I recently bought a new bandsaw in the form of a Record Power BS250, a fairly small 10" table top machine, to complement my old Proxxon micro bandsaw. The latter will still be very much used, as it is perfect for cutting really small and/or thin stock; however, one very quickly hits its limitations in the form of cutting height and throat depth. Also, the Proxxon cannot take blades wider than 5 mm or so.

After some fairly extensive research, my primary reason for choosing the BS250 was that it came across as one that would give a fair amount of bang for a fairly limited buck. It is not that I could not have afforded a somewhat more expensive machine, but my tool wish list is much, much longer than my pockets are deep, so in order to continue saving up for further aquisitions later on, I decided to go for a more modest option that will sufficiently well meet my immediate bandsaw needs for my projects over the next few years, until I can hopefully get the one that I really want: **LINK**

Anyway, after getting some top notch after market blades from Tuff Saws in Wales, and generally setting up, running in and getting to know the machine, I am happy to report that it fully lives up to my expectations. That is to say that it is not perfection on a plate, but that it does what it said in the manufacturers description that it would do, does it well enough and, in my view, is of better than average quality and precision for a PRC-built bandsaw in the price range in question (UK list price is £269.99; I got it from a German dealer for +/- £255).

So much for background. Now to my question. One of the uses to which I intend to put the machine is to resaw not-too-large wooden stock. To this end, I wish to put together a cradle to run with the mitre fence groove (on the right-hand side of the saw table in the photo above) as a guide, so that the initial cuts can be made in a piece of rough stock to establish the necessary datum surfaces against which subsequent cuts can be squared off using the parallel fence.

This is where the 10 thou come in. One of the few things that came with the machine that clearly is not up to snuff is the mitre fence: it is very cheaply made, but as they say in one of my favourite cartoons: "What do you want for 10 cents? Gasoline?"

I knew beforehand from various reviews that this was a weak point, and it doesn't really matter. What in particular makes this mitre fence pretty useless is that there is too much play between the fence guide and the walls of the groove. The fence guide is made from aluminium, and while not of perfectly even dimensions, in most places it is from 15.86 to 15.88 mm wide, i.e. close enough to the 15.875 mm that equals 5/8" for me to conclude that it is made from what is meant to be a piece of 5/8" alu stock.

As already mentioned, the groove, however, is that much wider that there is sufficient play for the mitre fence to not necessarily run true. I've checked the difference in as many ways as I've been able to, visually …

… with a feeler gauge …

… and with the slide calliper …

… and have found that within a tolerance of one or two thousandths of an inch, the groove is 0.635" wide, i.e approximatly 16.129 mm. This makes the difference with the mitre guide pretty much exactly 10 thousandths of an inch, or approximately 0.25 of a mm.

This difference may not sound like much, but the amount of play between the mitre fence and the groove is really quite noticeable.

My question is thus: does anyone hear know of a good source for non-standard metal stock? I would like to get my hand on, say, two feet or so of (preferably steel) flat metal, about 3/16" thick and 0.630" wide. Given that 0.630" is within a gnats whisker of 16 mm, I might have more luck looking in Germany, but I thought it worth asking the question here, too. My ususal source of metal stock, Macc Models, carries ground gauge plates, but has nothing in the measurements I'm looking for. I could easily get 5/8" wide mild steel from them, but as already suggested I then fear there would be too much play.

Any advice or suggestion would be warmly welcomed

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 04/01/2018 12:05:33

Edited By Banjoman on 04/01/2018 12:07:15

Dave,

Thank you very much indeed! They do for instance carry mild steel flats in 16×5 mm, which I think is a close as I'm going to get to 16.129 without ordering a piece ground to measure. It is in lengths of 2 or 4 metres only, though, and at least from an initial look, it seems that they only deliver within the UK.

I'll have a better look later today, though; sometimes, it might be worth one's while to send them an e-mail and see if they are willing to do the odd delivery abroad …

Mattias

Warmest thanks to all for your very kind and helpful replies!

Ray,

A veryical milling machine is already on the shopping list, but quite a bit down, I'm afraid, so will not be a solution in the short or even short medium term, I'm afraid.

Dave M,

Guilty as as charged, and happy to be

And yes: finding someone fairly local to grind a bit of scrap metal might indeed be an answer!

Tom,

Should I take it that you think that 0.002 mm side play would be sufficient? Two thousandths of a millimeter? I rather doubt that the slot is precision milled to such a tolerance … In any case, I'm sorry if my original posting was lomg and convoluted enough to be a bit confusing: the slot is on average 0.635"/16.129 mm wide, but there are spots that at least my calliper measures to be 0.634"/, 0.636" or 0.637" wide (in mm a span from 16.1036 to 16.1798), i.e. a variation of 0.003"/0,0762 mm. I have not measured along every mm of the slot either, so there might be spots that are even more out.

This is why I thought that I should be looking for a slightly undersize piece of 16 mm – just a gnats whisker under 0.630" – as 16 mm is a width that is commercially produced. Such a guide would have a play of about 0.004"/0.1 mm, which I suspect would be necessary unless it were to be precision ground (and probably the slot re-ground) to very high tolerances.

Cookie Dave,

Again, apologies if my post was a bit too convoluted. My primary concern here is not to sort out the miter gauge (although this is something I will also wish to do at some stage), but to build a cradle for making an initial datum surface cut in uneven wood.

If you take a look at this video (in German, I'm afraid, with an Austrian accent to boot, but the images speak for themselves), from around 4:30 onwards, you'll see what it is that I have in mind (albeit at a smaller scale to fit my smaller saw): **LINK**.

My warmest thanks, though, for your very kind offer of shim strip to sort out the existing miter fence guide! I don't think it would be worth the effort, though, as the aluminium flat is so uneven (it varies in width between 15.86 and 15.96 mm) as to make this a very tricky proposition. I think the simpler solution would be to get some more of whatever material I manage to find for the cradle, and use this to make up a new miter fence, either reusing the existing cross piece in plastic, or making a new one out of some convenient material. As I do not for a second trust the gradations on the existing cross piece, I would in any case have to check the angle with some kind of measuring device every time, so a cross piece without gradations would not make much of a difference.

Again, my very very kindest thanks to you all, and I'll be sure to eventually report on how I got on!

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 05/01/2018 07:08:19

Tom,

Many thanks for that link! Yes, I had been thinking about some sort of set-up using the parallel fence rather than the mitre fence slot as guide, but given the smaller size of my bandsaw, I'd say it is a less interesting option. Although it is a 10" saw, i.e. with a throat clearance of around 250 mm, with the parallel fence in its left-most position, there's only 110 mm free space between fence and blade, a fair portion of which would be eaten up by the cradle arrangement.

While I'm not planning to resaw large logs, I thnk it makes much more sense with a set-up using the mitre fence slot, where space to the right of the table is unlimited.

In other words, I'll continue my hunt for a suitable piece of steel!

Mattias

David,

That is an interesting idea, and I will certainly keep it in mind as a potential plan B or C; the main complication that springs to mind would be how to fix it to the underside of the cradle in a stable and secure manner.

With a piece of steel (or other metal) flat, it is a simple matter of drilling three or four holes through it and screwing it to the cradle; with an adjustable piece, there would have to be a corresponding number of fastening points set in between the two side pieces that are strong enough to hold it securely, yet do not hinder the sideways movement required for adjusting the guide width. Not unsolvable (I can think of several ways of doing it) but certainly a complication …

Nevertheless, kindest thanks for the thought-provoking suggestion!

Mattias

Ron,

That is a very interesting and useful suggestion, promoted to Plan B sur le champ!

I actually put in an order with Mallard Metal Packs earlier today – both prices and p&p were reasonable enough – for two lengths of 6×16 mm bright mild steel flat, one a foot long, the other two feet.

I shall thus see how those bits of steel pan out, but if they're not up to snuff, I already have a couple of pieces of lovely, high-quality, arrow-straight beech in my workshop, left over from when I built a small table for our printer some years ago …

Thanks

Mattias

Rumration,

That is an interesting observation! For my part, I'm actually inclined to believe that the reason why they don't is precisely because it would increase their costs, not enormously, but too much.

Simpy put, I don't think that these machines are designed to meet a specification of quality. On the contrary, I'm fairly convinced that at this end of the market (i.e. not too expensive, and geared towards hobbyists), they will as a rule be designed to meet a price.

In other words, first comes a decision at what price the company will want to market the machine (both what the list price should be but also how often and how much they plan to have it on special offer, not to forget what price they intend to ask from retailers), then a decision on what should be included in that price (e.g. a mitre fence or some other accessory), and, once these things are sorted, finally a decision on what corners, if any, need to be cut or compromises to be made for there to be a profit margin at the desired price.

Of course, in the best of all possible worlds, corner cutting would not be necessary, but alas!, we don't live in such a world. And if corner's are to be cut, I'd rather they are on things that matter less or are easier to fix For instance, I can make a new mitre fence, but I would be more than hard pressed to sort out a wonky saw table. At the price asked for this particular bandsaw, I think that they have on the whole made good decisions about where to focus their efforts and quality requirements: the saw runs very smoothly and quietly; the blade guides, although a tad fiddly to adjust (as ball bearing guides will tend to be) are properly adjustable; the parallell fence can, with a bit of care, be set up to be acurately parallell to the blade; the table is cast iron, properly flat and sufficiently stable for the size of saw; during my running-in tests, I have managed to cut 1 mm thin veneer within a tolerance of +/- 0.25 mm.

That said, there are a couple of things that they could have done.

First of all, it would have been hugely preferable it the mitre fence slot had been made to a standard measure (Imperial or metric), which ought not to have cost them a penny more (with a variation in width of +/- 0.003", the slot as-is could be considered ground to a decent level of precision already).

Also, they could either have sold the mitre-fence (properly made) separately, or offered an up-grade version made to a higher level of specification. This, however, would of course amount to having to admit in their marketing material either that the saw at the basic price was not complete (if the mitre fence were offered separately), or that the mitre fence included in the basic price is no good, so I can sort of see why they might prefer not to.

As I quoted in my initial post, "What do you want for ten cents? Gasoline?"

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 11/01/2018 07:22:33

Edited By Banjoman on 11/01/2018 07:23:11

Edited By Banjoman on 11/01/2018 07:23:52

Edited By Banjoman on 11/01/2018 07:24:35

Edited By Banjoman on 11/01/2018 07:25:21

I just wanted to report that, happily, after some very minor lapping, one of the pieces of steel (the longest one in the photo below) that I ordered from Mallard Metals fits the mitre fence slot pretty much perfectly, so over the coming weeks I intend to use this one as a runner for making up a squaring-off cradle …

The piece in question is just under 6 mm thick, and has a width that varies between 15.93 and 16.02 mm in the spots where I've measured it.

After being given a thin application of Renaissance Wax, it slides very smoothly in the slot, with absolutely no play at all …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 17/03/2018 17:59:19