More new old bandsaw questions...

[davidtu]

Old bandsaw, new to me. The tires seem intact w/o chips but the old rubber does have faint cracklines in it sort of like the skin on the back of your hand. Do I need to replace these right away? In the Bandsaw Book, Bird says to replace if thre are "severe wear or age cracks"--what constitutes "severe" in your opinion?

There may be a small bump on one that I have to have another look at, if it does I assume the answer is definitely "yes", unless I can sand it smooth.

Also, thought I needed new blocks but upon reviewing the Bandsaw book looks like Bird is saying the blocks can be used until you can't hold 'em w/ the set screws any longer. Just need to square them up... what is the best technique for doing so?

I've tried running block along a flat file on the workbench, but seems like the edges don't get done evenly this way--must get skewed by the motion of my arm or uneven finger pressure no matter how careful I try. I can get it pretty flat... maybe 1/32 on two sides don't end up w/ the same shine that the rest of the face gets from the file. How precise is required?

[SARGE..g-47]

If the tires are cracked.. replace them. For the cool blocks, I take two pieces of scrap wood and square the ends. Clamp them in the work-bench vise with the cooll blocks between them exposing the out of square ends of the blocks. A light pass with a 3 X 21 belt sander or several strokes with a sanding block loaded with 120 grit till the sand-paper meets the squared wood ends.

Opps.. almost forgot, if you have a vertical sander.. squeeze the cool blocks with a pair of needle nose pliers and make a quick pass on the table with the sander vertical.

Bingo... make it quick and keep it simple

Regards...

[LCHIEN]

Old bandsaw, new to me. The tires seem intact w/o chips but the old rubber does have faint cracklines in it sort of like the skin on the back of your hand. Do I need to replace these right away? In the Bandsaw Book, Bird says to replace if thre are "severe wear or age cracks"--what constitutes "severe" in your opinion?

There may be a small bump on one that I have to have another look at, if it does I assume the answer is definitely "yes", unless I can sand it smooth.

Also, thought I needed new blocks but upon reviewing the Bandsaw book looks like Bird is saying the blocks can be used until you can't hold 'em w/ the set screws any longer. Just need to square them up... what is the best technique for doing so?

I've tried running block along a flat file on the workbench, but seems like the edges don't get done evenly this way--must get skewed by the motion of my arm or uneven finger pressure no matter how careful I try. I can get it pretty flat... maybe 1/32 on two sides don't end up w/ the same shine that the rest of the face gets from the file. How precise is required?

Squaring up the blocks:

I would use my benchtop disk sander with the table set at 90°
I would grab the block with a pair of small (4" or 6" or so) wooden handscrew clamps, with the clamps flat on a table and the block on the table between parallaled jaws, and 1/4" or so sticking out from the jaws.

Lay the handscrew clamp/block on the sander table and feed squarely into the spinning disk. The handscrew clamps should be easy to hold flat against the table and square to the disk. Square up both ends so if it gets worn you can just swap ends and not have to go thru squaring again.


disc sander:
http://209.235.210.201/phpThumb/phpT...pg&w=250&q=100

[davidtu]

Thanks guys, sounds like the sander is the way to go, not a file! Tho... to be clear, I don't (yet) have Cool Blocks... I have the steel blocks... I'll try to use the sander on them, but I'll probably end up getting CBs anyway... the steel ones are sort of short and seem a lot harder to square up.

Well, sounds like I need new tires.

Thanks!