Bandsaw adjustment

[Ratter]

I'm looking for a bit of help setting up a bandsaw. The saw is a Metabo( Elektra Beckum) 317 and is new.

The snag is I've never used a bandsaw before and the instructions aren't that great. I already have the tension set slightly higher than it recommends but as soon as I try and cut anything the motor stops, even with small stuff like 2 x 1. I'm concerned that if I tighten the blade any more it will break.

When the saw is witched on, it takes quite a long time to get up to operating speed and then seems to have very little torque. It would seem likely that the power is being absorbed somewhere as friction.

Does anybody with experience of these machines have any advice to offer.

 

[jasonB]

Winding up the tension will not make it run smoother, first set the tension back to the suggesterd level.

Now see if you can turn the wheels by hand, if there is a lot of resistance try slackening off the blade guides and try again, if these are too tight on the side of the blade it will put excessive load on the machine.

I assume the blade is in the right way, teeth pointing down towards the table.

Jason

 

[DaveL]

Hi Ratter,

Welcome to the forum.

I have the older eb 315 band saw and I can easily turn the wheels by hand. The motor comes up to speed very quickly, so something is binding on yours. Try Jasons ideas and report back. :-k

 

[WellsWood]

Hi Ratter, welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear your new toy is giving grief

There's a wealth of info on this site about setting up bandsaws, and loads more on the web in general. Google bandsaw tuning or bandsaw setting and you can trawl through hundreds of answers.

I've had a BAS 315 for a few years now which is the earlier version of yours and seem to have the knack of getting the best from it. One thing is paramount with all bandsaws (and especially so with smaller ones like ours) and that is having a quality blade. However, I wouldn't expect it to stall the motor unless either:

a/ the blade is seriously knackered - the one supplied with the machine won't be great.
b/ the guides are not set correctly (too tight against the blade perhaps?)
c/ the drive belt is slipping - the blade will stop but the motor continues to run (no amount of tensioning the blade will cure this- on mine it's the handle on the front of the lower cabinet)

There is one other possibility, and excuse me if this seems obvious, but you have got the blade in the right way round? The teeth should be pointing in the direction of travel (i.e.down), but occasionally it is possible to open up a blade from it's coiled state and end up with it "inside out". Like this it's all too easy to end up with the sharp bits pointing away from the cut.

You shouldn't have to tension the blade too much (take built-in tension meter readings with a pinch of salt) it only needs to be tight enough to stop it slipping and then tight enough to take the "flutter" out of it (back off all the guides to set tension and tracking). Overtensioning can snap a narrow blade, but with meatier (1/2" or so and up) ones it is quite possible to permanently distort the frame - not good.

I'm sure I won't be the only one to suggest possible fixes so stay tuned.

Cheers
Mark