Anyone own a Jet bandsaw? help please....

[T.Hoffman]

We have aquired an older Jet 280 bandsaw and have seen once or twice how to operate the blade welder, but not quite sure how to go about it without some guidance.

Anyone can give me some tips to save me some headaches and speed up the learning curve?

Like a general procedure I can follow? Using the welder and tension adjustments, the 'momemtary' function to temper the weld (is that right)?

Any help is greatly appreciated- I have no blade on it now and I need to use it!

Thanks in advance-

[halfnut]

Haven't ever ran a Jet, but have welded a few blades on a few different blade welders, come to think of it, I think all of them were Doalls. Probably not much difference with the Jet.

First prepare the blade stock, cut to lenth, cut on longer side of usable variance. Square up the ends, there is a trick to this, grab ahold of one end, hold it still, twist other end 1/2 turn, lay these together and grind. That way if you don't grind exactly at 90 degrees the fact that one is one way and one the other they match up and are straight when butted together. Another thing, don't grind too hard too fast, the ends of the stock will bend over if you do and give you problems, easy does it.

Clamp blade in machine, butt the ends together, shouldn't be any gaps, things should be in allignment and joint centered between jaws.

Select proper thickness on the welder knob, doalls just have narrow, wide marks. Don't know how this Jet is marked, you'll figure it out.

Shove the weld handle down, sparks fly, blade is joined, or so it should if you held your mouth right, if not regrind ends and try over, reason for being on the long side not short. Once you have shoved down the handle and blade is welded, continue to hld down this handle and reach with other hand and release clamp on one or the other sides. then let up on handle.

Loosen other clamp and slide blade out to the end for the anneal.

Push the anneal button and watch the heat colors, jog it when it starts to get towards red. Just a good red is enough for carbon steel blades, I myself jog several times keeping at this dull red for a while.

It's welded, now to dress it up and use. Don't get too carried away on the dressing up, just flush, should be a thickness gage on welder to check your progress. Don't forget back of blade, knock that little bit off.

Now put on saw and use. Welding blades not too hard to do, sometimes they will try to get the better of you, but you will persevere in the end.

Beware, High Speed blades take a different welder than the average blade welder, I am not sure exactly what the difference is.

Maybe someone will pop in here and tell us.

Good luck.

[toff]

Hi,
As above, but set the jaws apart! As i bemember that is done by setting the blade width before clamping the blade.They spring together when the weld is being made and "squish" the white hot ends together during the weld cycle. This leaves a bump around the blade to clean up as above. Use a stone on the back of the blade to assure that it has no bump or jog.(makes the blade last twice as long.)Have even run the back of the blade against a stone under power after mounting it in the saw. Use some scrap stock and practice! Only get the stock dull red with the anneal button, a couple of short shots seems best.
Luck
toff

[T.Hoffman]

Thanks for the info!

I'll give it a try tomorrow-

There is a "tension" adjustment that I believe is what toff is referring to. I seem to remember leaving a gap between the blades in the clamps and having the tension knob push them together during the weld. I'm just not sure where exactly to adjust the tension knob to, and how much space to leave between the blades.

I guess I'll practice for a while on the old blade before trying the new one.

Thanks again!

[halfnut]

T.

Looked at Doall welder, weld setting knob doesn't change open width, it changes the amount that they close.

We have a Dayton sitting on bench, not wired up, we haven't tried it yet, it's 240 volt, we have 480 everwhere, but not 240 close to where we want to keep welder. Doall bandsaw has a stepdown transformer on it, not big enough for this welder.

Was looking this Dayton over, it has a tension dial which moves blade holders, and a button. I think one would want to butt the ends together, not gap them. I think this is what I would do.

How big of blade is your welder supposed to be able to weld. If it is 1/2 cap. and blade is 1/2 I would set at max, if blade is 1/4 I would first try the dial about halfway.

I'm going to have to learn how to use this welder, might get my Rockwell vertical saw going sometime and need to weld up a wide blade. A 1.00 wide blade would work really well for sawing up chunks of hedge for knife handles.