Just took delivery of my SIP 14" bandsaw

[builderchad]

Its sitting in my livingroom right now and I haven't even opened the box, as I need to go out for a while, thought I better not open that can of worms just yet

It would be great to hear of any tips and pitfalls from SIP owners for setting this baby up.

Cheers!

 

[CHJ]

It would be great to hear of any tips and pitfalls from SIP owners for setting this baby up.
Cheers!

Get at least one other person on hand when you need to lift it onto the stand, a one man job it ain't.

I only had three areas of setup adjustments to do, and one of them was on the stand cupboard.

1. Moved the fixed table mounting sideways a fraction on main frame to bring blade nearer centre of table slot and adjust the 90deg stop bolt.

2. Align the blade tracking and set rear and side thrust bearings to suit blade.

3. Elongate the Stand cupboard door cam action Knob attachment slot to move knob 2 mm nearer edge of cabinet to allow proper closure.

Took nearly as long to put cabinet stand together as set up the saw.

 

[Shady]

In your living room???? :shock: SWMBO must be of a very kind disposition...

 

[builderchad]

Haha no it was only in the box in the livingroom waiting to go out to the shed. That caused enough angst, if I tried to set it up in the livingroom I would have been the first thing run through it :lol:

Thanks for the tips Chas. I dont have the cabinet stand but instead put an attachment on the stand that belonged to my now retired table saw.

Worked out well. I will report back once I get the table mounted, blade tracking sorted etc.

Also need some advice of what blades to get and from where. Firstly, I need to resaw some hardwood (dark red meranti probably) to make inlays for boxes I am making. I also need to do some scroll-saw type stuff to cut curves into saw handles I am making for a bowsaw and framesaw. Now that Duredge have gone by the wayside can you suggest the next best?

Thanks,

Chad.

 

[builderchad]

All setup now. It was surprisingly easy though I haven't switched it on yet as it got too late. The ultimate test is scheduled for the morning :shock:.

Good stuff:

- The table squared up very nicely and easily
- Table is dead flat so didn't need to make any adjustments for that
- Very impressed with the solidity and accuracy of the rip fence (did some measuring with a laser gizmo )
- The blade guides were easy to adjust as long as you keep pressure on them as you adjust and begin to re-tighten otherwise they move out of position
- I thought the tracking and tension was going to involve some voodoo but the adjustments for that are very straight forward


Not so good things:

- The mitre fence is completely rubbish so I may look for an alternative
- One of the 4 bolts used to loosen the table in order to align it to the blade is a real pain to get at properly with the spanner
- There was a little lateral movement on the guide extrusion as you adjust the cutting height so the blade guides will need fine tuning for big adjustments
- Slightly dissapointed to find that the max cutting height is around 204mm even though marketing all over the place says 210mm and Chas reported his as having 208-209mm. The guide says max cutting height is 200mm which is definately not what the marketing blurb says. False advertising! Call out the dogs, lets get this witch hunt started!


Things I'm not sure about:

- Not sure what the optimal tension should be on the blade
- Not sure what they mean in the guide when they say the rear guide bearing needs to be "just off" the blade. I set it to a gap of roughly 0.3-0.5mm and it looks like the blade will definately come into contact with the guide bearing when wood is brought against it. Is this right?
- Did the same for the bottom rear bearing (below the table) even though there is no mention of what to do with that one in the guide.
- Still not sure what blades I need for the things I need to do (mentioned in my previous post)

Anyway I am very chuffed and glad I went with the advice of Colin and Chas - thanks guys. Seems a very well built machine for the money and I was very surprised at how easy it was to setup and I can't wait to get some cutting done.

Cheers!

 

[CHJ]

All setup now. It was surprisingly easy though I haven't switched it on yet as it got too late. The ultimate test is scheduled for the morning :shock:.

If you have not switched it on then you will find that the tracking and guides may need re-adjusting (or did you mean you have not run a trial cut?) Set Tracking First then Guides. My machine had the tracking set with the blade teeth too far back (on the upper wheel rubber coating) on unpacking.

- One of the 4 bolts used to loosen the table in order to align it to the blade is a real pain to get at properly with the spanner

Socket spanner is easier.

- There was a little lateral movement on the guide extrusion as you adjust the cutting height so the blade guides will need fine tuning for big adjustments

Ensure guide is running flat against its rear face before clamping and it should stay within reasonable tolerance.

- Slightly dissapointed to find that the max cutting height is around 204mm even though marketing all over the place says 210mm and Chas reported his as having 208-209mm. The guide says max cutting height is 200mm which is definately not what the marketing blurb says. False advertising! Call out the dogs, lets get this witch hunt started!

Check out the lower table mounting bracket where you adjusted the sideways movement, you may have scope for height adjustment if the extra few mm is critical.

- Not sure what they mean in the guide when they say the rear guide bearing needs to be "just off" the blade. I set it to a gap of roughly 0.3-0.5mm and it looks like the blade will definately come into contact with the guide bearing when wood is brought against it. Is this right?

That should do, you will always be pushing the blade back against the rear bearing when cutting and any more gap and the side bearings may come into contact with the teeth.

-

- Still not sure what blades I need for the things I need to do (mentioned in my previous post)

Issue 174 of Good Woodworking has an article on choosing a blade that avoids all the mystique and gives an indication of the ones regular users favour.

 

[builderchad]

Thanks Chas, went out this morning and found issue 174 fresh from the press at my local newsagent. Great article and I have already placed a little order with Hamilton Edge. Would have liked to use Axminster but they dont seem to do 2490mm length blades.

Did my first test cuts. The blade is on the fast setting so only tried out pine and fir scraps on it. Very nice even for the (I guess) poor quality blade that came with the machine. I also tried a thin piece of cherry and it went through it no problem. I then increased the height and tried resawing a veneer of about 3mm from a 120mm wide piece of pine. Did it well and without complaining although the going was fairly slow.

Will try ripping some beech on it later with the blade at the lower speed as that will be the wood I use most on it for the forseeable future.

Cheers.

 

[OPJ]

It pleases me to see another user giving SiP bandsaws a big thumbs up, as I'm looking at buying one within the next month or so - though I'd like to try and sell my little Fox 10" table saw first, I just don't have any more space out there!!

I reckon the 12" model with up to 180mm (a good six inches either way!) cutting height will suit my needs fine. And while doing a little googling, I came across this site, which you may find of some assistance:

http://www.hamiltonedge.com/info_sheet_2.php

 

[CHJ]

I have so far sawn a 200mm X 100mm X 2.5 mtr. dense pine baulk (part of the base of a Milling Machine shipping crate) into 50mm X 50mm X 2.5mtr. battens, several Ash & Cedar logs at full cutting height without any adjustment or need to lower speed, and am already contemplating the need to keep my basic table saw.
Apart from the need to make a few jigs, well there always is isn't there, I cannot at this early stage see me having to do anything to the actual machine other than wheel it out into the middle of the floor and use it.

 

[builderchad]

Well I did some ripping and cross-cutting on beech today and cut up some MDF as well. Decided to give it a try on the fast speed setting first so as not to fiddle with the belt. Results were perfect and I am really really chuffed with this bandsaw. Can't see how I managed before with guide clamps and a circular saw. I even crosscut a very long beech board that was way longer than the throat depth so the longer end of the board was sticking out and I really needed to get strength under it to keep it up. Cut beautifully!