Inca bandsaw

[BillK]

The correct ones are cheap enough, any bearing supply house has them they are

• 608ZZ1MC3E
• mine have lasted about 50 years.
• total cost today £0.000273p per day or £0.10 per year

My originals were well shot. I used NSK at first but didn't last particularly long. A pack of 8 skate bearings delivered is the same as one NSK before post. £4 five years ago and still got some left, thats OK by me.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

My originals were well shot. I used NSK at first but didn't last particularly long. A pack of 8 skate bearings delivered is the same as one NSK before post. £4 five years ago and still got some left, thats OK by me.

What has been the failure mode?
I appreciate that my saw hasn’t had heavy use but the bearing I just changed was 50 years in use before it stopped rotating easily and so started getting grooves cut into it.

 

[BillK]

I got the bandsaw as a nice gift from a neighbour, it'd been well-used but sat for years homing spiders and covered in dust. Just needed a good old clean up, the guides smoothing and new bearings, the ones on it wouldn't turn and had grooves/nicks. The skate bearings get a bit stiff to turn after a while, not sure how long really, it never seems bad enough to be a real problem I just check when replacing a blade. It gets used every day just about although I make guitars so it's not sawing all day kind of thing. But the work that thing's done without a complaint or a thing going wrong.. (touch wood..)

 

[Gazz292]

I Went back to the guy i bought the bandsaw off today, as he was selling a nice fobco star pillar drill that i just had to have,

He gave me the original sales leaflet for the bandsaw that he's found along with the dust extractor hose adaptor that takes it upto a 4 inch /100mm hose.

In it is a photo of the fret guides in place on the saw.... they are a hell of a lot smaller than i thought they were, until now i'd only seen the picture on the inca website selling them, so thought they were about the size of the rear thrust bearing for the blade, hence why i thought they had bearing in them.



Turns out they are about the size of the thumb screws used to tighten the blade guides in place.



My 3mm blades arrived the other day, along with a selection of other sizes up to 19mm,
In the photo the 3mm blades are on the right, then a 9mm i think, that's sat on the 19mm blade, and there's some 12mm blades in there too, the rusty ones i got with the bandsaw... need to clean the rust off them sometime.


Here's the sales leaflet too if anyone's interested,

 

[John Brown]

A client of mine has a 3D printer, so I asked him to print me a table insert. It's the one with separate legs, and just got delivered. I take it the legs fit from underneath, rather than being inserted from the top and pushed down? Either way there will need to be some finessing with a scalpel.
Also, assuming they're printed in PLA, or whatever the baseline filament is, what glue would anyone recommend?

 

[Gazz292]

i would imagine the legs fit from underneath, i haven't got my 3D printer yet to print some to try (still being built at the prusa factory, and it's for xmas... and i can't get to my local hackspace to use theirs atm)

Super glue is best for pla.

The bloke who designed the insert says it might sit a little proud of the table, so just sand it a little to be level... i guess that's preferable to the insert being too low to start with, tho i'd want to get it just right, and i will faff about printing different designs and altering them a little when i get my printer.

 

[city17]

I've printed the insert, and haven't found the need to glue the legs. Just need to be a bit careful when actually putting it in place on the bandsaw.

 

[John Brown]

Ok. Thanks

 

[sssamuel]

Seeing that this thread is alive and kicking after 10 years(impressive), I might as well ask here rather than starting a new one.
reading this lively thread actually was one of the reasons I decided to purchase a Euro260

so I did, and it's in good condition, from 1995, Made in France. The only complaint I have is that the tracking of the blade is not that stable.
I bought several new blades and they all move in and out on the wheels when it is running.
I can adjust so it moves further out on the tyres, but it doesn't change the tracking instability

Looking as them spinning without any saw band mounted, it looks like they are stable and the tyres are smooth, intact and not wobbly.

has anyone else had a similar issue?

/samuel

 

[John Brown]

Gosh! Is it really ten years since I bought my £50 bandsaw!

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Seeing that this thread is alive and kicking after 10 years(impressive), I might as well ask here rather than starting a new one.
reading this lively thread actually was one of the reasons I decided to purchase a Euro260

so I did, and it's in good condition, from 1995, Made in France. The only complaint I have is that the tracking of the blade is not that stable.
I bought several new blades and they all move in and out on the wheels when it is running.
I can adjust so it moves further out on the tyres, but it doesn't change the tracking instability

Looking as them spinning without any saw band mounted, it looks like they are stable and the tyres are smooth, intact and not wobbly.

has anyone else had a similar issue?

/samuel

I have had the first instance of that happening, I suspect tat new tyres may be the answer.

 

[J.A.Olsson]

Instead of creating a new thread I figured it’s better to use this one.
I recently found myself in need of resawing some oak and, after realizing that my inherited Inca could be up to the task, I ordered a ¾” wide 4 tpi blade.
I have now spent many hours trying to get the blade to track nicely, or at all.

I know that the previous blade tracked equally on both wheels before I started, that means they are co-planar, right? My procedure is as follows:
I move the guides out of the way, put the blade on and tighten the tensioning screw to a little over “five” (or until the tension feels right).
To avoid having the blade slipping off completely, I adjust the tilt so that the blade wants to “derail” towards the blade guides. After that I carefully turn the adjustment knob to move the tracking forward on the wheels. I turn the knob about 0.5 mm, spin the wheels manually 10-15 turns and adjust again. After several iterations without any change, all of a sudden the blade starts to change tracking and goes completely off the front of the wheels.

I have tried turning the knob even less (not even visible to an outside observer, but I can feel it move). And still, once the blade starts to change its tracking, it will travel all the way off the front of the wheel.

By the way, it's not only the new blade that gives me a headache. The previous, very functional blades does not track either.

Is this normal? Does a blade change take a couple of days of careful adjusting? Any help would be immensely appreciated!

 

[BillK]

Maybe it needs a new tyre/s. Mine was just doing the same thing, I made a top tyre from some 3mm neoprene rubber from fleabay. Cut a bit less than wheel circumference, superglue the ends with greaseproof paper wrapped around to stop it sticking to the bench. It's sat in place fine without any glue - it took far longer to clean the old glue off the wheel than sort out the new tyre. The rubber was £4.50 for 5 metres (it's probably available all over the place but the item number for mine is 261725403492, in case thats any use).
It was a bit over-wide so I trimmed it in place on the wheel, with one those blades you get for paint or paper strippers.

 

[John Brown]

I just lent mine to my neighbour. Came back with the blade tracking perfectly.
Probably not a good long term solution, as he only borrowed it because his Record had shredded a drive belt.

 

[sssamuel]

Hi J.A Olsson!
I have the exaxt same experience about the tracking, that after super-carefully adjusting it, the blade suddenly travels all the way to the front.
and before that, I can adjust the tilt knob pretty much without any kind of movement.

I managed once to, by chance, get it exactly like I wanted it (with the teeth slightly outside the wheel) but then I slipped on a new saw band/blade, and it was again, virtually impossible to get to that sweetspot again... argh..

/samuel

 

[Ttrees]

Are you guys tensioning the blade to track it?
What I mean is...
When the tracking bolt is in the correct position, and turning the wheels by hand...
If a blade is not tensioned correctly, it will dive into the thrust guides, so
you must tension it well before turning the wheels, or back off your guides.
I presume it is the same scenario as on my larger machine which has flat tires.

Tom

 

[Mal-110]

I have been trying to find an INCA bandsaw, for the last three months. I missed out on two on EBAY recently. So I might as well ask if anyone relishes the idea of selling one?
I thought I would ask.

Malcolm

 

[Droogs]

@Mal-110 i would suggest putting an ad in the wanted section of the forum

Wanted

www.ukworkshop.co.uk

 

[J.A.Olsson]

Maybe it needs a new tyre/s. Mine was just doing the same thing, I made a top tyre from some 3mm neoprene rubber from fleabay. Cut a bit less than wheel circumference, superglue the ends with greaseproof paper wrapped around to stop it sticking to the bench. It's sat in place fine without any glue - it took far longer to clean the old glue off the wheel than sort out the new tyre. The rubber was £4.50 for 5 metres (it's probably available all over the place but the item number for mine is 261725403492, in case thats any use).
It was a bit over-wide so I trimmed it in place on the wheel, with one those blades you get for paint or paper strippers.

Thank you for the tip! I just placed an order, hopefully it will do the trick.

I just lent mine to my neighbour. Came back with the blade tracking perfectly.
Probably not a good long term solution, as he only borrowed it because his Record had shredded a drive belt.

You think any neighbour will do, or does it have to be a specific model?

Hi J.A Olsson!
I have the exaxt same experience about the tracking, that after super-carefully adjusting it, the blade suddenly travels all the way to the front.
and before that, I can adjust the tilt knob pretty much without any kind of movement.

I managed once to, by chance, get it exactly like I wanted it (with the teeth slightly outside the wheel) but then I slipped on a new saw band/blade, and it was again, virtually impossible to get to that sweetspot again... argh..

/samuel

"Nice" to hear that someone else has the same problem. It is very frustrating and makes me question my whole existence. I will let you know when my little bandsaw is up and running again!

Are you guys tensioning the blade to track it?
What I mean is...
When the tracking bolt is in the correct position, and turning the wheels by hand...
If a blade is not tensioned correctly, it will dive into the thrust guides, so
you must tension it well before turning the wheels, or back off your guides.
I presume it is the same scenario as on my larger machine which has flat tires.

Tom

I can't speak for Samuel, but I have put sufficient tension on the blade before trying to adjust its tracking. I have some experience with other bandsaws so I hope my judgement of "sufficient" is correct!

 

[Ttrees]

I have been trying to find an INCA bandsaw, for the last three months. I missed out on two on EBAY recently. So I might as well ask if anyone relishes the idea of selling one?
I thought I would ask.

Malcolm

Not getting your hopes up but...
Custard is giving a broken one away, and I don't think he has got a taker for it yet.