Proxxon Ff 230

[Darci Carlton]

Itmay be of interest to those in the UK that the machine was purchased not from Chronos the UK Proxxon dealer, but from TBS- Aachen in Germany. Delivery was very quick, I was able to pay by Paypal, and there was a saving of 52.72 over the Chronos price, including a modest postage charge.

The machine arrived with a standard blade already fitted, and all that was necessary to set it up was to attach the table and get familiar with the operations.

I found it useful to photocopy the exploded views in the manual so easy reference could be made to the parts etc; when reading the text.

The lower running wheel with the drive pulley attached. The wheels have a plastic cover around them over which the saw blade runs. In the photo you can see a brush which clears away bits of plastic scuffed off the wheel. These are replaceable items and I have noticed that the rate of wear changes depending on the tension, but again as a novice user it is difficult to know what is normal for this machine.

Using the machine.

My initial use was limited to practising curved cuts on scrap wood which it easily accommodated. I progressed to cutting out the keel and false keel for my attempt at a 1:64 scale Pinnace.

This is fairly fine stuff using 1.5mm boxwood sheet, and it (or perhaps me) struggled a little with the internal curves given the scale.

I rather think a scroll saw would be more suited to the job, and certainly for the boat frames which are quite small.

Even so this is a very useful addition to the workshop and apart from cutting more complex shapes it will replace my table saw for many jobs also.

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I like the guide bearings on that saw except for the one below the table. I bought a cheap band saw with soft metal blocks used for the blade guides both above and below the table, never licked it much. Might be a good saw if I rebuild the guides now that I am semi retired and have some time. Good Grief, just started to count the things I want to get done now that I have more time, going to need to set priority's, that saw will be near the bottom of the list.

I purchased my drafting table self healing drawing pad from an instrument company that sold sextants, surveying instruments as well as drafting supply's. It was 4 feet X 7 feet when purchased, had to downsize the table to a little under 6 feet wide and 3 1/2 feet deep a few years ago. Have had this cover about 14 years, a smaller one that I had purchased a few years earlier is still being used on a desk. The material was available at any length from differentl width rolls that the company had in stock, just cut what you need, the price if I remember right was about $ 12/foot. My drafting table top is a solid core hospital door that I bought from salvage, Bought a piano hinge and mounted the door to a large steel desk, put the pad on and added a drafting machine and ended up with a 400lb +/- drafting table, a pain to move but a good solid table. I would look for a pad at an office supply house that also sells drafting tools for a pad, bet you could get along without the printed grid without much hardship and the cost probably would be much cheaper than a hobby shop offering.

Hi Keith

The Band saw can deal with heavier gauge stuff, is more robust, can still cut fairly tight curves, but for very small delicate work a scroll saw is probably more appropriate. I would envisage using the band saw for many of the tasks I would otherwise use the table saw for.

There is just one problem. It is quite noisy, and looks like the main source of a noise is a ball bearing in a top wheel. I reduced it a bit by adding some soft material between the top wheel mount and the case, but it is still too nasty loud. The main issue is that the plastic case of a saw acts like a resonator, enhancing the sound. Anybody had the same issue?

I don't have the Proxxon bandsaw, but I have reduced noise on quite a few machines (computers, drill press, cheap scroll saw, and some others) by gluing cardboard sheets (as big as possible) to the inside of the housing or housing parts that act as a resonator. You need the dense variety of cardboard, and it should be thick or you can use two layers if possible. The additional mass of the cardboard is important because it reduces the "vibrational mobility" of the resonator. I normally use epoxy glue on metal and plastic parts. Of course it is also important that the saw's door is firmly closed, without any play. Reading your post you apparently already have hunted down the latter issue, but maybe you still can improve on that one.

Cheers Mike. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I always have used plain cardboard, not corrugated. However, I'm glad you could achieve some noise reduction with the cardboard fix. I see that you damped the aluminium(?) housing, which certainly is not wrong (I guess you did the same with the door which I believe is made of some kind of plasic).

If this is one of the versions of a 9 inch bench top bandsaw (59 1/2 inch blade length) there is a very useful addition to help it in cutting tight curves ( 1/8 inch blade ). The Carter products Blade Stablizer is fairly expensive, but is worth the cost. I bought a 9 inch bandsaw from MicroMark when it was on sale - they no longer vend it. The mount did not match any Carter model, but it does use a rod and fortunately, a larger rod, so I could use K&S telescoping brass tubing as bushings for an exact fit.

Small update: I dramatically reduced the noise by removing both wheels and applying tri-flow silicone lubricant to the internal sides of the ball bearings. They do not take any lube from the outside, but quite open from the inside. Now the bandsaw is running very smooth! I can use it without forcing my family to run away

I have this same saw for several years now and I was very happy with it, but recently no more. Last month alone it broke 5 blades with very light use - and they are 23$ each. I don't know what is wrong with it but I don't think the issue are the blades.

Here is what happens: after installing a fresh new blade and a little usage I start hearing a repetitive noise like the blade is hitting something at each turn and shortly after the blade breaks ALWAYS at the welding point. When the toc-toc-toc noise starts the blade will break even if it turns empty without cutting anything.

I always buy the same Proxxon blades from Amazon and I don't think the problem are the blades. I think that in time the saw parts got worn by extensive usage and miss aligned. I am not an expert by any measure but what I can see is that the plastic on the two wheels is worn and I am guessing the blade does not sit true on them and get a bit twisted which makes it hit the guides and after a while it breaks. The upper guide is three bearings and the blade touches their exterior rounded part but the lower one is just a notch in a piece of steel. My money are on the lower one.

What I faced was that for the same reason of the worn plastic on the upper wheel, the band saw blade was stepping in and out of a formed by the use groove. That was causing me either broken bands or bands that frequently were slipping out of the wheel.

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I found my bandsaw (a Metabo, slightly larger too) following the grain of the wood when it needs to cut through thicker wood ( > 1" ), thus making a curved cut. Very annoying. Anybody encountered that on the Proxxon, and if so, found a solution?

Works like a charm! The nasty noise is gone! Should have done it from the very beginning, especially since these bearings are quite cheap (even SKF ones). Got fooled by Proxxon support who claimed that everything is fine and the bearings are fine, even after watching the video with the noise captured on it.

1. The wheels on band saws should always be co-planar. To check this, remove the blade and covers, and place a straightedge across both wheels - with no or very light pressure the straightedge should touch both wheels across their diameters, on both sides of the axles. If it doesn't, then one or both wheels will need to be shimmed with washers to correct the misalignment.

2. Next, the wheels and tires are crowned, and the blade should ride on the peak of the crown with the teeth just forward of the crown. This is usually set by a knob that tilts a yoke that carries the upper axle.

3. Considering the thicknesses (thinnensses?) of wood that you are usually cutting, the tension on the blades is not extremely critical. Tension the blades so that they do not make a barrelled/bowed cut, but do not over-tension them because it's hard on the bearings and frame. Once you have determined the tension for a particular blade, at the end of the day loosen the tension by 5 turns so that the tires and wheels do not develop flat spots.

Note: the Timberwolf brand of blades require a lower tension that most, and their installation instructions say to install the blade at 'normal' tension and then loosen it until it just starts to flutter, and then increase the tension until it lessens or stops. Again, at the end of use, loosen the tension by a known number of turns. (Here's maybe more than you'd like to know: -tension.php )

5. The guides should be adjusted so that there is a very slight gap between the blade and guide, and it may skip along the guides when it's run without cutting. The side guides should be set behind the tooth gullets. (In the perfect world, no guides should be necessary.)

6. If possible, mount a toothbrush inside that brushes and cleans the tire(s) of sawdust.

By the way, I like the idea of placing material on the covers to reduce noise. I think I'll try it with 6mm polyurethane craft foam instead of cardboard.

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