Changing bandsaw blades - living hell or what?

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

sawdustalley

Established Member
Joined
7 Sep 2002
Messages
601
Reaction score
0
Location
Guildford,Surrey,UK
I've never needed to change a bandsaw blade before, I have the DELTA machine.

So yesterday I decided to change the blade - HELP??

Any ideas on how to do this, I could get the old one off piece of cake. Of course there is no instructions in the manual on how to do this.

And yes, i'm not an silly person I have loosened the tension and everything. It might have been the fact I was tired last night at 8:30 and thats why no idea.

Any advice would be appreciated, especially from people with smaller machines.
 
James,

Not sure of the exact details of the Delta, but here's what I do on the Elu. I'll go right from taking the blade off to putting it back on, as then there's a chance I won't miss out anything vital.

1. Pull out the plug etc. Remove the table insert, back off all the guides top and bottom, flick back the wotsit that keeps both halves of the table flust either side of the slot.

2. Crank the tension right off (I've tested to see how far I can go without the wheel dropping off and then marked it on the tension indicator, so I go right down to that line). Open up the door/s and adjust the top wheel tilt right over so that the top of the wheel is pointing away from the machine. Move the top wheel round by hand and the blade will naturally pop off. Short sleeves are not advised for this step...

3. Remove the blade dodging all the guides, slot etc etc. Fold or disgard as required.

4. Make sure the new blade has the teeth pointing down and retrace the steps you just did with the old blade. Through the slot, twist round so the teeth are facing the right way, between the guides.

5. Place the blade on the bottom wheel first, and as much of it as possible on the top. This may not be much, but with the tension off you should get a little give from the spring to help you. Revolve the top wheel by hand and gradually feed the rest of the blade on. Don't go too far or the tilt of the wheel will push it off again. I tend to wear gloves for this, and also to wish for 2 or 3 extra hands. Be patient; it'll get there. Sometimes I take two or three goes to get there.

6. Tilt the top wheel back to vertical again so the blade doesn't pop off and crank up the tension. Adjust the tilt to get the blade running in the correct place on the wheel tyre and adjust the guides too. Close up the doors, turn on the juice and see how it goes. If there's a big bang, you forgot something...

I hope that helps a bit, James. Sorry for covering it all, but I just know I'll forget something if I don't write it as I do it. And even then... :oops:

Cheers, Alf

P.S. So you don't change the blade depending on the work then...? Tsk tsk :wink:
 
thanks for that alf,

I think it must have been tired, as when I went out today I did it first time.

I followed what Alan Holthorn said in "johns workshop" which was "buy a decent blade, it will make twice the machine" have to say it does :)
 
I used to work (for a summer job) at a large timber/tree surgery yard.

on site was a massive forester bandsaw (the bands were about 4inches deep and from what I can remember about 7foot tall)

we had a saw doctor come in once when we were having some problems with some new bands and I saw him "flick" the band ie somehow twist it in a special way to make it all "fold -up" small.

I had seen one of the chippies do this several times with the smaller bandsaw bands, but NEVER with the beasty ones (he also used a different method)

has anyone else ever seen this method of "twisting up" band-saw bands to store them?
can anyone so it themselves?

sorry about the poor description.
 
I worked at a college for some years and in the mechanical workshop there was a large metal cutting bandsaw.
One of the technicians had a party piece of 'folding' the bandsaw blade, if you blinked you missed it. :lol:
Never tried it myself.
 
There's a "how to" vid on the Taunton site.

Rgds

Noel
 
Folding bandsaw blades is supposed to be one of things that, once you've "got it", you have the technique for life.

It's a lie. :(

Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. When I can it makes storage or disposal heaps easier, when I can't the blade is soon kinked beyond use. :oops: It's certainly easier with the larger blade from the Jet than the smaller Elu though.

Cheers, Alf
 

Latest posts

Back
Top