Screaming bandsaw

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wrinkly1

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Dagenham Essex
Hi all,

Bought a new Record BS250 bandsaw, have no experience of bandsaws so bear with me, bought a new 3/8" x 8tpi blade (Workshop Heaven) and Steves DVDs.
With a lot of info from here and the DVDs, I made sure the blade was running central, tensioned the blade, set up the guides and squared the table to the blade.
So time to start it up, stood well back, suitably equipped with glasses, ear muffs and a stick and pushed the start button, didn't realise it was running until I looked at the blade, pretty quiet, got a couple of pieces of off cuts (60 x 25mm softwood) and tried a cut, crossgrain, no problem, knife through butter springs to mind, ripped about 300mm, drift needs sorting but otherwise ok, but when I tried to resaw ?(is that the right term)
the thing started screaming worse than when I ask SWMBO for a cup of coffee.
Have checked the guide bearings all seem to run freely, after that I am lost any help would be gratefully received.

Regards Bob
 
Bob,

I can think of two possibilities. The first is that you have insufficient tension on the blade and the second is that you may be going for an over ambitious feed rate. Deep resawing puts a lot of strain on a small bandsaw and they can make quite a racket when asked to do this particularly if you are using the fence and the blade is wanting to drift. In that situation the blade will be trying to taake the cut in one direction while the fence is trying to take the cut in another. Also, I'm not sure how deep a cut you are trying to make; if it is much more than a couple of inches you reaaly need to use a wider blade.

Hope that helps.

Jim
 
Hi Jim,

Thanks for quick response, not sure on the tension will give it a tweak, I wasn't using the fence because of the drift, was going to sort it later, depth of cut was 60mm (2 1/2") the saw only takes 1/2" blade max so not much room for bigger blade.

Will try again bearing in mind feedrate.

Thanks again.

Regards Bob :wink:
 
Where is the 'squeal' coming from, the blade area or the machine casing ?

Is the drive belt tensioned correctly?
 
Hi Chas,

From the blade area, have tried Jims suggestion of tensioning the blade a little more, but maybe 1/2" into the cut, even on a 1" piece the noise starts.
 
Does splashing/spraying some water on the cut are stop it ?
Is one of the guides/bearings seized?
 
I did check the bearings first time around, but will check them again, whats the reasoning behind the water, just as a lubricant ?

Regards Bob
 
Hi Bob,

I have a BS250 and mine also makes quite a squeal on a deep rip - I think that it is when the blade is pushed back against the thrust bearings when under load. I have presumed that this is normal, since the useful "masterclass" DVD that came with it also had the saws making what to me is a nasty noise, and that is with an expert using it. I found the DVD a useful thing, since if I had not watched it and having not owned a bandsaw before, I would probably have hit the off switch and looked for a fault when I heard a machine making a noise like that!

I use a 1/2" 3tpi blade for resawing i.e. anything over an inch or so. This makes it easier and less strain for the machine. Even so, as you head towards the capacity of the machine you need to listen to it as you go and slow up if it is stalling. Had to cut a piece of walnut several inches deep the other day and the saw was clearly at its limit, even with the 3tpi. Went VERY slowly indeed and still had to stop at points as it stalled!

For comparison, I have not done any tweaking on mine beyond shimming the fence with tape to make it ~ straight, but it still seems to cut in a straight line now that the fence is (temporarily) sorted. I check the square of the fence each time I position it because it can be a bit off and then clamp the far end with an F clamp, otherwise it moves under load. As has already been mentioned, if the blade is pushing sideways in the cut this increases the load considerably.

Hope this is of some use and not telling you things that you already know - I am fairly new to bandsaws too.
 
Phone or email Ian at Tuff Saws and tell him what you want to cut. I expect he'll recommend a 3 tpi as wide as the machine will take. That's what I got from him and even at maximum depth of cut, providing I take it at a sensible feed rate, I get no undue noise. That's not to say it's quiet but it's very acceptable.
 
wrinkly1":286e6pu9 said:
whats the reasoning behind the water, just as a lubricant ?
Yes just a quick check to see if its binding, not an answer but it may have pointed to the problem of needing more set on the blade.
Although metal to metal contact on guide bearings does make a racket amplified by the support arm structure on most small B'saws I would not have described it as a squeal.
 
Chas,

There is quite a large cut compared to the back side of the blade, perhaps 'screaming' was a bit strong but definitely not what I was expecting, but maybe something i'll have to accept and be careful on feed speed.

RogerP,

It was a toss up between Ian and Workshop Heaven, the blades I have seem to be good quality and well finished, as you say feed speed seems to be critical with a small machine.

Crooked Tree,

I know nothing about bandsaws, other than what I have read on here, this is my first, so any advice is very helpful.

Thanks fellas for all you input, will put it into practice and try again tomorrow.

Regards Bob
 
I have this model too - (biggest expenditure so far :oops: ) , LMAO @ Crooked tree "the useful "masterclass" DVD that came with it also had the saws making what to me is a nasty noise, and that is with an expert using it"

no offence to yourself Crooked tree but Record Power should be taken to court for gross over-hype, this DVD is no 'Masterclass', for that you should look to Steve Maskery and others-it is the crappiest 'labelling' I've come across to date-the guy on the DVD 'demonstrates' what 'could' be done with it, there is no tutorial content whatsoever, Record Power are selling this DVD for something like £17-an 'F-ing' rip off, I thankfully got mines FREE with the saw-how glad am I, how glad are they ! they wouldn't have heard the end of it from me, fizz fizz etc
DO NOT be tempted to buy the DVD its P-I-S-H ,

end of non word mincing session

ok, yer, the squeal, its from the economy bearings used in the guides, mines are backed all the way off-can get 2 playing cards between them and the blade all round-tighten that blade up til pings like a wine glass
 
wrinkly

I also have a fairly new BS250, and I thought the exact same thing when trying to resaw with the original 3/8 blade.

I stuck a 1/2 inch 4 tpi blade from Axminster on mine (about 10 quid) and resawing doesn't sound like someone murdering a loose fanbelt with a blackboard scraper anymore. And I have almost no drift to worry about. Definitely makes a difference.

That said, resawing a large solid piece of stock is obviously going to be fairly loud, compared to slicing up 10mm battens.
 

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