Dear John,
I read your article on making a bandsaw tension guage but it occured to me that a digital calipper may work as well. I have one the costs about 40 bucks and can zero out at any posiiton. If I clamp the jaws of the calippers at a five inch distance on the bandsaw blade and the apply tension until the blade stretches will this do the same thing. I think your article gave a a ratio of thousands of an inch stretch equals force of stretch on the blade. If I remember correctly this stretch factor is independant of the material the blade is made of or its width. Do you think this will work? It is certainly cheaper than the Starrett tension guage but probably more accurate that the feeler guages.
Thanks,
Hank
Replies
Hank,
Yes it will work. This has been suggested a few times since I wrote the original article, and I think Fine Woodworking ran it in the Methods of Work column in the past year.
You are correct in recalling that the stretching of the blade versus tension is unrelated to the width of the blade or the type of steel used.
I doubt that using a digital dial caliper will be more accurate than using feeler gages, with feeler gages the gap is there or not and you can literally feel it change as you increase the tension. Digital tools don't have the feel, and often times aren't as accurate as traditional machinist's measuring instruments.
John White
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