Bowed Cast Iron Bandsaw table.

[ERLover]

After reading all here, next week when at home, going to have to check out mine. Mom is is in Rest Bit, Care Givers vacation for 5 days, will check out mine and nephews, both CI tables.

[reible]

I went back out and looked again at my table and took a few more pictures. I have one area just ahead of the blade that I can see light at. That area is small and I tried to see if I could measure it. The finest feeler gauge I have is .0005" and it will not fit. So as a guess I would say maybe .0003", that is flat for a saw table.

Edit: [I miss read the feeler gauge, the thinnest one I have says .0015" not .0005. At any rate the feeler gauge of .0015" will not fit under the rule so it is something less then that number. I don't have a finer one to try. Keep in mind a piece of note book paper is on the order of .003" so this is clearly a very small deviance from flat.]

Any derivation in that direction isn't an issue in resawing, especially when it is as small as I'm seeing. The thing with resawing is the fence being perpendicular to the table and parallel to the blade. The control surface is the fence not the table for this operation. If you don't keep the wood against the fence it will not work well.

Anyway the question was ask if anyone had a flat bandsaw table and I will answer the yes I do. Is it perfect? No but plenty close enough.

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Ed

[putttn]

Once I pull my Jeep off my table I'll post some more pics of mine. Tough little bugger.

[putttn]

Well fellas the dish is still there so now I'm trying to decide whether to build my own table or just upgrade to the aluminum one. Any pros or cons of making my own vs the SS?

[reubenjames]

Resawed on the aluminum today. Worked like a dream. But building is more cost effective, though can be harder to get right. Hardest thing might be finding or making a fence that is easily and accurately adjustable for drift.

[putttn]

http://youtu.be/sgytcjbE708

This may work for me. I have a Incra 1000HD and maybe it would work well with all the other bits and pieces i have. If not, the SS aluminum table is always a good solution. My biggest hurdle is finding time to do all this.

[reubenjames]

My biggest hurdle is finding time to do all this.

I hear that.

[dusty]

Well fellas the dish is still there so now I'm trying to decide whether to build my own table or just upgrade to the aluminum one. Any pros or cons of making my own vs the SS?

Build your own table.

[gatheringsplinters]

Just a quick observation and thought...

I've been working at getting my bandsaw up and running. The first time I set it up the cast iron table was flat. I also checked to make sure that the left and right sides of the blade channel were even. I took the table off to make some adjustments to the rollers, put it back on and, when I went to use the same setup, the table wasn't flat... there was a significant difference between the left and right sides of the blade channel, about a millimeter.

I took the table off and checked for flatness while it's sitting on my workbench. I removed the clip and the large bolt on the bottom of the table so that the table was free to warp or not on its own. Once again the sides of the blade channel were even.

I'm thinking that some of the issue with the tables being bowed and whatnot might have to do with how they are mounted. Could the tables be slightly 'warped' while screwing them into the table supports?

I think that I had the clip that aligns the sides of the blade channel locked down when I first installed the table, which kept the table flat. I didn't do this the second time and I'm thinking that I warped the table when attaching it to the supports.

Thoughts?

[putttn]

Mine is dished whether on or off the table.