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2VIDEO Bandsaw Overview
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Jan 24, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video, I want to give you an overview of how the bandsaw works
0:04
We're going to be going into a lot more detail for adjusting the machine and using it
0:09
But for now, I just want to give you an overview of how it works
0:12
Now, the machine is unplugged, as it always must be, if you're going to be getting inside
0:17
and looking at things and touching them. So we want to stay safe
0:21
Just open these doors here, the guard doors. A bandsaw gets its name because the
0:29
the blade that it uses is always a continuous loop of steel
0:33
So a band of steel. You can see the bandsaw blade here
0:38
This is a 5 eighths inch wide blade, which is quite wide
0:42
It's not really meant for cutting curves. It's meant for cutting, making straight cuts
0:48
and I'll show you that in a minute. But all bandsaws have a blade like this
0:54
and either two or three wheels that the blade revolves on. Some of the smaller bandsaws have three wheels. Another wheel would be out here
1:06
but by and large the stationary floor models have just the two wheels. The blade also
1:13
is supported. It's supported in this case by some bearings. There's three bearings here
1:20
These two support the sides of the blade just to keep it steady from side to side
1:27
There's also a third bearing here at the back, as you can see back here, and that supports the back of the blade
1:34
Because as you'd imagine, a blade like this doesn't have a lot of resilience on its own
1:38
It needs some help. Now, these bearings here, and there's other bearings just like them down below, and I'll show you these in a minute
1:49
But during use, this is lowered to the point where it's in a quarter of an end
1:57
half an inch or so from the top of the workpiece you're cutting. And that's so that the support
2:01
provided by the bearings is as close to the workpiece as possible. So now if we go and look underneath
2:10
down below we're going to see the same sort of thing because there's a wheel there and the blade
2:17
also needs to be supported in the same way. So I will be showing you how to adjust these
2:23
bearings later but for now just know that they exist. Just like the top
2:27
side. There's two bearings, one in each side to support the blade on the side and then there's another bearing at the back to support the back
2:36
Not all bandsaws have bearings in locations like these. Sometimes there's low friction blocks. That's kind of a
2:44
synthetic material and the blade just slides over that So that another way to do it It supports the blades the same way and they adjusted in a similar way too So now as I was mentioning before you have to raise and lower this to match the thickness of the
3:02
workpiece that you're dealing with. There's another factor here, another feature that's common to
3:09
all bandsaws, and that's some method for adjusting the wheels in two planes. I mean, first of all
3:18
the wheels have to be, if this is the top wheel and this is the bottom wheel, they have to be in the same plane
3:23
so they can't be cock-eyed like this. And they also need to be the right distance apart to put tension on the blade
3:33
Now all band saws have some method of showing you what the tension is on the blade
3:39
And this particular saw has this little pointer in here. So as I mentioned before, this blade is five-eighths of an inch wide
3:48
and the pointer is pointing to 5 eighths of an inch. So that's reflecting the amount of spring pressure here
3:57
that is pushing this top wheel away. You can see a big heavy spring there
4:03
And the narrower the blade, the less tension it needs. So in this case, the tension is adjusted by this wheel here
4:13
You can see I'm loosening the wheel, and the tension is now going down
4:18
There's actually very little tension on the blade now. It's just kind of sitting here
4:22
That's not going to cut properly. So I'll just crank it back up again
4:28
Just as a point of interest, when you're putting your bandsaw away, it's kind of easier on the machine and on the blade if you relieve the tension between uses
4:36
There's no reason for there to be any tension when you're not using it. You can just be easier on the machine that way
4:42
So one of the nice things about the bandsaw is that it is so versatile
4:48
It won't take the place of a table saw or anything like that, but you can do a lot of different kinds of work
4:55
Depending on the width the blade you choose and I'll be showing you how different widths behave and
5:02
You know the narrow well the narrower the blade essentially the tighter the curve you can cut with it. That's what it boils down to and sometimes you don't want to cut a curve at all and which case you're going to be using a wide blade like this
5:15
Now one other thing while I'm thinking of it Bandsaws don't make a whole lot of sawdust
5:25
Certainly a table saw is going to make a lot more dust, a joint or thickness planar
5:29
They just spew out the dust and shavings. Not so much with a band saw
5:34
And you might be thinking, well, I don't really need dust collection for a band saw
5:38
And it's true. You don't need it. But the thing about bandsaw dust is that it very fine And there might not be a lot of it but it does tend to float around in the air a lot So I really like band saws with a vacuum connection And that what you have here It take a four
5:56
dust collection hose and the whole cabinet that surrounds the blade and the wheels and everything
6:06
is more or less self-contained and connected with this. So you're going to get good vacuum
6:11
action. Like I said, it's not essential, but it's pretty nice to have, especially if you're going to be doing some serious cutting through, you know, serious pieces of wood, something like this
6:25
One other thing I really like, especially for the Home Workshop. Home workshops don't tend to have a lot of room, so you can't necessarily have a dedicated spot for your bandsaw where it doesn't have to move ever. You just go and use it and you shut it off and walk away
6:39
So if you don't have a really huge shop where you can have a dedicated place for your bandsaw
6:45
you're going to want to look at something like a mobile base, which is what this is here
6:50
So as it comes from the factory, there are no wheels on this, and this does not exist on the machine
6:57
Most machines come that way. But this wheel kit allows you to swivel this thing around on three wheels
7:02
So those two wheels, one over there and then one like it just on the other side, they're fixed
7:07
They stay there. They just roll. This end here has a bit of a cam thing going on and a wheel
7:13
So right now, the machine is resting solidly on its legs here and it doesn't really move
7:22
But if I want to move it, I can just press this down. Now we're on three wheels and we can roll along
7:31
So a little thing, but it does make a big difference in how the saw works
7:37
So let's make a little sawdust, shall we? I'll start with an operation called re-sawing
7:46
which is exactly what this blade is for. It's a straight cut, and it's designed to make thick pieces of wood thinner
7:53
You can also actually even mill your own lumber from little logs
7:58
even on a bandsaw like this. I've done that many times. It's a great way of making use of chunks of wood
8:06
that really might only be useful for the fireplace otherwise. But there's some great little pieces of wood
8:12
that come off of trees that people have access to in a bandsaw. Can kind of unlock the potential there too
8:17
But for now, I'll get things set up and show you how to resaw a piece of cherry
8:22
So I'm all set up to do a resawing cut for you here. And it's a pretty challenging one too
8:27
This is a piece of two-inch cherry. And I've got the blade tension set correctly
8:33
And I got the height set correctly here so that this can slide underneath I just going to cut it in half so you can see how it works in the straight line re mode
9:05
So, nice cut. That's the kind of thing you can do with one of the larger bandsaws like this one and a wide blade
9:16
Now I'm going to change the blade to a narrower one and I'm going to show you a more typical
9:20
bandsaw operation involving curved cuts. And once again, this is just an overview
9:25
We're going to be going into more detail about all of this stuff, adjusting and using the
9:29
band saw later. But for now, let's just do some curved cuts. So now I'm just about set up for curved cuts
9:35
Curved cutting, which as I said is kind of a more common use for band saws, although not limited to just curve cutting
9:41
You notice I've changed the blade. I now have a quarter inch wide
9:45
blade on here, which is great for general purpose curve cutting. I'm going to have to lower this because this is way too high right now. We want to support the blade close to the work surface
9:57
So just crank that down. Each one of these steps I will be covering later in the course because there's a lot to it
10:11
But also in addition to lowering this for this cut, I've also adjusted the bearings to work with the narrower blade
10:19
And I've also adjusted the tension of the blade. So now we're kind of at the tight end of the quarter inch blade realm
10:29
As you can see here there's a range anywhere in that in that black area on this machine is ideal for quarter inch and so we're at the the tight end of that that rating
10:40
So I'll just close these doors and and away we can go
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