[TheForge] Band saw

Fri Aug 29 20:07:11 EDT 2008

The Tiny Island appears to have been taken over by suburbia...pf

Washington, Aubrey O. wrote:
> Ries,
> 
> Thanks for the link.  I'll check it out when I get time.  I think mine is probably middling quality.  It does have the roller bearing blade guides top and bottom.  I'll try adjusting them more carefully.
> 
> Aubrey
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of ries [ries at riesniemi.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 3:58 PM
> To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Band saw
> 
> 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
>> Industrial Artist
>> http://www.riesniemi.com/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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> 
> 
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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>