I have been doing some research and a little experimenting with my Chinese band saw. I have made many modifications from all the posts on the internet and my saw works pretty good. It is an OLD, old, old Champion Machinery saw which is still the same castings as the new saws. I got mine a little over 10 years ago from an old barn. It was so dirty no one actually new what the pile of dirt was ( but I did). The owner gave it to me to get rid of it. Cleaning, more cleaning an did I mention cleaning fixed it up like new. It cuts square and straight but slow. I use good blades. With some education from the guy that makes my blades and a good bit of help from the Starrett company I have much improved the performance. I have been taught to look at the chips the blade spits out and determine if the speed needs upped or reduced and if the down force needs increased or reduced. All this turns out is really simple stuff, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW IT and now my saw works much better than it had. Now to the project. I use bi metal blades and my blade guy (and Starrett) said they need to be TIGHT! Blades up to 1 1/4 inch wide need to be 25000 to 30000 psi tension. They both told me to be in the low end to middle of that range to get optimum performance from my blades and saw. So I need to build a tension gauge as I am not laying out $300 for one. This project is costing me almost nothing as I had this small piece of aluminum plate lying around and I bought the indicator on "the bay" for $5 brand new ( what a find, this is an expensive indicator).
This is a simple project. It has three pieces, but a good bit of machining. The body and the lever arm which are made from aluminum and then the indicator. This photo shows the pieces all laid out and ready to machine. I am using a 2 1/4 inch diameter Federal indicator that reads each division as .0001". I got the print from the internet, but it was made for a mitutoyo indicator so I had to re calculate several dimensions to fit my indicator. I will post photos as I machine the parts.
Mark Frazier
This is a simple project. It has three pieces, but a good bit of machining. The body and the lever arm which are made from aluminum and then the indicator. This photo shows the pieces all laid out and ready to machine. I am using a 2 1/4 inch diameter Federal indicator that reads each division as .0001". I got the print from the internet, but it was made for a mitutoyo indicator so I had to re calculate several dimensions to fit my indicator. I will post photos as I machine the parts.
Mark Frazier