Setting up to restore antique furniture?

[rob.]

for just shy of 100 notes I'm very happy with it

So you should be, that's a fantastic deal! Just be aware that the blade that comes with it isn't very good, ok for set up and initial learning, but you'll be astonished at the performance difference you'll get from a decent bandsaw blade. The favoured supplier on this forum is Tuffsaws, there are other suppliers offering equally good products but Ian at Tuffsaws is especially approachable, if you call him and tell him what machine you've got and how you want to use it then he'll sort you out with the right blades.

The other thing you'll soon encounter is the problem of dust extraction. At a pinch, and for really small jobs, you can get by without any extraction, just cleaning out the machine every ten minutes or so. But before long you'll probably want to get something organised. When that time comes do your research, it's a complicated area and it's easy to make mistakes.

Good luck!

Cheers buddy, Ive had a look on their web page and was surprised to see how cheap blades are, I'll drop Ian an EMail and see what he recommends. Extraction is a long way off yet, I simply wont be using it enough to justify the extra cost but I can see this easily becoming one of those hobby's that snowballs quite quickly.

 

[Benchwayze]

There's some rubbish on the market in the hand-tool line. And not always cheap either.

 

[rob.]

I'll ask for advise before buying anything John, thank you.

So tonight I've set the saw up, A few things I've noticed, I set the blade guides with the guide post at its maximum height, when I lowered the post to its minimum height the guides either side of the blade had snagged the blade so I had to back the guides off slightly to find a happy medium so not a huge issue.
The table is slightly concave / cupped, about 1.5 mm at the centre, this made setting the table square to the blade a little troublesome but I got there in the end.
The fence isn't square to the table (probably because the table is slightly cupped) , its only out by a small fraction so I will see how it cuts before making any changes.
Everything else is spot on.
I'll do some cuts with it tomorrow and see how I get on but so far it seems to be fairly good and set up as best it can be.

 

[rob.]

I tried some cuts today, first off was a deep cut , 80mm pine , around 800 long. The blade wandered badly, It was very slow going with the motor stalling more than once.
Then I tried some 5mm Oak. It cut this quite easily however the blade still wandered slightly.

I have a feeling the blade wander is down to user error, I have to get used to the saw and the small table and fence.
I'll check all the settings though just to be sure. I think the blade is tensioned Ok, is there any way to tell? The manual says 4mm maximum movement on the blade with moderate sideward pressure, I'm pretty sure its close to that depending on how moderate the pressure should be.

 

[RobinBHM]

I tried some cuts today, first off was a deep cut , 80mm pine , around 800 long. The blade wandered badly, It was very slow going with the motor stalling more than once.
Then I tried some 5mm Oak. It cut this quite easily however the blade still wandered slightly.

I have a feeling the blade wander is down to user error, I have to get used to the saw and the small table and fence.
I'll check all the settings though just to be sure. I think the blade is tensioned Ok, is there any way to tell? The manual says 4mm maximum movement on the blade with moderate sideward pressure, I'm pretty sure its close to that depending on how moderate the pressure should be.

If you are using the blade the machine came with, that could explain a lot -likely to be that more than user error. For deep cuts you need a blade with big gullets to clear the sawdust quickly enough.

 

[rob.]

I don't understand why a manufacturer would put a rubbish blade on one of their machines, surely they would want the machine to make a good first impression, I wonder how many machines get returned because the user thought it was broken when they first cut with it.

 

[Armagh]

I have to admit someone on here recommended this video, but I couldn't find the thread. It's a good instructional video for setting up your saw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU

I also use a Record bandsaw and I wasn't impressed with the supplied blade. I'd also recommend a very slow feed speed for ripping.

 

[custard]

I tried some cuts today, first off was a deep cut , 80mm pine , around 800 long. The blade wandered badly, It was very slow going with the motor stalling more than once.
Then I tried some 5mm Oak. It cut this quite easily however the blade still wandered slightly.

I have a feeling the blade wander is down to user error, I have to get used to the saw and the small table and fence.
I'll check all the settings though just to be sure. I think the blade is tensioned Ok, is there any way to tell? The manual says 4mm maximum movement on the blade with moderate sideward pressure, I'm pretty sure its close to that depending on how moderate the pressure should be.

Hello Rob, I wouldn't worry too much about blade tension, a correctly set up machine will still perform well across a wide range of blade tensions. Avoid over tensioning, i.e. make sure you never fully compress the spring so that the coils are crushed up tight, because you risk damaging the machine. Also don't get too obsessed about really wide blades, if your machine is "supposedly" rated for 3/4" blades then remember these ratings are often a bit optimistic and you might be better off with a thoroughly tensioned 1/2" blade rather than a sloppy 3/4" blade.

Steve Maskery of this forum offers a highly regarded training video for bandsaws, you might find that's money well invested, especially as he's often on the forum and always willing to offer advice.

Good luck!