Newbie at bandsaw looking for advice

GoceKU

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I've dabbled in a lot of things but have never owned a bandsaw, i've used some before but they were already set up and ready to use, earlier today i bought this one at a tool market looks like a good quality machine until i looked inside and found that is toothed belt driven and has plastic wheels, anyway i have no experience in setting up speeds and saw blades, i would like to cut thin metal, any advice and experience is welcome.
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Thin metal = at least two teeth on material three better, that one looks for wood, may be a little fast for metal.
 
Check the blade speed. If its set up for wood it will be about 3000 - 4000 feet per minute. For cutting steel you will need 100-400 feet per minute.
Too fast will just burn all the teeth off the blade. As noted above you need a much finer blade for metal. Start with a 8-10 variable pitch bi-metal blade.
 
Goce,

There are a number of posts here about slowing down a bandsaw by adding another shaft and pulley reduction or a worm gear reduction.
If you cannot find them PM me and I can post a list of them.

-brino
 
Looks to be variable speed it's not a heavy duty saw . Home tinker will be ok from thin metal get as fine a tooth blade as you can . Set your guides straight with a square keep the rub guides really close to the blade touching it even. Turn the speed dial ow ad adjust from there til it's cutting good and not signing to loud. How are the tires on the blade wheels if worn out replace the tires.
 
I had a 3 wheel bandsaw similar to that, but you said in the other thread that it has a 1hp motor (I think mine was 1/3hp) so it has more power than mine. I found that it was okay for cutting curves in thin alu, but anything thicker than 3 or 4mm just took forever. Steel was out of the question - didn't have any power at its lowest speed. To be honest I found that I ended up using a hacksaw with a decent 14-18 bimetal blade most of the time and sold the bandsaw before we moved. I now have a HF 4x6 with a small plattern for vertical use and it's in a different league altogether.
 
I lowered the speed of a different type of bandsaw by adding an additional shaft with a large and small pulley and using the smallest pulley I could find on the motor. Perhaps some arrangement could be mounted underneath as shown in my crude sketch. And yes, you will most likely have to mount a blade with finer teeth.

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I've taken some time to take this machine apart, clean up some parts and test it. the machine is very low quality even the wheels have no bearings but seems to function as it should, i cut everything from styrofoam to hardwood, that said this machine will stay as is, the frame is to weak for more power, i may make a cover where the blade passes thru the table.
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