Band Saw Tune-up and Upgrades

The amount of well known “master” woodworkers that I’ve heard say the one tool in their shop that they wouldn’t live without is a band saw has always amazed me. That is, until I really spent some time with mine and came to understand how versatile of a tool it can be. Now, I get it. If I was going to only keep one (powered) saw in my shop, it would be my band saw.

A well-tuned band saw can make accurate rip and cross cuts, resaw wide boards, cut tight curves, and even perform joinery tasks. With all of that being said, like any tool, it needs to be set up correctly. Here are my steps for calibrating (or re-calibrating) my band saw, and a couple of simple upgrades you can do to give your old band saw a new lease on life.

First Things First

Calibrating your band saw really needs to start with a good base line. What I mean by that is the saw needs to run without any