Vertical bandsaw machine work feed

Claim 1

In a saw having a cutting blade arranged to cut a workpiece supported on a table, a feed mechanism for urging the workpiece towards the cutting blade, said feed mechanism comprising: a driving component movable in opposite directions in response to the application thereto of hydraulic fluid pressure; valve means responsive to the forces opposing movement of the workpiece towards the cutting blade for controlling the application of hydraulic fluid pressure to said driving component, said valve means having a valve body connected to and movable with said driving component, and a valve spool axially movable within said valve body in a direction parallel to the direction of movement of said drive component; and workpiece engaging means responsive to movement of said driving component in one direction for urging the workpiece towards the cutting blade and for accommodating movement of the workpiece away from the cutting blade during movement of the driving component in the opposite direction, said workpiece engaging means having an endless flexible element trained around a plurality of rotatable idlers, some of said idlers being mounted at stationary locations on said table and at least one of said idlers being carried on an arm extending laterally from an elongated rod, the said rod being axially reciprocal in a direction parallel to the direction of movement of said driving component and being acted upon by said valve spool.