new bandsaw speed?

[savethebeer]

Just bought a new bandsaw to replace a smaller one. New one can cut 180mm as opposed to 65mm with the old one. It was the biggest that I could get and still be a tabletop size.  I can set the speed to either high speed [for soft wood types] or slow speed [for hard woods], 660 m/sec or 960 m/sec, by adjusting the belt on the pulleys.

Question is this. Anyone had issues with too low or too high a speed and burning to the wood or blade breakage. Changing speed involves loosening the motor to allow adjustment of the belt so I don't think I'll be doing that too often. I want to leave it set at the one speed if possible.

I have wanted to do bandsaw boxes for a while and I have just glued 5 sheets of plywood to use as a 1st practice. Other ideas I have will include glueing soft and hard woods together to give contrasting colours.

10 minutes ago I realised I have a serious shortage of large clamps  to hold the plywood whilst the glue dries so I happened to have 9 large volumes of bound magazines from WW2 that I am giving to a friend for a car boot sale so my bench is stacked vertically right now.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Here is my take and it worth what you want to put to it. Low speed is for cutting nonferrous metals such as sheets of aluminum or rods and things of that nature. High speed is for cutting wood. What matters is that your blade tracks well and the correct blade is used for the job and the feed rate of the wood presented to the blade is constant and slow enough for the blade to do the cutting. Bandsaw boxes are sawn on all type saws and most are single speed saws. Soft and hard woods have nothing to do with blade speed. Saw blade type is the key there. Plywood will cut differently than hardwoods so even though you are practicing with it you will not get the true feel when you switch to hard or soft woods. Plywood has so much grain differential within it I do not believe it is a good practice wood. But who am I. Give it a whirl and one thing is you will get to practice the cut directions. Look forward to seeing what you cut out. 

[Rockytime]

So what brand BS did you buy?

[Ron Johnson]

Your correct leaving the saw on one speed (high if your cutting mostly wood) The second speed is a nice feature for when you need it. I agree with John when he says it's most important to use the correct blade and size and to make sure it's tracking and guides are set properly. I've had issues burning when re sizing and realized it was due to my irregular speed of feeding. Sometimes burning can be caused by a worn blade. I've broke one blade in the twenty years of using my band saw.

[savethebeer]

thanks guys. As I was typing the above question I realised I did not know what speed the saw was set at from the factory and it was not mentioned in the manual. So I went and cut my glued up block anyway.  It was set at low speed as I found out. I cut straight lines no problem then half way through an S cut the blade jammed so next step is to change the belt to high. I'll let you know how that goes.

As Ron says, it was the way I was feeding the wood into the shape that caught me out.

The model is Fox but the manual comes in all languages except English so I'm assuming its a medium standard European make. [English version was downloaded online]

 

Bob

[Ron Johnson]

Fox is a good brand. Hopefully you have the two wheel and not the three. 

[Lucky2]

Bob, John was right about the two speeds, the high speed is used to cut all types of wood soft or hardwood. You didn't mention what size of blade you were using, for bandsaw boxes it's suggested that you use a 3/16" blade. Any blade larger in size, will break much easier then the 3/16" one will. 

Len

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Lucky2