Audible bandsaw tension gauge

[cgallery]

So I took what I learned in that poll of plucked bandsaw blades (over at SMC) and I created a web site where I allow the user to take a few measurements of their blade and saw, and determine the optimum frequency of their plucked blade based upon their desired tension.

You can use a $13 chromatic tuner (like this one) to check your bandsaw's blade and see how close you are.

It should be pretty darn accurate. Probably more accurate than any clamp-on gauge.

If you're interested in taking a look, the page is here:

http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/tg.htm

Let me know what you think.

[LCHIEN]

phil, its sounds like a good idea to me. It appeals to my technical engineering side.
I once made a tuner program and metronome program in BASIC and its quite easy to produce any frequency in hz from a PC speaker... an old PC could do the tuning job but the chromatic tuner is brilliant. This of course presume that people know how to tune what basically amounts to a string instrument but I used to play the violin.

if you want me to check your formulas send me a PM and I'll give you my e-mail to send them to.

[cgallery]

if you want me to check your formulas send me a PM and I'll give you my e-mail to send them to.

Okay, I'll do that in a couple of days. I'm hoping to write a little Java script that will allow me to play the note on the web page. I've never done this before and now realize I have to get the attack and decay right, and I have to cover the harmonics, too.

Once I get that I'll send you what I've got so you can review both the math and the audible output (seeing as you played the violin you should be able to help on both fronts).

[final_t]

Provided that you and the other person have the exact same blade, or at the very *least* made from the exact same blend of metals, then this might work. But that is discounting the tire material which would act as a damper, etc. In other words, I doubt this will work as expected.
I would think a professional piano tuner or classical guitar player might have more to say about this.

[cgallery]

Provided that you and the other person have the exact same blade, or at the very *least* made from the exact same blend of metals, then this might work. But that is discounting the tire material which would act as a damper, etc. In other words, I doubt this will work as expected.
I would think a professional piano tuner or classical guitar player might have more to say about this.

Hmmm. You're testing my memory. But back high school physics we did a lab where we couldn't detect the differences between different types of steel similarly tensioned provided the gauge was the same (we used stainless and something else). If there was a difference, we didn't have the gear to find it.

Same thing goes for the rubber tires, I don't think you can achieve significant damping with a 1/16" thick piece of rubber at the termination points of the string. And even if you did, it won't change the fundamental frequency, will it? I'm pretty sure it won't.

Next time you look at loudspeaker transducer technology, you will notice that they use paper, plastic, aluminum, and even Kevlar for cone materials. They use rubber, cloth, paper, and foam for surrounds. Yet, all these transducers sound largely alike. The differences are extremely subtle.

The bandsaw blade should work much the same way.

[LCHIEN]

Provided that you and the other person have the exact same blade, or at the very *least* made from the exact same blend of metals, then this might work. But that is discounting the tire material which would act as a damper, etc. In other words, I doubt this will work as expected.
I would think a professional piano tuner or classical guitar player might have more to say about this.

The vibrational resonance depends on (without me looking this up, from memory) the density of the material (which is directly proportional to the speed of sound in that material), the span (length) and the crosssection area.

One steel to another is not going to have a significant change in density, not more than a couple of percent, I'd guess a lot less especially since the different kinds of steel used for bandsaws has the more or less the same properties from one to the other. The alloying additives to steel that gives different properties is only a few percent by weight in this case so the density would be very close for all steels.

A bandsaw blade when tensioned has a distinct tone so I imagine the tangent points of the two wheels is a very good nodal point for the span of the vibrating "string".
I think its a great idea.
I think the hardest thing in his calculations is how to treat the extra teeth hanging off the side. I guess he's taking the gullet to the backside as the width of the blade.

[wardprobst]

Phil,
I'll try to help with this as I can. I'm a Registered Piano Technician and have some knowledge of strings and damping
DP

[cgallery]

Okay, I've updated the page to add approx. 40 MIDI files. Once you've computed the frequency I think your blade should produce, you can look in the table and find a very close sample of what your blade should sound like, if I'm correct.