Mitre gauge adjustment

[Fred Page]

Can somebody go through the process with me of adjusting the bandsaw’s mitre gauge in order to get perfect 90 degree cross cuts in say 5 inch boards? I usually set the gauge using an engineer’s metal square but sadly this is no guarantee of a 90 degree cut. Clearly the gauge is not static and therefore the mitre gauge slot must be considered. Authors tend to point out that this must be parallel to the blade – but surely this has little meaning? After all, the blade may be a single point so to speak so how can a lengthy slot be parallel with it?

If after setting a true 90 degree angle on the gauge but still not getting a precise 90 degree crosscut I attempt to compensate for this discrepancy by altering the set angle one way or the other – it is here that I run into trouble both practically and in my thinking. Over-compensation must be very easy and I’ve been known to spend hours trying to hit the correct micro adjustment to give a true 90 degree cut over a 5 inch board.

I must say, there’s no problem as long as one gets a true cut but the adjustment process for me becomes a nightmare. Is there something missing in my thinking and in what I do.

I’ve tried laying the engineers square on the mitre gauge as when you are cutting a piece of timber, with the tip just touching the blade's side and then moving the whole past the blade to see whether a gap develops or otherwise, but even with this information I still tend to compensate in the wrong direction – there seems to be so little leeway and I find myself repeating the process over and over again.
If the slot is 'out of alignment' with the blade and the moving mitre gauge, you can only adjust the set angle. You can’t alter the slot.
Come on somebody; put me right on this one. Sorry it’s so long winded but it is difficult to describe.
I won’t go into the problem where if all the mechanics are set exactly but practical cutting still results in a cut not exactly 90 degrees!
Fred.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Fred

Is the gauge slack in the slot?

Cheers
Neil

PS Sorry if this smells of grannies and eggs.

 

[paulm]

Wouldn't bother Fred ! The bandsaw is not precise enough for that kind of accuracy imho.

Make yourself a shooting board and sharpen up a hand plane and use that to true the cut after cutting roughly on the bandsaw, much more accurate, repeatable and ultimately quicker too !

Cheers, Paul.

 

[engineer one]

check some of the american magazines, hopefully on the web. most of them say make a sample cut, then adjust the fence to the blade. and don't worry about the engineers square approach.

i believe that the flexible nature of the blade, and the way in which one pushes the wood into it causes it to move slightly and thus makes any "accuracy" more difficult.

think about it you are trying to get a 4-8ft long piece of steel which is only between 1/4 inch and maybe 2 deep to be stable in the same way as
a flat 10inch round platter of a saw table will be.

as i understood it, the band saw is only for relatively rough cutting to thickness or width, and then as said elsewhere, use a shooting board,
or a circular saw to get the proper edge.

paul :wink:

 

[mel]

judging by the amount of post generated by bandsaw problems
is it any wonder that i sold mine :lol: :lol:

i can remember the day i got my record power band saw , i was extremely happy.
but nowhere near as happy as the day i sold it :lol: :lol:

there are loads of post on this subject

 

[tnimble]

Marc Spagnuolo has recently done a video podcast of setting up his new band saw including adjustment. Maybe he has some helpful information for your problem.

With a properly tuned saw (providing the saw ha enough facility to do the tuning and has good adjustable wheel, table and blade guides) it is little problem to saw veneer even if it cut from wider board sush as 6". I've done tis back at school however it take quite a bit of alignment and drift ompensation.

 

[engineer one]

worth buying the latest special from fww.
"powertool basics"

contains articles about many fixed type tools like table saw, band saw etc.
the band saw article is especially worth money in my personal view.
:roll:
paul :wink:

 

[ByronBlack]

I love the bandsaw and can't wait for the day when I can afford to replace my faithfull Jet. However, I never viewed it as an accurate tool, if you use it with that thinking then you are much better setup to deal with the initial annoyances/disapointment about the small inaccuracies. Shooting board is ideal to correct these errors. However, depending on your bandsaw there are a number of ways to get it more accurate.

I agree with tnimble and his link (The wood whisperer) he goes into some detail explaining various setup proceaduers for the bandsaw (it's a video which helps a bit).

 

[SketchUp Guru]

As others have said, the bandsaw isn't a good tool for making accurate cross cuts. I have adjusted the fence on my saw for drift and find the best way to get good (not perfect but good) crosscuts is to use a square piece of ply against the fence instead of the mitre gauge. This automatically compensates for the drift. It does limit the left-side length of the work to less than the throat depth.

 

[spadge]

Wouldn't bother Fred ! The bandsaw is not precise enough for that kind of accuracy imho.

Make yourself a shooting board and sharpen up a hand plane and use that to true the cut after cutting roughly on the bandsaw, much more accurate, repeatable and ultimately quicker too !

Cheers, Paul.

Bandsaws are great at what they were designed to do, just don't expect them to crosscut accurately so do what Paul says.