femi bandsaw Archives - Woody's Workshop

Last week we had the hottest day in the year so far and I had a couple of jobs to complete in the workshop. Not ideal but with the doors open I had a little through breeze. I had lots of aluminium to chop to length and my Femi NG120 bandsaw was doing sterling service.

A few days later when I needed to use the Femi again it was dead. Not a spark of life. I buzzed out the electrics and the trigger switch, emergency stop and end of cut switches were all working fine.

My conclusion was the motor controller had failed. This is a potted electronic assembly that sits on the end of the motor assembly inside the top of the motor housing. I measured various voltages with and without the trigger switch in action and sent the details off to Stakesy’s who is the UK distributor of Femi (the saws are made in Italy). As bad luck would have it my bandsaw was a few months outside of a 12 month warranty.

Stakesy’s sent off the details to Femi and after some email interchanges Femi agreed to supply a new motor controller module free of charge. This arrived in the post a few days later. It was an easy fit, just four wires into a chocolate block and the bandsaw sprung back into life. My hacksawing arm muscles breathed a sigh of relief.

As mentioned earlier, the motor controller module is a plastic moulding that has the electronics potted into the moulding. There are some parts proud of the potting compound but in the main all is submerged. With hindsight I wonder if something failed with the high ambient heat it was subjected to on my hottest day activity.

Great service from both Stakesy’s and Femi. A big thank you to Matt and Alex for getting my NG120 up and running again.

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Quick and Easy Cutting Set Up

I recently acquired a Femi NG120ABS bandsaw which you might think seems a bit strange given how much I talk on this site about my Burgess BK3 bandsaw. I regard them as two different animals.

The Femi has replaced my Kennedy for cutting stock ready for milling. The Femi auto feed facility means it can be left unattended while I get on with other things.

The BK3 upgraded with my modified guide assemblies is a more precise ‘cutting to a line’ device with the benefit of a wide throat for cutting sheet stock.

I am impressed by the Femi and by its performance. Speed of cut is excellent and build quality is very good. The vice action clamps well and is very rigid.

The one frustration with the Femi has been when loading material ready for cutting. You have to iteratively and repeatedly move the stock in the vice to match where you want the blade to be cut. This is easier with long pieces of stock but when you have a heavy short chuck of metal block with not much left between the jaws it becomes a juggling act. Likewise when cutting off line such as mitres. These situations mean constantly raising and lowering the cutting arm to check you have it in the right place.

I have created a battery powered laser line module that mounts on the Femi blade guide and which will show where the blade will cut. It clearly isn’t for everyone’s taste but it makes life just a bit more simple ! As Jimmy Diresta says … ‘I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it’.

femi bandsaw laser alignment guide — Image showing the laser alignment guide mounted on the Femi NG120ABS bandsaw

Here is a pdf file containing the write up giving details.

Femi Laser Module Mk 2

Due to demand here are the Gerber and STEP files for the project

Femi_files and notes

Because of the interest shown, if there is sufficient demand I could arrange for some PCBs to be manufactured offshore. Let me know via the email in the footer.

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Tag: femi bandsaw

Femi NG120ABS bandsaw failure and support from Stakesy’s

Laser cutting line modification to Femi NG120ABS bandsaw

Quick and Easy Cutting Set Up