Project 2 from Hooda. Category: 4) Custom welded Shop tools and improvements:CNC PLAS

[jakeru]

Hey hooda - good to hear an update.

I have a bit of time (and interest) lately in getting the ol' craftman metal cutting bandsaw dialed in and figured out. If I make any headway, I'll let you know. I know you've got one just like it, so if it's just a simple matter of setting it up properly to get it to make square cuts, that'd be pretty sweet.

Here are my latest thoughts (completely untested) - I have seen no "good" source as to how to tune the gap between the blade guides. The owner's manual instructions in this regard make no sense to me. I'm pretty sure I have mine set up somewhat "sloppy" - meaning the blade rests kind of angled in between the guides. So, one guide bears the tension of the blade high up, and the other bears the blade tension down low. So as the blade deflects from varying cutting force, it bends the blade sideways somewhat, which makes the blade wander. My thoughts are if the guides were tighter, it would keep the blade more fixed with a range of tension. It seems like a pretty difficult parameter to adjust on this bandsaw though, and I can't think of any easy way to improve that. Maybe it's something where once it's adjusted right, it won't need to be readjusted again though. (At least if you keep the same thickness blade... I'm using .025" since they're commonly available.)

Those are just my preliminary thoughts. And I know I've set my guides up so tight before, that little metal fragments on the side of the blade practically extruded going through the guides. Not a good situation, it was definitely *too* tight. Anyhow, I'll let you know if I make any headway on it. I've tried some cutting in it recently without trying very hard to make the cuts square, with pretty good results. So now I'm thinking maybe using a high feed pressure helped. I don't know.

PS - on the TIG welds, one tip - I think if you ran more current, with a faster travel speed (or even using pulsing) you could input less heat and oxidize the metal less. That may be a moot point for your project (because it's going to get paint over it any way) but if there are any stainless steel parts it will help the way the welds on those look. Try running more amps and a faster travel speed, or using some pulse perhaps (either with machine or manually with the pedal.) Cheers