My Band Saws are trying to kill me: Shop Tool Rant

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 10/21/2014 at 17:13 • Filed to: Rants

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I actually am a shop teacher. For the last several years I've taught wood working, sheet metal working, and CAD. I work at a pretty good district, one that adequately funds my program. As such, I have three band saws in my shop, including one brand new one. To make this vaguely car related, here's a picture of a cab over van that is MUCH cooler than the one that actually delivered the new band saw last week.

The first one is a really old, really nice Delta-Rockwell. I've never been able to use it, because when I started working at this school, it would vibrate like crazy when it was switched on. Everybody I consulted with thought it needed new tires on the saw blade wheels.

It wasn't a priority though, because I had a much newer, although much crappier, Delta band saw that worked just fine. Until a few weeks ago, when it decided it had enough of being a band saw, it wanted to be recycled into a Hyundai or something. It started spitting blades off instantly, no matter what I did.

No matter, because I had just ordered a NEW band saw. A beautiful, fully optioned Powermatic, that would be here any day. Of course, a couple of days turned into a couple weeks, but I finally got it last week. I carefully unpacked everything, and inventoried all the parts. Oh how I love new tool day! Then I noticed the motor plate was seriously tweaked.

I consulted the manual, hoping, "Maybe it's supposed to be that way?" No, of course not. A quick call to Powermatic, and a replacement is on the way, but now here it sits :|

Then I got thinking, maybe I can use some parts from the new, crappy Delta, to fix the nice old Delta-Rockwell. They are the same size after all. When I finally started digging into the old one, I was taken by just how badly it vibrates. It still did it without any blade on, so I just couldn't see how bad tires could be the cause. The bearings all rolled nice and smoothly, and didn't have any slop on them. Out of sheer desperation to figure out WTF was going on, I finally took the drive belt off. All of the sudden, it all made sense.

At some point in this tools life, it must have made one helacious noise, as huge chunks of the motor's drive pulley went flying off. How that went unnoticed by the person I replaced, I'll never understand.

I hope I don't come off here as whiny. I'm just sick of working on band saws. Hopefully, before too long, I'll have TWO working saws, instead of zero.

PS9 > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:18

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Well either way, something definitely has to change. An undeniable dilemma.

Alfalfa > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:18

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You know you're not a real shop teacher until you're missing part of a finger, right?

Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:21

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Thanks for sharing. I was a TA at my high school's shop my senior year. What would the delta be if you bought a grizzly instead? I'm just asking because I was fortunate enough to be able to use their machines.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:22

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That is a sweet FC-17(?)0 van. Somebody did a nice job making it into a 'Merica version of the UAZ van.

Shop bandsaws are the worst - I had one to work on/with for a semester as a lab assistant/helper at Georgia Tech's "Invention Studio", and it started the semester with a pretty crummy blade on it that kept jumping.

Nibby > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:25

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I worked as a shop monitor for a couple years in undergrad. NYU has a woodshop and I loved working there to make sculptures and furniture.

I didn't mind the occasional cleaning of the table saw or WD40-ing the gears and such. But replacing the fucking bandsaw blades cause students (I'm guilty of this too) breaking them... I got tired of that real quickly.

mcseanerson > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:38

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I want to take the time to say God bless you for the work you do. Your profession is probably one of the greatest endangered species in public schools and we have so many people who have no idea how to work on anything or fix anything.

I tried taking shop in middle school but it didn't fit me very well because I don't have the right temperament for it, especially with my schools budget. We were building hurricane lanterns and we had to cut a hold in the top piece using a drill press and we had a limited amount of clamps and you could never get enough time with a clamp and the right machine to do what you want. So I just went over to a drill press and held it there with my hands and nicked my finger a couple times with one of these bits.

I got ratted out by the kid who got freaked out behind me and pretty much banned from using any tools for the rest of the quarter. Luckily I got a construction job and the private sector is a lot better at giving you tools to get the job done and I learned to be slow and deliberate and have taught myself to work on cars. Still a lot to learn though.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 17:39

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Shop teacher, e? Is having only 9 fingers still standard for that profession? (You think I'm joking, but I'm not)

Sweet Trav > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 18:03

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Just wanted to say I appreciate what you do educating young people how to build, create, and "get their hands dirty"

BaconSandwich is tasty. > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 18:32

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Funny you mention band saws. A little while back I was having some issues with my little 10" Rikon band saw. It's been pretty good to me, but I probably push it a bit hard. (Prior to getting my scary-as-heck table saw, I was using it to rip pieces of 2x4, that sort of thing). A while back it snapped a blade, so I ordered a few replacements. It's a bit of an oddball size - 70.5" blades, which no one locally carries.

Anyway, I get the new blade on there, and the thing vibrates pretty bad. Bad enough that I'm worried about snapping another blade. I ended up taking the blade off and giving everything a really thorough cleaning with a toothbrush to get rid of any stuck-on sawdust. While I was at it, I also replaced the guide bearings. It's been better since then, but still isn't perfectly smooth.

Any ideas?

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 18:58

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I love wood working. I took drafting/CAD insted. I made a pair of columns for the dining room, cabinets and matching does for the closet, and a cofferred ceiling. I inherited a jig scroll saw. It broke the first time I used it and couldn't exactly ask my grandfather what happened. Turned out I just needed to adjust the tension in the arm. My first project I made mounts for a hand rail and mickey mouse silicates for my girls. I've seen the shop class in this towns high school and DAMN. I work if an old site and sales in my back yard. I couldn't imagine what I could do with a decent facility.

I still have some painting to do

shop-teacher > mcseanerson 10/21/2014 at 20:32

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Thank you!

I would've kicked you out of the shop completely, if you did that in my class ... But I also would've had the clamps you needed to do the job right, so you wouldn't have done that :)

There's always lots to learn! I've still got plenty of things I don't yet know how to do.

shop-teacher > Nibby 10/21/2014 at 20:35

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I also worked at a shop monitor when I was in architecture school at U of I. I did a lot of stopping people from hurting themselves. Especially on the table saw. For some reason, people kept trying to feed stuff through it backwards.

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/21/2014 at 20:36

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Those look great!

shop-teacher > Sweet Trav 10/21/2014 at 20:37

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Thank you! I truly enjoy my job ... most of the time :)

shop-teacher > Alfalfa 10/21/2014 at 20:38

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Still got all ten! My high school shop teacher did too, when I had them. He's down to 9-1/3 now.

Nibby > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 20:40

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oh man

People do the dumbest shit on the table saw indeed! Thankfully my school has a SawStop. I actually did see it happen once, just a small cut instead of a lost finger.

shop-teacher > Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 10/21/2014 at 20:46

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This would be the closest Grizzly to the old Delta-Rockwell, and the new Powermatic saws I've got. I could have gotten a bigger Grizzly, for what I paid for the 14" Powermatic, but I don't really need the size. I'd rather have the higher quality of a Powermatic, and be able to make it last the rest of my teacher career, and then some. Plus, I've already got a crap load of blades in the correct size for a 14" saw.

shop-teacher > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. 10/21/2014 at 20:53

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I've got all ten still. My old high school shop teacher had ten at the time, but is now down to 9-1/3.

shop-teacher > PS9 10/21/2014 at 20:53

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I'll get through it. Just feels like a dog-pile at this point.

shop-teacher > Nibby 10/21/2014 at 20:56

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We've got a SawStop too. I LOVE that thing! I need to buy one for home use too.

shop-teacher > Nibby 10/21/2014 at 20:58

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We've got a SawStop too. I LOVE that thing! I need to buy one for home use too.

shop-teacher > BaconSandwich is tasty. 10/21/2014 at 20:59

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Well, if you were pushing it that hard, you may have worn out the tires on the saw blade wheels. That's what everybody I asked thought was wrong with my old Delta-Rockwell.

Nibby > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 21:01

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My only problem is that I can't chop up the dead ho-, er, uh, it seems to jam things easily.

shop-teacher > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/21/2014 at 21:01

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College shops are particularly the worst. Nobody takes care of anything, there's zero accountability. I worked as a shop monitor in college too. It was very frustrating.

shop-teacher > Nibby 10/21/2014 at 21:02

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You know there's a bypass mode, right ;)

Nibby > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 21:05

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Yeah I know. I just wanted to make a joke about cutting up dead hookers.

You're familiar with the hot dog video, no?

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 21:06

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i built the whole thing in sketchup first so I could get a good idea for how to put it together. I did the same thing for when I built the mudroom so I could resolve any framing issues before cutting a single piece of wood. I dont know what your lessons are about but that would be an awesome project for the kids - have them build something in sketchup and then build it for real.

shop-teacher > Nibby 10/21/2014 at 21:31

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I enjoyed the joke :)

I've actually seen the hot dog demonstration in person. It was pretty freaking cool.

Have you ever seen the super slow motion video of the inventor putting his finger into it? If not, go to you tube and search "Time Warp Saw Stop". Its amazing!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 21:40

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The tires don't look bad at all - at least there's no visible damage of any sort.

Nibby > shop-teacher 10/21/2014 at 21:57

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Yeah, I have! I think I made a GIF of it a while ago, will have to dig for it at some point.

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/21/2014 at 22:17

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They draw their projects in AutoCAD before they build them.

shop-teacher > BaconSandwich is tasty. 10/21/2014 at 22:36

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Check if the top wheel is still in alignment with the bottom. Sometimes when you change the blade, the angle gets a bit out of whack. It should be adjustable with a screw and wing nut on the back.

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/22/2014 at 08:03

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what kind of stuff do you have them building

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/22/2014 at 09:12

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My 6th graders build balsa wood bridges, my 7th graders build small tool boxes, and my 8th graders build clocks. We also got a couple 3D printers last year, that we're still working into the curriculum. It's mostly used for extra credit stuff right now, except for the 8th graders, who make small "prototypes" of their clocks. I only get the 6th and 7th graders for 6 weeks, and the 8th graders for 9 weeks, so I crank through about 500 students a year. I get every single kid in the school.

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/22/2014 at 09:37

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damn thats alot. i wish i had 3-d printers and all that back then. I think it was 10th when I got into CAD. We barely even had a laser cutter in college (i graduated college in HS03 and college in 08)

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/22/2014 at 11:21

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Heh, I forgot about the laser, we've got one of those too :)

I'm five years older than you, so we didn't have any of that in high school or college. My first two years of high school, we were still mostly hand drafting. Although we had a few seats of AutoCAD 10, which was already old at the time. It didn't even have keyboard shortcuts. If you wanted a line from an endpoint. You typed in "line" then you typed in "endpoint".

Crap, I just told a "back in my day" story. I'm gettin' old!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > shop-teacher 10/22/2014 at 13:49

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I'll have to check that out next time I get the chance.