Do you use a pin on your Bandsaw

[Bill Huber]

If all goes well, I will be getting a bandsaw Monday and was wondering if anyone used one of these pins on their saw.

I can make templates from MDF and I think the pin would be really nice to use to cut the item out and then finish it up with the router. With the pin it looks like I could set it to very close so there would be little to remove with the router.


http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18055

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[Pete Bradley]

With practice, you'll quickly get to being able to follow a line so there's little to clean up. It is possible to do pattern following like this with a rounded bar clamped to the table so the end comes out just in front of the blade.

There are quite a few bandsaw accessories and "upgrades" on the market. My recommendation is to not buy any of them until you've got some experience with the machine. By spending less time fiddling, you'll have more time to develop top of the line skills and you'll also gain a knowledge of what you personally need to add if anything.

Congrats and good luck!

Pete

[John Hain]

I don't see a need for it, really.

If you're going to the router later, all you need to do is cut close to the line (or your attached template).

[Anthony Whitesell]

I attended a bandsaw demo at my local Woodcraft and the demonstrator showed us an awesome pattern following jig. Save your money on that thing. I tried to try it with no success, so you'll have to bear with my description.

First you'll need to pieces of scrap. The first piece is just thicker than the material you'll be cutting for your pieces and long enough to be attached to the bandsaw table. Attach the piece to the bandsaw table at a distance form the blade that will allow the cutoff scrap to pass between this piece and the blade. The second piece is the template guide, 1/4" thick would be good and 3-4 inches wide. You'll need it long enough to go over all the cutoff scrap material plus the width of the first piece. Cut one end of the template guide in a 'B' shape. the arc of the top and the bottom curves will depend on the tightest radius you have to cut. The divet in the middle should be kind of flat. Wide enough to fit the band saw blade and deep enough to leave some extra material on the piece for sanding and fine tuning. Attach the template guide 90 degrees to the table, on top of the first piece and with the blade in the notch of the 'B'. The two humps of the 'B' form the pattern follower.

Hopefully someone out there knows what I'm talking about and has a photo the can post to help us both out.

[glenn bradley]

I haven't used one but it looks interesting and is cheap enough that I'd probably try it if I had a large number of duplicate shapes to run and wanted to hurry. I assume you are getting a saw with those type of guides. It appears they are replacing the block set ascrews to hold the little bugger on. Give us a review if you decide to go for it. Alas, it will not fit my saw.