Friday, April 1, 2016

Band Saw

Okay, I bought it for $220 with sales tax, yet more Chinese foreign aid to small businesses.  Getting it put together was a bit of a physical struggle; the band saw is very heavy, and fortunately my neighbor's kid was there to help wrestle it out of the box.  The directions said to put atop the stand.  That did not work.  We did on its side.  At least one nut was missing, but I had one the right size.

I took some video, but it was backlit and not easy to see.  Cutting a piece of aluminum channel worked well; so did channel; but when I tried to cut aluminum tube at a 30 degree angle, it cut fine until the bottom of the tube, where it took forever.  Operating instructions with respect to adjustments and use are pretty minimal.  Not as noisy as I expected, but not as quick as the chop saw.  Of course the chop saw can't cut through big thick pieces of aluminum rod like this.


Every talks about the stand as a joke; they are right.

Still not sure why it won't cut all the way through aluminum tube without putting some pressure on the top.

UPDATE: I put a 1/4" thick piece of aluminum under the tube and it worked fine.  Thanks for the suggestions.

3 comments:

  1. Did you go with a bandsaw blade not-from-harbor-freight?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Check to see if there is a travel limiter for the swinging saw. You may actually be bending/flexing/compressing something to get the blade all the way down.
    It may be that the pivot area has a defect that is limiting movement.

    ReplyDelete