Bandsaw improvement

by Mike Schwing

A recent question reminded me that I wanted to share with you a little tweak I made that resulted in quite a performance improvement in my ability to cut large round blanks on my bandsaw.

This past weekend I was rounding a whole lot of blanks (40 maybe), anywhere from 8-18" wide and 2-5" thick. About half way through I had a sudden thought about that little tool I've seen a couple of times for rounding the back side of the bandsaw blade for increased tracking performance. Sounded a bit hokey but I thought I could accomplish the same thing quickly using the dressing stone for my Tormek that I never use.

So I tried it. Just knocked off the back corners of the blade so they met at the rear and created a round surface of sorts. It worked! It really did make a huge improvement in the ability of the blade to track exactly where I wanted it to go. I was as surprised as anyone, but darned if it didn't immediately improve the saw's performance.

I don't do much else on my saw other than cut round blanks, and this is a simple, easy, and cheap (free) enhancement. Give it a try.