Let's see your bandsaw

[stevec]

(08-25-2012, 03:39 AM)pineyfolks Wrote: it has a blade welder but seems to work best on carbon steel blades. I mostly use bimetal ones.

That's what I found with the crummy car battery powered welder I mentionned a while back.

[DaveH]

Pineyfolks,
Very nice

DaveH

[Rickabilly]

(08-25-2012, 03:39 AM)pineyfolks Wrote: it has a blade welder but seems to work best on carbon steel blades. I mostly use bimetal ones.

It has air over hydraulic table feed also.

It took a little while to iron out the welding process for Bimetal blades on mine but nowadays I have a 90% or better success rate which is about the same as Carbon steel, let me guess; it welds ok but snaps on the join as soon as you put tension on the blade? if so I wrote up the procedure that works for me, with Bi metal it's all about getting the post annealing process right which takes time and practice, I'll try to find the post where I gave my method.

And I'm so jealous of your Hydraulic table feed, it's the one thing I would add to mine, I bought mine new about five years ago and as the 18" version was $1200 more expensive I went with the otherwise identical 16" version, which was a good call as I've not yet needed that extra 2" and the $1200 was well spent on other things I have used.

Best regards
Rick

[pineyfolks]

(08-26-2012, 04:19 AM)Rickabilly Wrote:

(08-25-2012, 03:39 AM)pineyfolks Wrote: it has a blade welder but seems to work best on carbon steel blades. I mostly use bimetal ones.

It has air over hydraulic table feed also.

It took a little while to iron out the welding process for Bimetal blades on mine but nowadays I have a 90% or better success rate which is about the same as Carbon steel, let me guess; it welds ok but snaps on the join as soon as you put tension on the blade? if so I wrote up the procedure that works for me, with Bi metal it's all about getting the post annealing process right which takes time and practice, I'll try to find the post where I gave my method.

And I'm so jealous of your Hydraulic table feed, it's the one thing I would add to mine, I bought mine new about five years ago and as the 18" version was $1200 more expensive I went with the otherwise identical 16" version, which was a good call as I've not yet needed that extra 2" and the $1200 was well spent on other things I have used.

Best regards
Rick

I'm interested in hearing about your welding process. The table feed has saved a lot of pushing on heavy stock. Unless I'm cutting long lenghts of stock this has been my go to saw, I didn't realize how much I would use it.

[Rickabilly]

Hello Again,
Here it is, it was in a thread about silver soldering blades and bits so I just copied and pasted below;

Hello Steve,

1, Trim the blade ends perfectly square, use a grinder as required,
2, Separate the two mounting blocks, now mount the blade into the blocks making sure that the join is "dead centre"
3, Apply force to push the two blade ends together, and while maintaining the pressure press the black button for just long enough for the blade ends to weld, you will know this has happened as the blocks will slide together, if you continue to hold the button the new weld will melt away completely,
4, Allow the weld to cool, you need to anneal; while maintaining the pressure on the sliding block tap the weld button (or annealing button if you have one) lightly while watching the blade between the blocks you should see a discolouration, do this three or four times but never let the join get to red heat otherwise you will need to repeat the annealing operation,
5, Remove the blade and grind off the flashing, dont forget the edge with the teeth on it, as a lump here is not good the lump can break off in the cut and all your teeth will run across it
6, If you still have breakage problems, remount the blade in the welder after grinding for one last annealing step, so that is one very quick tap on the button, before you reanneal, put a drop of light machine oil on the join and try to get the blade to a dark straw and no darker than light blue, evaporating the oil slows the heating process and the residue also slows the cooling slightly.
7, check to see the teeth are pointing the right way, easily rectified without breaking the blade but not everybody knows this, to rectify simply twist the blade until it "flips"

I hope this is of use to someone, this procedure is self taught as there were no instructions for the welder with bandsaw it is attached to, except for the safety warning about eye protection and a note telling you not to use the teeny weeny little blade shear to cut off your or other people's fingers, and I couldn't find any on the web or anywhere else, I went to the shop that supplied the machine and the Rep just shrugged.

With a little luck this may work on your welder, I suggest using the machine oil tip if you've already tried annealing the Bi metal, and remember that red heat is too hot for anealing these blades as a result of how quickly they "Air cool" if you use red heat for the first tap follow it up by further presses where it gets to blue and finally no more than straw.

Regards
Rick

[stevec]

Thanks rick, the last time I needed to make up a blade was when I got to the end of the roll of carbon steel blade I bought for my big saw. I buy ready made bimetal blades for my 4 X 6 and custom made bimetals for my big homemade saw. The bi-metals last so long I no longer consider welding, brazing or silver soldering from roll stock.

[wrustle]

Here's some pics of my little bandsaw, an Enco 6 1/2" dia. x 10" wide 3/4 hp horizontal/vertical bandsaw.

I believe way back then I paid about $700.00 for it, so considering how long she's lasted, it's cost me next to nothing to own.

Had this baby now for about 12 years and she's on her last legs right now.
Some days she sits there all by her lonesome but most days she's in full use cutting most days for several hours at a time.

The motor right now is failing, and it needs a good whack when the switch is turned on to get it to start. Sadly for me, the gearbox and motor are a one piece construction so I have had no luck in getting any motor shops to take a look at it.

Guess it's time to get the crowbar out of the shed and break into my wallet for a replacement.........truly a sad day......


Here's some memories of my awesome little bandsaw..........

Everyone in the family has run this baby at one time or another. Here's a pic of my daughter about seven years ago with my little bandsaw.



She was cutting up some aluminum tubing for one of our customers in Florida that made breathing apparatus for oxygen tanks for firefighters.

Here she is bringing in some of the tubes to be cut.



Here she is running the saw.



Even my youngest boy Chris got his turn cutting up tubes!




As you can see we had quite a bit of tubes to be cut with orders in excess of 10,000 tubes to be made. But that little bandsaw came through with flying colors cutting well over 50,000 pieces just on this job alone!




Here it is plowing through 3 pcs of 1" x 6" aluminum bar without any problem.




My son Andrew playing catcher..........




Good thing he didn't drop those.........




Another task completed!



As you can see......there's always a pile of material to be cut in our busy little shop!




Now it's time has come though, and sad as it may seem, I am looking forward to getting a much larger more powerful saw.


So perhaps in a few days or weeks there could be an update........but don't hold your breath........you know how I enjoy dragging these things out!

Best Regards,
Russ

[EdK]

Too bad you weren't closer. I'd offer to buy it from you. Do you know what you're going to replace it with yet?

Ed

[wrustle]

(06-26-2013, 05:23 AM)EdK Wrote: Too bad you weren't closer. I'd offer to buy it from you. Do you know what you're going to replace it with yet?

Ed

Hi Ed,

Not sure you would want the headache. It is literally one push of the "On" button from not working again.

Once I get another saw I am going to just set it up as a vertical (I made a nice steel table for it years ago) and use it that way. Then I can take it apart when it does finally crap out and send it out for repair and don't have to worry if it takes awhile, or cannot be re-built at all. Then I guess it would time to buy a vertical and call it a day!

For now though, this is what I am checking out.........

http://www.toolorbit.com/Jet/Jet-414450.html

Best Regards,
Russ

[EdK]

Nice choice for a replacement. Not too big but not small either. Pictures will be required, of course.

Ed