A Better Bandsaw Follower (maybe)

[Mark J]

Several months ago I posted about making a bandsaw follower based on the Brian Boggs article in Dec '18 FWW.  Most of that discussion is on page 67 of "What did you do today?"  https://www.woodtalkonline.com/topic/27535-what-did-you-do-today/page/67/   

Lately I have been rethinking this bandsaw follower and I think I have a better idea on how to do it.  The thing is that if you have a single follower pin or point (typically placed in front of the blade), then the distance from the follower to the saw teeth changes depending on the angle of the cut path.  This is not a real big problem on a gently curved template, but if there is a tighter curve the saw kerf won't follow the template as well.

It occured to me that a solution might be to place the saw teeth in the center of a cylindrical (or half cylinder) pin of known diameter.  That way no matter what the cut path, the saw teeth would always be a known distance from the template surface.   This is what I did so far:

Cut into a 3/4" sheet half way.

Carefully center a 1/2" drill bit exactly on the kerf.

Friction fit 1/2" dowel standing 3/8" proud.

With the dowel center carefully marked, use the bandsaw to cut through to the exact center and stop.

The plywood is clamped to the table and the test block is mounted to an old template.  

Viewed from the rear, the guide pin and template can be seen.

The partially complete cut, then the complete cut.  

A view of the guide pin after the cut.  A little worse for the wear, but replaceable.  

 

There are a couple of drawbacks to this technique.  First, the template is under the piece, so the piece obscures your intended path.  You kinda havta use a Braille technique to decide how much and when to rotate the piece to keep from twisting the blade.  Second, Your cut line will be 1/4"  away from the template surface so you have to compensate for this when making up the template.  

 

[Coop]

Great idea Mark. How did you mount the test piece to the template, with double back tape? Was the cut pretty square with a piece that thick? 

[Mark J]

You could use double sided tape or hot glue, but in this case the template and work piece are screwed together.  And yes it cut straight despite the thickness.  

I use this setup to cut back the sides of pieces that I turn.  So I start with a square block mounted on the lathe with a screw chuck.  I turn the outer contour and then I want to cut into each of the four sides and I want each cut to come out the same.  Since the piece already has a screw hole from the chuck I use this to attach the template.  That way I can rotate each face into place in turn and cut each the same.