Delta 10" Band Saw

[Shopman2]

First time owner of a band saw. Need to know about setting the band tension.

[UtahAV]

Hi Shopman2,

Congrats on the new bandsaw! The bandsaw is a very versatile tool in the woodshop. You will find it to be more valuable every time you use it.

As far at tensioning your blades... You will find as many answers as there are bandsaw users! Here is my input from my experiences. First, when in doubt use the gauge on the saw's tensioner. You will get good results using it as your gauge. The first several years using a bandsaw in my shop I used the, "If a little is good, more must be better!" approach to tensioning my blades. My thought was that lots of tension would result in little blade deflection and perfectly straight cuts. To some extent I was right. However the problem was that I found it very difficult and frustrating to keep a blade properly tracked on the bandsaw tires. The excessive pressure would pull the blade to one side of the tire crown or the other. I could never keep the blade centered on the tire. After many years of adequate results but frustration with tracking I came across a line of blades called Timberwolf blades. They were a "low tension" blade. The instructions stated that to achieve proper tension you first install the blade, adjust the tracking, and tension to the setting on the saw's blade tensioner as a starting point. With the guide blocks adjusted out of the way and with the saw running you would then slowly remove the blade tension until the blade just starts to flutter side to side. Just when it starts to flutter you then tighten the tension until the fluttering stops. Then adjust the guide blocks to the blade as normal. I started using this procedure with all of my blades with very good results. The tracking is very much improved and I didn't notice much if any increase in blade deflection.

I hope this helps and have fun with the new bandsaw!

-UtahAV
-Mark