Choosing and using the right bandsaw for your business operations
Bandsaws are extremely common tools that find their place in various industries owing to their versatility. When buying a bandsaw for sale in Australia, you can find several varieties that differ in various properties such as blade size (width and thickness), tooth design, configuration, etc.
Here is a guide to help you select the best fitting bandsaw for your operations and draw the maximum from that tool.
Choosing the right bandsaw
Knowing about some key features that govern the working of a bandsaw can help you pick the right tool that suits your purpose and deliver maximum productivity.
- Blade width
The width of the saw blade determines the capacity and cut radius that it would allow. If you need to re-saw or do a cut-off saw, a thick blade is better to provide a nice and clean cut. However, for contour sawing, pick a thin blade that allows you to cut the desired radius.
- Blade thickness
Regular flexing, heating, and cooling result in significant metal fatigue that can even lead to failure. For that reason, the thickness must be carefully chosen according to the wheel’s diameter and required working capacity.
Choose thick blades for heavy straight cutting and thinner ones for lighter and contour work.
- Number of teeth
The thumb rule is that you should always have three teeth inside the material while cutting to ensure stability and precision, for both wood and metal.
However, to find the ideal number, you need to balance the feed rate and finishing requirements. If you can go with a slower feed but need a smooth finish choose more teeth per inch.
- Blade tooth sets and styles
Three types of blade set styles are commonly available for bandsaws.
- Regular: These blades have proportionally spaced teeth suitable for general-purpose contour sawing and cutting thin material with a smooth finish.
- Skip: These have sparsely spaced teeth with zero rake angle suitable for cutting softwood, plastic, and non-ferrous metals without clogging.
- Hook: Hook blades have large teeth with a 10-degree rake angle suitable to cut thick hardwood, plastic, and metal aggressively.
Using the bandsaw
Buying a perfect bandsaw is only beneficial if you use it the right way to draw maximum productivity from the tool. Here are some pre-flight checks that will help you make the best use of your bandsaw.
- Keep the miter slot, table, and fence clean and well-lubricated with a good quality wax to minimize friction.
- Make sure that you have rounded off the back of the blade before using it. You can do that using a honing stone or a file. This helps in removing any imperfections present from manufacturing and prevents abrasion when cutting the curves or bearing thrust.
- Regardless of the material you are cutting with the bandsaw, make sure that the blade is properly lubricated before use.
- Clean the drive components and blade guides by removing the buildup of sawdust before using and also while cutting with the machine.
- Make that there is no debris and sawdust on the table insert blade guide.
- Do not forget to de-tension the blade after you are done using the bandsaw.
