[TheForge] Band saw

Fri Aug 29 16:58:12 EDT 2008

There is a pretty decent troubleshooting/ modification guide at this  
website-

http://www.tinyisland.com/4x6bsFAQ.html

Unfortunately, some of em are not easily fixable.

There is a myth that all chinese tools come out of one huge factory-  
some giant smoking pyramid of industry with a hundred thousand workers.
Aint so.
There are tens, if not hundreds, of little factories knocking out  
these bandsaws, and while they all look alike at a distance, there are  
very significant differences.
Lots of little family businesses, copying each other. fewer, but still  
quite a few, foundries. Mainland China alone has more authorized  
Meehanite foundries than the USA, and then Taiwan has about the same  
number- 20 or 25 each. In addition to that, there are hundreds of  
cheaper, questionable foundries.
The castings vary a lot- in quality, in design, in size and shape.
The Jet saws, for instance, have the word "Jet" cast into em in inch  
and a half tall, 1/4" thick letters.
Some castings are aged, some are better iron, some are actually  
machined.

Some have bearings for blade guides, while others have funny bent  
metal rubbing guides. Some, you can adjust the top wheel in or out,  
some have no adjustment.
The best ones, the Jet, Grizzly, Enco, and so on, have actual roller  
bearings on both sides of the blade, as well as behind it, at each  
side- 6 bearings in all, each adjustable in or out. Usually the  
problems with these saws are tracking, caused by the top wheel (the  
non driven one) being out of line, or they are caused by the blade  
guide bearings not being tight and adjusted properly.
Some of the cheaper saws, though, are just cast, or machined, crooked,  
and no amount of futzing, short of remachining, can fix these.
Jet and Grizz also actually stock parts- although as the machines get  
older, parts can sometimes  be a problem even from them. The really  
cheap, tent sale models, though, seldom have parts availablity.

Rong Fu, believe it or not, is a big Taiwan company, that makes full  
size bridgeport copies, mill drills, drill presses, and saws, both  
under their own name and for anybody who will order a container or  
more of them. They are midrange in quality, usually.

The importers can specifiy whatever level of quality they want- as  
long as they pay.

Ries

On Aug 29, 2008, at 1:34 PM, Washington, Aubrey O. wrote:

I wish I knew how to "fool" with mine.  I have a problem with the  
blade jumping off the wheels with little or no provocation.  I'm not  
very sophisticated about such machinery, so I don't know where to  
start in figuring out what the problem is.

Aubrey

________________________________________
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [theforge- 
bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer [artgawk at thegrid.net 
]
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 3:04 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Band saw

As usual, Ries nailed it.
I've gotten amazing use from a cheap ,Taiwanese ,4" horizontal ,$135
Rong Foo ( really the brand name) that i bought 25 or more years ago.
I've replaced the motor and bearings ,etc over the years and it has cut
thousands of pieces of metal.
The cheaper they are, the more you have to fool with them, generally.
I think they are knock offs of the old Duro brand saw.
Look for a cast iron frame and bearings , not bushings or rub blocks for
the blade guides....good luck

ries wrote:
> All used tools are different.
> And depending on where you live, there may be lots of great deals on
> used $10,000 industrial saws for $100, or there may be no used  
> equipment
> at all.
> So if you have some specific saws you are looking at, then let us know
> what they are.
> Generally, there are two kinds of bandsaw- horizontal and vertical.
> A vertical bandsaw is like the wood cutting saws- primarily for  
> cutting
> sheet.
> Good brands include Do-All and Grob, and older Powermatics, among  
> others.
>
> For a blacksmith/fab shop, I find a horizontal saw a lot handier- you
> can usually tilt them up, and cut some sheet metal, and then use  
> them to
> cut pipe, bar, angle, round, and so on, turning them on and leaving  
> them
> to gravity cut and turn themselves off when they are done.
>
> I consider a taiwanese 4x6 horizontal bandsaw to be as essential as  
> a 4
> 1/2" grinder in a metal shop- we have two, along with a bigger 7x10,  
> and
> we use em every day.
> We tilt em up, sit down on the saw, and freehand cut sheet metal,
> (within the size restrictions of the throat size) up to 1/2" plate, we
> freehand notch and miter stuff, and then we run em for hours on end
> using length stops to cut hundreds of identical parts in every metal,
> all kinds of profiles, and sizes.
> I like Jet, myself- mine have been ready to run right out of the box,
> with made in Taiwan motors, (dont know if they still do this) no
> adjustments to speak of. I have a 3 man shop, we do mostly stainless,
> and we run those little suckers for years on end. I run Lennox  
> Diemaster
> 2 bimetal blades, and blade might last 3 or 4 weeks of stainless fab.
> They run anywhere from as cheap as $150 or so for a no name, all  
> chinese
> bottom feeder, to about $475 for a Jet- and to me, the extra cost is
> well worth it- the jets have better bearings, motors, real bolts, they
> cut pretty square, can be adjusted, and last me years and years.
>
> I consider a $500 tool to be a consumable, though, the amount we use  
> em.
> A real, industrial bandsaw, new, can easily run you $10,000 to $30,000
> or more for a nice new auto feed Amada- so a few hundred bucks for  
> such
> a versatile tool is a real bargain.
>
> Ries
>
>
> On Aug 29, 2008, at 11:39 AM, jim poulmas wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I'm looking to get a band saw but many that I've seen are for wood.
> (I'm talking used stuff here.) I've heard that if you get the right
> blade and a low enough speed that it doesn't matter. I'm not cutting
> anything except sheet metal and maybe some .5" square. Any
> suggestions?
> Thanks,
> Jim
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> Ries Niemi
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/