Bandsaw Tuneup with Dean Ridgeway

Band saws are found in many shops and have the capability for a variety of cuts including rip cuts, crosscuts, resawing, stopped or corner cuts, and irregular curved cuts. There are plenty of reasons to head to your band saw over other machines, but having the saw tuned for optimal performance is critical for it to be your “go-to” machine. For over ten years, I’ve been providing service and support to schools, individuals, and businesses on machinery and many times band saws are a machine in need with plenty of components that are simply out of adjustment or alignment.

Band saws come in many different wheel sizes from benchtop 10” to industrial 36” and beyond. Even though these are completely different machines in terms of size and capacity, they perform similar duties and have common components including wheels, tires, motor, blade guides, tilting table, and guards. I recently acquired a broken Wilton 14” multi-speed wood/metal cutting band saw and have been working on repairing and tuning for it to become a staple machine of my own shop. That machine will be the presentation focus with demonstrations on several aspects of band saw tune-ups including tire replacement, table to blade adjustment, blade tension, types of blade guides and their adjustments, lubrication, maintenance, and storage.

I hope that after spending some time virtually in my shop you leave the meeting with some band saw maintenance tips, tricks, and techniques that you can use to keep the band saw in your shop your “go-to” machine.