Guy on Craigslist posted this picture of this plate on a bandsaw he was selling. Thought it was usable information.
Not a bad reference table, but fails to mention a couple basic rules; Always select a blade pitch that keeps at least 3 teeth in contact with the workpiece. Increase tooth count if material is not solid cross section. Adjust downward pressure relative to length of blade engaged with material. Know your blade speed! All it takes is a Sharpie, a stopwatch, and some simple math.
Thanks for that! I just finished installing a variable speed DC motor to my bandsaw and will be putting this up on the side. I will convert it to RPM so I can use one of those reflective tachometers on the pulley. A couple of good ones there - Asbestos (just don't inhale), Silver (save all the swarf), and what the hell is Kirksite?
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search...=0BUmxZ47cFVehkq7xfVhT5ry5HN9exk/k6UoJPQQuYw=. We used to use ZAMAK.
Kirksite is a slightly soft(er) & less expensive, metal for making stamping tooling. Used for prototypes, & small runs. For instance: Tucker used this for(what was supposed to be) the initial run of sheetmetal. Marcus... Anybody have a good clear copy of the info-disc on the large(r) Du-All? Both the cover & the under-disc. Cover had a slot that you rotated around to get the pertinent info lined up for easy reading. Got a blade welder a few yrs ago, want to build a bandsaw. Would like to duplicate that info disc. TIA. Marcus...
When I had metal shop in 9th grade the teacher made us figure that out every time we did something. It took longer to figure out the speed for a drill than to do the job! For some odd reason I am still friends with that nutcase!
DoAll saws are great,they still make them. I’ve used some very old ones that work great. You might call them and see if they have a speed selector disk? Dan Edit meant to paste address https://www.doallsaws.com/2012-vh-vertical-contour-band-saw
@RodStRace i didn’t see anything on saw speeds. Looks to be a nice calculator for machine work much quicker than using the Machinery’s Hand Book although I find the Book indispensable and recommend that every hot rodder have one. Dan
Nah! Everybody knows that Kirksite was invented and patented by Captain James T. Kirk, Commander of the USS Enterprise. As a matter of fact, Kirksite was used in the building of the ship's hull. Very effective for deflecting photon torpedoes.
When I was an apprentice, I was the only one who knew how to operate the worn out POS blade welder. Even the drunken shop owner, had to ask me. Needed to compensate for the wear. Could not use the marks as intended.
Most shops I worked in had the blade cut length marked out on the floor with blue Dykem. Newer shops used a Sharpie. One guy I worked with cut the new blade on a 45 degree angle and then welded it. He said it made it a stronger weld.
This place had a mark on the floor, measured from a cut line in the concrete. IIRC, the mark was made using a screwdriver as a chisel. (I know) The worn out blade welder had different settings, for blade width. It pushed the ends together as it was resistance welded. The drunken boss was trying to show new guy how to weld a blade. Couldn't do it, calls me over. "Show him how to weld". Boss goes back in office for another drink. #alcoholic #SSDD. OK, fine. "The blade is 1/2" wide. See the different fractions of an inch on the scale of the blade welder? Find the 1/2" mark. That is supposed to work, but it doesn't. Now see this mark someone crudely scratched into the scale, past the 1/2" ? That mark used to work, but now you have to go 1/16" PAST that mark if you want a decent weld." It worked. And that kid got lucky, because he didn't stay. Smart kid. Cutting the blade at 45 would distribute the stresses over a longer distance.
I worked in one shop, the DoAll band saw was center stage. This was an R & D shop, the place was spotless, Kentile floors, a crew cane in at night and scoured the place. Nothing garnered more attention than someone at the saw. If you struggled with making a new blade or doing a tough cut... be ready for the cat calls. I caught all sorts of crap once. I had a huge slab of aluminum plate I needed to cut a large section out of. So I blew a big hole through it, took it over to the saw. I broke the blade, put it through the hole and welded it. I needed help to do this, my one buddy jumped in. Despite all the peanut gallery comments, it turned a lot of milling into saving me lots of time.
Had trouble cutting something on the band saw one time. I remembered seeing the Lead Hand install a new blade the day before, so it shouldn't have been a problem. "How did the blade get completely destroyed overnight ?" Turn it off, blade coasts to a stop. Teeth look fine, except they are upside down. That would do it.
Forgot to mention the blade welder is a DuAll, just like the ones on the big DuAll bandsaws, but this one is a little stand-alone. Damn heavy for its' size! Thanks squirrel for the larger pics, those I can read. When in collage eons ago, I learned to use the bladewelder, & was the only one that could do a good job w/it(read: welds didn't break, blade was straight afterwords, etc. Really wasn't that hard, just needed to take care, so's I never figured out why everyone had trouble, but... ). So I ended up doing the blades for a few years. Since the school didn't have an unlimited budget, & some folks were careless, I got to piece-together quite a number of blades.& occasionally, just do a new one. . Easy thing to do, esp since I sorta had the run-of-the-shop at the time. Fun times. Metals shop & the foundry, almost wish I could go back(in time)... Marcus...
The Jalopy Journal
