they are cost effective and do a very nice job, the Tri-Master blades are what I use for spendy exotics if cutting veneer, or sawing something like African Blackwood and the like.

Here's a link to one vendor in the states with a bit of text about them.

http://www.kci2.com/st_main.html?p_catid=10005

Be a little prepared for sticker shock if you haven't priced carbide bandsaw blades before. My BS takes 133" length blades. A 3/4" wide Tri-Master costs me about $140 US.

Take care, Mike

Have you ever used those hitachi resaws from the late 80's that have the 3" blade with sterrite alloy tips----boy is that a nice machine.i used one a few times--its the best resaw i ever used in a small shop situation--the blade lasts forever--the motor can be upgraded from a japanese geared item to a powerful american model --the base plate positions are already on the frame for alternate motors.

thanks for clarifying the blade question.

 

[MikeW]

Yep, I have a friend with one and know another person who has one he rebuilt. Nice little beasties.

They also only excel at resawing. I think if I needed a dedicated resaw, it would be a much larger--maybe 36"--vintage one. I have friends with 36" and larger Yates American and other brands who use them as dedicated resaws, power feeders and the whole bit. I'll be having some African Blackwood log sections resawn this week by one guy in fact.

My compromise is to utilize a larger relatively low-end saw and swap blades out as needed for various tasks. Not ideal for serious resawing. All I tend to do is saw veneers for my own use and basically split timbers of a size easily within the capacity of my BS. So as a cost-effective solution, it is what I opted for.

The blades, both the Woodslicer and Tri-Master make for an effective and efficient use of the saw.

Take care, Mike

 

[Shivers]

I used to love using one of those ,split 10" board down the middle no problem,

Talking about old machinery i had my own shop next to a larger shop-whereas the guy used nothing but early 20th century machines--i used to use his 36" throated oliver(might have been a tate)well it became a sears after i put a big sticker off a sears compressor on it. Anyway he the guy who showed me how to adapt a chain saw jig to take a dremel tool & sharpen skip tooths, I helped him move it into the shop from his old place & when we put this thing on the freight elevator the elevator went down about 12" as the sheer weight stretched the cables--no ides how much it weighed but must have been several tons.
We would do plenty of curved & circular work on it as he had a massive mdf table on it plus a huge beam coming off the side to swing the work from---we would probably swing anything upto a ten foot radius--quite a set up that was.


regards.