My Bandsaw that sits often in a corner and not used…

Not any more.. OHhhh.. Are hard are we to break old habits!

I ALWAYS rip my stock on my table saw.. BIG mistake.

I have this so called junker bandsaw. A Rikon 18 inch. I’ll leave it at that…

My shop is very small so my TS was stuffed someplace out of the way so I could get my bandsaw out in the light of the garage doors! I wanted to resaw a few sticks of my Panga-Panga to use as thin strips about 1/4 inch thick and 5 inches wide.. I ‘think’ may be part of the laminated pencil post legs. I have to make eight of them.

Making two canopy beds for my little China dolls.

Anyway, It all started out to rip some stock for a neighbor. Maple, which I never use. Nothing wrong with the wood. I hardly ever use it these days.

I started to cut a 4X4 by 9 foot long maple ‘stick’ and I saw sparks someplace. I turned off the saw and after several minutes the blade came to a stop! Dang those cast iron wheels want to keep on spinning!

Gee,, After a bit of ‘cussing’ and ‘fussing’ I found a frozed? ball bearing that guides the blade! DANG!  No way to fix it..

Anyway I made a wooden spacer to replace the BAD BAD bearing…But I thought my one inch blade I always use would not like it.. Lower support bearings which I think are more important than the upper? Or do I have that backwards?

I have only used a 1 inch wide 3 tooth per inch blade for all my cutting…

BIG mistake thinking back. Not knocking that blade!

EDIT:

I hit the wrong somethng and this got posted before I was finished!

I changed over to a 1/2 inch wide blade four teeth per inch. A Lenox tri? metal..

4 tooth per inch I measured… ALL 0.250 apart!

I WILL never RIP A long STICK ON THE TS AGAIN..

As a test I marked the edge of the stick I was ripping,, My junk saw with a 1/2 inch try-metal blade will cut anything.. Wood that is… Accurate center on a 9 foot long board,, Yes  I used feather boards. My TS was better at it but not by that much! I felt MUCH safer on the bandsaw..

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Edited 10/5/2008 10:11 pm by WillGeorge