The right tool.. sure can slow things down sometimes

Ryan Mooney

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
8,103
Location
The Gorge Area, Oregon
So got up bright if not especially early today to get back into the pile of gum I've been whittling down into bowls and went out to fire up the bandsaw to trim up some edges on one prior to putting it on the lathe.. and .. nothing. Dang! So busted out the multimeter and started tracing from the wall back through the starter and everything looked just peachy. Until I got to the foot switch.. :doh: If I hadn't had a multimeter (or maybe if I'd had my weekly coffee) I'd have cleaned that out first.. but nooo... :stupid:

Anyway blew that clean, re-assembled everything I'd disassembled and we're off to the races.

Sometimes having the right tool for the wrong job really slows things down.
 
So got up bright if not especially early today...

Sounds more like you got up early if not especially bright, to me. :rofl: Glad you got it sussed out. :thumb:

Out of curiosity, why have a footswitch on a bandsaw? Of all the tools in the shop, it seems the one least likely to have a catastrophic problem if you were to let go of the workpiece to hit the switch in an emergency.
 
Out of curiosity, why have a footswitch on a bandsaw? Of all the tools in the shop, it seems the one least likely to have a catastrophic problem if you were to let go of the workpiece to hit the switch in an emergency.

Imho its actually pretty handy if you're roughing out things larger than you should probably be roughing out on your bandsaw. Which I frequently do.. :rolleyes: If I start getting into a situation where it looks like the blade will bind (green or reaction wood closing up on me) or things look like they aren't going to go well for some other reason (can't hold on through the cut properly due to lack of appropriate planning - which we have just amply demonstrated that is a problem here...) you don't have to let go of the workpiece in order to stop things, you can just stomp on the blade brake and work things out at your leisure. I'm not a huge fan of backing out of a cut with the blade running on the bandsaw if the cut is very deep because its fairly easy to catch the back of the blade and have it come off of the tire. That probably won't cause to much damage but it might at least nick up your tires.

For less folks who are smarter about how they work; the advantage is that the bandsaw blade will continue running for many minutes after the motor is off, especially with a larger cast iron wheel saw and its not real easy to see that it IS running. Now I'm certainly not advocating you stick your arm or a piece of wood into a stopped blade either but you'd have to agree that if it did accidentally happen it would be a lot less calamitous than it would be if the blade was still free wheeling. For similar reasons I make sure that my lathe has stopped spinning before I turn my back on it and my table saw has a blade brake that kicks in when you turn it off which is also a great feature.
 
OK. How did we get from a switch in the power line to blade brakes? What are you using for blade brakes?

My Grizzly BS runs smooth as silk. It also coasts for a week after I turn it off, so having a blade brake would be a nice addition.
My TS coasts for a bit, however not long enough to make me impatient.
My lathe does not coast long enough to even think about.

Do your blade brakes heat the blades enough to distort the metal?
How long does the BS coast after the power is cut?

Thanks in advance for the info.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
Jim the brake on my bs works on the lower wheel not on the blade so no heat problems. It's a pretty simple friction brake that just rubs on the wheel. It also has a momentary switch that just interrupts the magnetic switch (which is what has a smidge of dust or something in it preventing the saw from starting up). I have the 17" grizzly and it costs for maybe 5m+- not sure I haven't actually timed it. I know some of the really big ones can coast for over 10m.

The ts brake is a motor brake and you can hear the solenoid hum for a few seconds after it shuts off.

Both where built in from the factory.
 
Getting back to your topic, it was drilled into me to use the right tool for the job. :) Thats why i have so many tools and love each and everyone.
But.....it dont mean i always use the right tool lol.

The same way that soccer guy has a animal instinct that came out in the world cup game against Italy, i have that caveman instinct in me to use a club (hammer) when i actually should know better by now. Lol. Case in point was my recent attempt at fixing reeves drive on drill press that resulted in a new non planned drill press. It was not just the hammer it was the force of the blow.

Glad u found the issue. Btdt got many t shirs for same kind of event. Its worse when wife is involved and she simply tries the most obvious fix. :)

I would like footswitches on many machines but would like them robust and built into the stand. Kinda like the sewing machine type. But can also see where that would affect stance at machine and cause other issues.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Getting back to your topic, it was drilled into me to use the right tool for the job. :) Thats why i have so many tools and love each and everyone.
But.....it dont mean i always use the right tool lol.

The same way that soccer guy has a animal instinct that came out in the world cup game against Italy, i have that caveman instinct in me to use a club (hammer) when i actually should know better by now. Lol. Case in point was my recent attempt at fixing reeves drive on drill press that resulted in a new non planned drill press. It was not just the hammer it was the force of the blow.

Glad u found the issue. Btdt got many t shirs for same kind of event. Its worse when wife is involved and she simply tries the most obvious fix. :)

I would like footswitches on many machines but would like them robust and built into the stand. Kinda like the sewing machine type. But can also see where that would affect stance at machine and cause other issues.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Rob,
I've always heard that the emergency repair procedure number one is -- "Get a bigger hammer".

On a side note to that, I watched my dad trying to put a cultivator unit on his tractor... it hooked on two pegs on the back of the tractor, then he connected the power take off... keep in mind Dad was not a patient man... he put one side on, lifted the other side and first side fell off... he put the side he had just lifted on and went around to put the other side back on... the other side fell off... he repeated this about 3 times, which was about his limit... grabbed his sledge and whacked the cultivator with it, walked away for a minute, then went back and set it in place no problem. He just needed a bigger hammer. :D:D
 
Chuck,

I'm familiar with the three point hookups, when they go on smooth its like a dream when they don't it can take 45m to hook them up - and no obvious difference in operation (and often its like your example - bash bang slam and then slip into position!). If it didn't know better I'd say they were semi-sentient annoyance devices.

It was not just the hammer it was the force of the blow.

Nominated for QOTD (Quote of the day)!
 
Top