A grand tour of various bandsaws and their features. Iturra Design, Louis Iturra KALLL@comcast.net 904-642-2802 • Work 4636 Fulton Road, Jacksonville, Fl 32225-1332 If you talk to him, ask for a catalog. It's incredibly useful.
I spent twelve years at a boat manufacturer, the primary bandsaw was an older Delta, probably just after the change from Rockwell. 14 inch with a custom six inch riser, and a custom steel reinforced plate over the backside for rigidity. Carter ball bearing guides, and a three horsepower Baldor motor…… one would think that it was a Cadillac until driving it. But the bearings were sloppy and in bad need of replacing . A couple of hours cleaning up and fresh guides later it became a McClaren! Sawed thousands of feet weekly for years and it never whimpered. The old stuff was built heavily for that stiffness and it showed up in the cut. First time I’ve seen that your shop was windows 😂. Great video Ken
We're just fine tuning the VFD, what a process! Good thing I have Ryan's able help, I'd never be able to figure it out. Soon, I'll have a blade on the cougar, and that'll be a happy day. I call her "Mrs. Tannewitz"
As always this series is so awe-inspiring in its content with your years of experience. Again I say it: "You're a Legend Ken" . Cheers and Merry Christmas.
Good to see you in your element Ken. Been a long time since my visit at your Boston home. And the old Parker Factory. Your Carbon pal from the Old CA Guitars.
Really love this series. I've learned so much with your practical approach. Your neck innovation is slick. I've made several carbon fiber guitars and the necks are very rigid. This is really a great series.
As always thank you for your videos! But I gotta say, my life is flashing before my eyes thinking about un-folding that 1 3/8" re-saw blade. The carnage that could ensue scares the crap out of me! ;-) Also, 7hp!!! She's a beast. Looking forward to seeing her run.
I remember this well! In the summers of 1968-'69 I fitted lots of blades on the row of four machines just like this one while I was running a crew on the 2nd shift. They came double coiled ( two times the usual triple style, making six very tightly wound coils!!) because they are so long, 22 feet! We used 1 3/8" wide in production, and uncoiling was a real handful. I wore heavy leather gloves, and still needed band-aids sometimes.
I'm in the process of building my first lute and it's hard to describe how helpful, informative and inspiring your videos are. Still making my way through the backlog, taking notes, and wishing I continued the instrument building path in my 20's. Are you planning a bandsaw setup video? Really interested in how you set your guide blocks/bearings to the right distance and thoughts on that tension guage. Thanks again!
I believe that a motor shop could easily remove the option to use low voltage (I worked in a rewind shop for a little while), but it is a shame because you also loose torque with high voltage wiring. A new motor of the same specs can still be bought though if desired. Frames have changed a bit since then but just know you have a 10 pole, 7.5 hp motor (likely a modern 284T frame). WEG is a good brand for replacement motors.
Let's hope we don't need a replacement! Thanks for the info, this motor turns at 690 RPM, which is a new one on me. At 42" wheel diameter this makes about 7500 Surface Feet / Minute, or damn fast for a bandsaw.
I first saw those little pyramid shaped riser blocks in Mr Hams shop, i thought it was genius and this has reminded me to make my own. I really like that little auxiliary table too, it looks perfect for sides and linings, or whatever else. PS, Is that white tube a piece of Delrin? Anyways thanks as always and happy holidays.
Jim was about as thrilled as a guy can get when I showed him this, like an 8 year old on Christmas AM! Of course, he went home and made fancy ones that put mine to shame. The 2" rod is some kind of Nylon rod I found surplus somewhere so I can't remember exactly which type it is, if I ever knew, but good stuff, and stiffer than Delrin. Merry, Happy to you, Sam!
Omg you have a RU-vid channel! I have a nite fly my favorite guitar ever iv had for 16 years but something went wrong about 10 years ago iv sent it to 5 techs that cant fix and keep butchering it can i send it to you lol your a guitar hero!
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 it started making a crackling sound so i took it in to my local guitar shop they couldnt figure it out which lead to taking it to 4-5 other shops who rewired it and god knows what else its Frankenstein's monster at this point . I live in canada is there anyone I can send it to, I thought of doing it myself but I think id have better luck building a rocket ship thanks the reply!
Just curious if you have any tips on setting up a rip fence to account for the apparently natural tendency of a bandsaw to not cut at a 90 degree angle. I have a Rigid bandsaw I bought new about 25 years ago, nothing special but has the extension to make it 105 1/2 blade length. I made a resaw jig out of melamine and can resaw figured maple to 1/16 thickness no problem. For that cut somebody told me that the two key factors are to get the blade running exactly on the top of the wheel and set the tension so that the blade make a musical note when plucked. But for normal cuts to get a uniform output thickness you cannot feed the workpiece in at 90 degrees because the blade drifts. It would be great if you have time to make a video that addresses rip cuts and fence alignment on a bandsaw. Thank you.
hey, so before using my expensive quartersawn bookmatched spruce wood that I got, I decided for obvious reason to make a ''dummy'' top, of glued together small pieces of quartersawn cedar. Now, this stuff is only 22mm thick (rough). so I won't have the thickness required to make a full arch, right. So what I was thinking is to actually thicken the panel, by gluein another wood around the outline of the guitar, only at the outline of the guitar, by like 5mm, reasoning is that the material around this area should remain thick, like 7mm anyway, and therefore the vibration isn't a lot happening at the outline of the guitar soundboard, rather at the thinner middle of it. Or is this a big nonono? As I'm using ''dummy'' testing pieces for all operation I was thinking on trying to still get a somewhat decent guitar out of these dummy operations, lets say, because I'm doing a lot of this for the first time.
omg I just epoxied an oak panel, and man that stuff became HOT. Probably my room temperature is too hot here? (66,2F)it was like half a cup, is that a lot? It cured too fast, I had to scrape it off with a block of wood. I hope I can get it decent tomorrow with some fine sandpaper :/ well lesson learned (a bit) I guess. Good thing is that an Oven will be placed onto this panel so it won't be very much in sight anyway hah. it's the west system stuff, right. same as yours
I never mix that much, and if I did, i would get it mixed quickly, and then get it spread it out into a thin coat on the work right away. Epoxies are exothermic, and so make heat as they advance toward cure. This happens quickly, and accelerates quickly when there's a big cup of it like you had. If you do need to mix large batches, use the slow hardener, but more importantly, read up on how to use these products. The WEST system folks have all kinds of guides and free publications to help you avoid problems like you had. It's worth it to get yourself up to speed so you can use this wonderful adhesive and coating material without rude surprises. www.westsystem.com/ Good luck!
I think I was in a bit of luck, my surface luckily was really flat so the scraping with the block has turned out ok. Thanks for the reply@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440
Hey Ken. We met at Woodstock 2 years ago. What's your go to band saw blade for ebony and the like? I've tried the Woodslicer and it dies stupid fast with ebony or rosewood etc...
Great question. Most folks just open the wallet and get carbide tipped blades for these extra hard materials. Otherwise, Suffolk Machinery has some nice steel blades from Sweden, I believe, that give good service.
yes, so I'm considering buying a bandsaw. looking to spend max 700 bucks on it. But I might also just spend 400. It's about the wheels for me, you got like a cheap, but still same motor power, for 300, but it has aluminium wheels, which don't really seem great to me. Then you got the 450, which says to have ''heavy aluminium'' wheels. then you got the 700 which has cast steel wheels. I feel like I should go midway. it has 127mm sawing capability, cast iron bed, it's just 7kg heavier then the 300 bucks saw, so I feel that tells something about build quality. What do you think, is the cast steel wheels a reason to go with it even though it's quite the investment? like what I fear is that aluminium wheels will erode fast, and become inaccurate over time
My advice is to buy an old Delta 14" saw. You can tell the old ones easily, as the vertical shaft that holds and adjusts the upper guide is hexagonal, whereas later on they cheaped-out and used a round rod with a milled groove in it. Once you know what this is, you can easily see it in even the poorest image you might be offered in FB Marketplace or wherever. It turns out that men of a certain age are fond of finding these for short $ in forlorn condition, and bringing them back to spec including a nice coat of gray paint and fresh decals. Find one of these and you'll be very happy.
I have used rift and vertical grain material, but never flat sawn, as it tends to move around so much. There are quite a number of violins from the early period that have flat sawn backs, so there is good precedent for using it, but the guitar is so much wider that there is more risk of cracking or joint separation with humidity changes.
I have been looking for an excuse to waste an afternoon dong the research into the missing guides, and making this thing work as a power file since I got the saw in 1985. Got any good project you can suggest? You're welcome to do the research for me! Find someone on a forum to take photos of the missing stuff, whatever it is, and I promise I'll file something cool for you! Thanks in advance!
Incredible content as always, even for us non instrument workers. Where would I find a contact for Mr Iturra? My Google search only yielded some decade old phone numbers. -nevermind... I read the description immediately after posting this. Thanks for the info
