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I thought he was talking about two completely different problems in one post!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Todd, Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately, I have 2 outlets in the entire basement... and none anywhere near the saw. They are on the same circuit as the 3 light bulbs -- which is a 15A circuit with a standard breaker. If I want Lights, I can't run the saw.. and vice versa.

I am planning to run a couple 20A circuits and a 220V 30A or 50A circuit in my work shop area.... As well as installing a couple lights...

It's on the list of things to do...

Thanks

John

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Checking out what is really happening in the tensioner is a good idea.
My neighbour has an older 14" Chinese Delta knockoff bandsaw that he was given because 'it didn't work properly'. He found that he couldn't get it 'set-up' even with a new blade, and asked me for help.
After a bit of head-scratching, it turned out that the threaded adjustment shaft was hitting part of the tensioner, once it was 'screwed down' far enough to 'tension' a standard blade. Some work on the saw freed things up. The alternative was to use a shorter blade by 1" or so, but in this case he wanted the convenience of buying 'off the shelf' 93½ inch blades.

Cheers
John

Thanks everyone.

Todd I really like this saw and once I understood that the tension gauge is not all that... I am ok. I tensioned the blade by feel last night and it works great but the needle on the gauge has to be on the 5/8" but no worries. Thanks for your help.

I took the blade off and laid it up next to the OEM blade and it's about an inch longer.... This explains what I am seeing on the gauge.

Chris I took your recommendation too and called Lou Itura this morning and had a nice long chat with him. Nice guy - very generous with his knowledge. I ordered a carbon steel 1/4" 6 TPI and a bimetal 1/4" 6TPI and of course his catalog too.

Howard I know how to use the blue ones but I am not familiar with the spring or where to put it...???

Thanks again everyone and Howard....

It's an either / or! The spring goes where the sun never shines!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Hesh, do you remember the rationale for each blade? Why those two? I might be interested in ordering some, too, when money gets less tight.

James bro yes Lou recommended both of them saying that the carbon steel sounds fine for my limited use and the bi-metal blade he thought would last longer, IIRC partly because it can have more tension and this helps it cut better and wear longer. Don't quote me I was sitting in a car outside of the shop waiting to go in this morning while we spoke and the conversation was suffering from poor reception where I was.

Also part of the rational was that I told Lou that I just wanted to try a couple of different blades too to see what I like and them and I will order more of the winner. I don't go through blades very fast but this is likely to change going forward.

Thanks Waddy....

Get the band saw book by Lonnie Bird. He says all bandsaw tension gauges on the saws are junk and if you set it to the next size up it will get you close.

[quote="Hesh"]Thanks everyone.



I took the blade off and laid it up next to the OEM blade and it's about an inch longer.... This explains what I am seeing on the gauge.


That's unacceptable! I'd take it back for a refund.If it said 111" on the box , that's what you should get.

Thanks Filippo and I hear ya and agree. But I discovered that the blade that is responsible for my woes, the 1/4" 111" Olsen is actually 112" which explains why the tensioning gauge needs to be on "5/8th" in order to tension this one-off, out-of-spec blade. Everything works great I just have to ignore the gauge....

So I really don't think that I have a Rikon problem, at least yet. When I receive the 2 new 1/4" blades that I ordered from Lou Itura yesterday and install one of those if the gauge is still dramatically off I may call Rikon then.

The universal opinion of everyone that I spoke to is that the gauges on saws are kind of like the infamous "check engine" dashboard indicator on Generous Motors cars - useless.....

I certainly thank you too for your offer to help out if I need to compare anything to your saw - many thanks!

When the wheels heat up to about 40°C / 100°F it's too much - at least on my bandssaw (Inca 710). Blades will break prematurely and I think it's not good for the bandsaw either (bearings etc.)

P.S. To tension the blade I also "tune" it to a note that sounds o.k. to me (as described before by others).

Thanks, Hesh

Hesh,
There's nothing wrong with your saw, it's the blade length that is at fault. Since the pivot point for the
indicator needle and the tensioning scale are mounted on the saw frame, but the connecting pin to the
needle is mounted on the vertically sliding mechanism, the longer the blade is, the higher the needle points.
You can see that the 1/4" blade I've got on right now is reading "1/4", when in fact there is no tension at all
on the blade. You can adjust that out with the adjustment screw just above the needle pointer, but I pretty
much ignore it...I've got the Iturra tensioning gage, and it works well, but I do just as well tuning by a nice clear
note on the back length of the blade (so it's not hitting any guides while vibrating).

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain