HF 4x6 band saw

[Larry$]

I've got one of these saws. It has been used in my commercial shop for at least 20 years. Other than adjusting the guides & the switch stop, not much has been done to it. The gear case has never been opened, original oil. The wheels are rarely used, luckily. The vice has been drilled to allow clamping short parts, a bigger table for vertical use has been put on. I made the work stop easier to adjust. The flimsy door barely hangs in there. It gets used and abused by anyone in the shop. It cuts square. Angle iron is cut corner up so the blade doesn't have to engage too much thickness. Most things are cut dry. Aluminum is cut using WD40 to keep from welding into the teeth. The guide bearings are still original. Even though I'm retired from the shop I still use it occasionally. I even cleaned it, once. I have a heavy, very old cold saw that I use for anything that will fit. Much faster.
Never move the saw in the up position! Ease the blade into the cut. On heavy plate mount the work edge up or if too tall, at an angle so you aren't trying to cut a big flat piece. Some day, IF, I get a new shop, I'll buy a respectable saw. This 4x6 has done a lot of work and was well worth it's price.

 

[FlyFishn]

It does sound like it’s making things difficult. If I remember correctly, you don’t necessarily want the blade hitting the pulley flanges, because you want the teeth off the pulley. If the teeth ride on the pulley, it can take the set out of one side and then the blade will no longer cut straight.

That is a good point.

I will take a look at it and see how much, if any, of the teeth ride on the pulley with the blade butted up against the flanges/rims. If that is a concern then it would appear the solution to it is the guides - have those adjusted down to where the depth of blade cut puts enough pressure on the blade opposite of the force the tilting of the upper pulley causes to push the blade back in to the flange/rim to where the blade sits in equilibrium at the right spacing from the flange/rim.

However, will the blade stay on the pulleys at the above point of equilibrium? So far I haven't had any luck with that.

 

[jwmelvin]

I forget, but can’t the guide bearings (the ones that contact the back edge of the blade) hold the teeth off the pulley, while the pulley is slightly biased to pull the blade on?

 

[FlyFishn]

I forget, but can’t the guide bearings (the ones that contact the back edge of the blade) hold the teeth off the pulley, while the pulley is slightly biased to pull the blade on?

I think that is the point of equilibrium that I was describing. I will take some pictures as I go and post back. Give me a few hours.

 

[FlyFishn]

First off - I did some more adjusting today. I took all the adjustment out of the guides and left the top bearings free (not touching the blade). Then I went to adjusting the tilt of the top pulley. I found that the blade had to ride on the flange/rim otherwise it would start working its way across the pulley and would eventually have popped off. With the blade against the rim/flange the teeth are still OK (see the last picture of the close up of the under side of the blade and you can see the teeth just barely clear the pulley)

From that point I went to tuning the saw to cut square. This time I kept the 1/4" plate riser under the work at all times. I set the guides so the top bearings were just touching the blade. From there I went to making more test cuts and tuned.

I ended up needing to back off the fence angle quite a bit (past 0, negative). I had the guides adjusted the most I could to use them to shove the blade to the right angle. The tilt of the guides (that rolls the blade to change how the blade tracks down through the work) also significantly affects the angle of cut. So I worked on getting the top to bottom cut square first then did the adjustment in the fence.

Now for the kicker... Note the top picture and the blue arrow. I found there was a lot of play in that part - with the bolt tight. I could grab on to it and move it, and the blade inside of the guide rollers, way too much for comfort. So I shoved that guide all the way back up in to the frame - leaving the widest gap of blade available. With that guide able to move as much as it was when it was out as it was in that picture I could make 2 cuts back to back and the results would vary between the 2.

Talking to a buddy of mine he suggested to shim that guide up inside the frame using brass shim stock. I suppose that is an idea. What do some of you think?

At this point - I am OK with the saw how it is. I am not impressed by it, but realize its a cheap saw so there will be some nuances. I understand it enough right now that for my purposes at the moment I can make it work - I know what to check. As time goes on I can improve it. With the way I have the tilt of the pulley and the guides I am not loosing the blade anymore so that is a HUGE plus. I did put some oil on the blade/guide bearings and have been getting the blade snagged on the work requiring a quick back off of the cut then resume with light pressure to get through the snag, but that is a minor issue (so long as I catch it and I'm not away from the machine).

I'm hoping in the next couple weeks I can start in to my next fabrication project - front receiver/winch mount for my truck. I need to tweak the design and get the dimensions ironed out first. I have to reroute coolant hoses and have a couple ideas on how to do it, but need to dig in to it and see what I want to do.

 

[jwmelvin]

Definitely good to have gotten the blade not to pop off. for the sliding guide arm, you’re saying the whole arm moves laterally? I’d have to look at mine to think about fixes but it would be nice to be able to adjust it in and out with minimal fuss (there is adhesive shim stock that may work well).

 

[FlyFishn]

for the sliding guide arm, you’re saying the whole arm moves laterally?

Looking at the picture there - I could grab hold of it and push it in and out, which would in turn change the angle of the cut (pushing/pulling the front of the blade changing the angle of cut with respect to the bottom/right guide and irrespective of fence position).

When I figured out the movement in that part I was trying to set the angle with a square against the fence. It was odd to me that 2 cuts had 2 different results and when I checked with the square to adjust I thought I'd poke and prod a bit to see what was going on and that was it - movement in the guide.

 

[FlyFishn]

I'm working on some engine projects here and am making use of the saw to cut some blocks for manifolds. Here is one of the cut edges. I do admit - it does an excellent job. This is with a 10/14 Lenox blade, light pressure, and fastest blade speed. Mild steel/A36.

I am not sure exactly how square the cut is on this piece, but I had the horizontal angle pretty darn close (checked the blade tracking with a square prior to cutting). As to vertical tracking through the material - not real sure. On these cuts it doesnt matter so I'm not worried about it.

I did file the edges to knock the sharpness and burrs off.

 

[FlyFishn]

More pictures.

This is a bar of stainless steel I got a LONG time ago. The college program I was in had a nice old shop and ended up down-sizing. We were the last class through there and they let us rummage around. I had made some ham radio antenna parts out of this (3/8" x 24tpi threaded bases) so I figured I'd snag it and use it for something later. Still haven't done anything with it... one of these days when I get a lathe. They did have a few 3 phase lathes that were up for auction back in the day. I still kick myself for not getting one of them, but at the time I had no where to put it.

In any event, I chopped this bar up for easier storage. It was over 13 feet long. The saw cut very well. I put the belt on the slowest speed and kept some oil on the blade.

I did knock the edges down with a file so no one cuts themselves on it. This stuff is HARD. I recall making the parts years back how tough it was to machine also. The saw didn't hesitate with it. The blade made it through all 4 cuts and never missed a beat. Though, I did not verify how square the cut was. I was not concerned with it on these - same with the manifold blanks I cut the other day. It was simply just sizing down the bar, no precision necessary.

 

[Larry$]

Nice stock to have. I don't have a lot of experience with SS. What I've done with it has shown me whatever version I had was very susceptible to work hardening. As long as I kept cutting deep enough things worked fine. Very thin/shallow cuts resulted in making it hard as hell. I've since learned which SS to avoid. Problem is I often use mystery metal.