New Bandsaw for £10!

[DiscoStu]

My Axminster HBS250N is about 18 months old and so I thought it was about time I bought a new one. I don't like to have old things in the workshop.

So I replaced it with exactly the same model but a new blade and I changed the speed setting at the same time, might as well have bought a new bandsaw as it is a completely different machine!

I'm sure my old blade was well past it as it had started to struggle to cut 18mm MDF. So I bought a new blade from Tuff saws (after many rave reviews on here) and whilst changing the blade I changed the belt onto the faster option. The combination of both, plus a clean and oil and realigning everything has completely transformed it. I cut some MDF on it after the change and I couldn't stop the blade no matter how fast I tried to push material through (obviously I don't normally try). The cuts are clean and straight and I'm delighted.


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[blackrodd]

Usually harder materials need slower speeds, Here's a link it'll save me repeating.
You're old blade must have been pretty bad, just look out for any shiny teeth, meaning they're blunt/damaged.
You really ought to buy more than 1 blade, struggling again with an old blunt blade could result in the blade snapping,
Which really will wake you up!
HTH Regards Rodders

http://web.mit.edu/machineshop/Bandsaw/speeds.html

 

[DiscoStu]

Yeah I think my old blade must have been in poor shape (first bands saw and this first blade) I'm not sure how much of an improvement the tuff saw blade is over a new Axminster one but the combination of new blade and faster speed setting has made the world of difference.


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[heimlaga]

Edit....I missunderstood your original post.

By the way I think your old blade was useless. Probably too cheap to start with and too dull.

 

[DiscoStu]

Sorry I didn't make my original post clear. What I was really saying was txt buying a new blade for £10 feels like I've bought a brand new machine as it feels so different. It is brilliant.


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[heimlaga]

Don't be sorry. Be happy;-)
Half your humour in this forum is lost to me as a foreigner but the remaining half is very fun indeed

British humour is very similar to the humour in rural parts of Österbotten. Both our brands of humour is difficult for outsiders to understand and impossible to translate to a foreign language. If it wasn't this sublime it would be boring.....and hence not qualify as humour

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I have the same bandsaw and a similar experience.

After two years of ownership it seemed like a good idea to try the higher speed - I had thought that slower = more controllable. Now hurtles through wood.

I also tried changing the blade - not because the old one was blunt but because ripping needs different teeth to crosscutting - now the wood doesn't burn if I try to cut too fast!

I also tried a fine toothed blade to cut some segments for a segmented bowl - gives a fine finish which needs only a pass or two over sandpaper to remove the roughness at the bottom of the cut.

Now I realise that swapping the blade to match the work in hand (rather than adopting a one size fits all compromise) only takes 5 minutes it will be a far better tool.

Terry

 

[DiscoStu]

That's good to hear as I bought a 1/4 blade as well from tuff saws and I also bought a blade from Acminster with the rear teeth for tighter curves - not sure about that but we'll see how it goes. Not got my blade changes down to anything like 5 minutes yet!


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[Bodgers]

How do you change the speed on the 250?

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[MikeJhn]

http://www.axminster.co.uk/media/downlo ... manual.pdf Page 24

Mike

 

[DiscoStu]

Ah! Didn't have a lot of that in my paper manual! That PDF is much better. I couldn't find info on changed the speed but seemed to figure it out!


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