How-To: Bandsaw Tension Wheel Improvment

Most small- and mid-sized band saws have some form of handle that must be turned to tension and de-tension the blade. How often do you use yours?

It’s generally a good practice to remove the tension when you are not using the saw, but often many woodworkers don’t bother because the process is cumbersome and time consuming due to a wheel or handle that’s too small to work with comfortably. Removing the tension is important as it promotes longer blade life and reduces stress on the saw when it is idle for a period of time. There are commercial solutions that offer some form of “quick release”, but they are costly and do not work with every size and brand of band saw. But you don’t need to spend a lot of money if you get creative and do some careful shopping.

As you can see from the picture, you can replace the OEM handle with a larger hand wheel. It’s easier to turn and the rotating handle makes for a fast job of setting and releasing the blade tension. I was lucky and found the hand wheel shown on a bargain closeout table for about $4, but these are available from a variety of places for a reasonably cost. You only need to adapt the shaft diameter to your saw's tension wheel post--how you do that depends on your saw, your creativity and your available tools. For my saw, I took the OEM handle, chucked it in my lathe and turned off the knob. I then sized the remaining material so that it would slip into the 9/16" boring of the new hand wheel. Once the modified original part was reinstalled on the tension shaft with the simple key, I just placed the new hand wheel over it and tightened the set screw.

With the new hand wheel, it only takes a few turns to bring the blade up to tension and a few to take it down at the end of the sawing session. And the cost was “just right”.

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