Bandsaw Fences: Which do you like?

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 19:38:47 -0600, the inscrutable Patriarch spake:

Jewelcome. Send my commission via check or Paypal, please.

As I understand it, you have a flat blade running on a set of rounded wheels and tires... the slight bend this produces causes drift... I've noticed that tracking, blade size and murphys law can change the drift... (if ya get my drift *groan* )

As I learned from Charlie's site, an easy method is to find a chunk of something with a known square edge, scribe a straight line down the middle of it, square to/with the good edge, and cut along the line until you're half way though the stock (or about 6 or 7").. hold on to the stock and turn off the saw..

You'll see that (usually) the square edge of the stock is not square with your miter slot or fence... scribe a line on the table along the square edge and set your fence to that line/angle..

Disclaimer: I've had a band saw for a few months and use it mostly for bowl blanks.. if you hurt yourself or ruin wood/saw blades using the above comments, feel free to sue for the same amount that you paid for the advice..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

You got it wrong. The reason the blade leads (or doesn't) is the blade, not the wheels on the saw, where improper centering of blade on crown, or moving crown can cause "surge" as it rotates.

Think of how far from those wheels you're cutting, and how little the blade needs to spring to compensate.

Now consider how a bit of imbalance in the set/sharpness/deburring, etc. of the teeth will cause greater drag on one side, right in the cut, where it counts.

That makes sense to me, George, but I figured that Charlie knew a lot more than I did.. BTW, I made my own version of his table and fence and it works great..