06-23-2015, 10:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-23-2015, 11:01 PM by Roadracer_Al.)
I have had my HF saw for over 20 years.
It was pretty awful right out of the box: it arrived with a couple of the plastic handles smashed, and required a lot of tinkering to make it stop throwing blades. The next ~17 years were pretty good, and over the last 3 years, it had started throwing blades again.
Turns out that the cast iron wheels had worn into a bit of a cone shape and the top wheel bearing and axle were just plain worn out & wobbly. Some quality time on the lathe -- I turned the original top wheel axle so it was nicely finished & cylindrical again, then made a mating bronze bushing to match the now-odd size. Then I made a mandrel which centered the wheel, and gave the OD a light skim to bring it back to cylindrical and concentric again. Some new bronze washers to get the alignment better, and a normal bandsaw tuneup, and it's better than new... it keeps the blades on, which it didn't when new!
IMHO, the two best mods I made were to put a 4" long 7/16" OD jack screw on the clamp so it will hold small work better, and making a stout base from 1" square tube stock which accommodates a full-sheet bakery pan to catch chips in both the horizontal & vertical orientation. The pan helps keep the shop from getting quite so filthy. It's also about 6" higher than the stock base, which is nice, too.
Next mod is going to be an old Luxo type desk lamp attached to the base.
I'll never forget what a family friend who ran a commercial kitchen fabricating business said about all saws: the blade IS the tool, buy good blades. That said, Starrett blades tend to be a bit harder, therefore, the teeth break easily if you do a lot of sheet or tube work, but are **awesome** on solid work. Irwin blades are pretty good all around.
It was pretty awful right out of the box: it arrived with a couple of the plastic handles smashed, and required a lot of tinkering to make it stop throwing blades. The next ~17 years were pretty good, and over the last 3 years, it had started throwing blades again.
Turns out that the cast iron wheels had worn into a bit of a cone shape and the top wheel bearing and axle were just plain worn out & wobbly. Some quality time on the lathe -- I turned the original top wheel axle so it was nicely finished & cylindrical again, then made a mating bronze bushing to match the now-odd size. Then I made a mandrel which centered the wheel, and gave the OD a light skim to bring it back to cylindrical and concentric again. Some new bronze washers to get the alignment better, and a normal bandsaw tuneup, and it's better than new... it keeps the blades on, which it didn't when new!
IMHO, the two best mods I made were to put a 4" long 7/16" OD jack screw on the clamp so it will hold small work better, and making a stout base from 1" square tube stock which accommodates a full-sheet bakery pan to catch chips in both the horizontal & vertical orientation. The pan helps keep the shop from getting quite so filthy. It's also about 6" higher than the stock base, which is nice, too.
Next mod is going to be an old Luxo type desk lamp attached to the base.
I'll never forget what a family friend who ran a commercial kitchen fabricating business said about all saws: the blade IS the tool, buy good blades. That said, Starrett blades tend to be a bit harder, therefore, the teeth break easily if you do a lot of sheet or tube work, but are **awesome** on solid work. Irwin blades are pretty good all around.