Workshop - Band Saw

I selected the G0622 from Grizzly.com because it was small, inexpensive, and adequate to the size of cutting I thought I’d need to do.  It pretty much lives up to my expectations.  It has plenty of power, it seems sturdy enough, it works nicely in both the falling horizontal blade mode, as well as in a fixed vertical mode.

I found that a bi-metal blade is essential. The cheapie blade broke I no time all, and that same opinion was voiced in blogs and review.  I’ve tried blades from a few different suppliers, and they all seem to be fine.  I use the 14-18 variable pitch tooth blades for steel cutting, and 10-14 variable pitch blades for cutting aluminum.

I inquired to Grizzly support about tensioning specs, as the Owner’s Guide was rather vague on the subject, and they could only suggest I buy their tension testing tool, which costs nearly as much as the whole saw, so I declined.  But they still couldn’t tell me how tight it was supposed to be.  After a topic search on the internet I found some plans for home-made tension testers, and discussion.  They all centered around the amount of stretch of the steel.  Ok, in order to measure the stretch I’d have to attach the tester with the blade out of tension, and measure it as it stretched.  I thought a simple “pounds tension” or “amount of deflection under so many pounds of thrust on the side of the belt“ would be reasonable measurements, but I found none of that.  I think they (bloggers as well as the Grizzly tech dude) were simply guessing, because they REALLY didn’t know.  I concluded to just tighten it “real tight” and call it good – pretty much the same thing I do for tightening the timing belts on my cars.  So far, so good…

< [ testing the belt tightness picture ] >

I was frustrated in that it wasn’t cutting in a straight line.  I think that’s why I originally started looking at the tensioning issue, but after tightening it good, it didn’t seem to make a difference in cutting a crocked line.  I went back to the Owner’s Guide, and dang!  It said I ought to keep an eye on the alignment adjustments.  Duh!  So, sure enough, the alignment guides were WAY off, so I straightened them, and it returned to cutting a nice straight line again.

< [ aligning the belt picture ] >

They provide a cute little platform to attach when working in a vertical-belt orientation.  I think someday I ought to fabricate a little more robust contraption like the dude on mini-lathe.com describes.  While I’m at it he makes some real good suggestions on clamping as well.

I decided the stand was sturdy enough, but it was quite low to the ground.  I strapped a couple of 4x4 boards together and bolted them under the stand to lift the whole thing several inches higher.  Much better.

< [ band saw stilts picture ] >

I set the cutting speed to 180 FPS and just leave it there all the time.