new bandsaw setup spot whats wrong

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

tomasg

Established Member
Joined
27 Nov 2010
Messages
58
Reaction score
0
Location
Ireland
Hello everyone i seem to be chasing my tail on this one
ive been at this for 2 days just tryin to set it up gaah

When i got it first
the wheels seemed to be coplanar ..but the blade was riding
on the inside of both tyres, and the teeth was cutting into the camber

The lower guide bracket needed to be moved back to the MAXIMUM amount
(had to remove a bolt temporarly)
which still was not enough because when i raised the toolpost the teeth
were hitting the guides

Today i managed to get the blade centred on the wheels
and moved the guides forward but other problems have arose

Now their is a big distince when i move the toolpost up and down (is this normal ?)

Also my lower thrust block is misaligned (is this normal/ok ?)

Finally i want to ask you guys about the lower wheel adjustment screws
if i level / center up these grub screws the lower wheel gets really stiff
What should i do ?
thanks in advance everyone
tomas
 

Attachments

  • thrust block misaligned.JPG
    thrust block misaligned.JPG
    83.1 KB · Views: 313
  • toolpost 2.JPG
    toolpost 2.JPG
    105 KB · Views: 313
  • toolpost 1.JPG
    toolpost 1.JPG
    78.1 KB · Views: 313
  • lower guides.JPG
    lower guides.JPG
    89.9 KB · Views: 313
  • grub screws.JPG
    grub screws.JPG
    97.5 KB · Views: 313
Its difficult to tell without seeing it but first comment would be that if the teeth of your blade hit the guides they have probably been "unset" causing a separate problem.

I would also suggest that if this is the blade that came with your new bandsaw that you throw it away and get a decent one from Trucut or similar - Blades supplied with machines are usually rubbish!

Get a decent blade on it and I think the problems you are experiencing will dissappear!

Rog
 
Make sure you have really tightened up the blade tension (that knob at the top surface of the bandsaw) it can never be tightened up enough usually. Thats why the blade did not centre on the wheels.
Next get the guides set so they do not touch blade when spinning the wheel BY HAND.

Then get some practice cutting up some rubbish wood at least 4" depth.

Most probably need a new blade after those practice runs..

Go to our friend Ian at Tuff saws and tell him what you want to do.
 
Regarding the four bolts around the axle of the lower wheel:
You should not need to adjust the L & R ones. Adjusting the T & B ones will alter the tracking of the blade on the bottom wheel, but if the L&R ones are upset, the saw will shrug off the blade when you start the motor. They will have been set at the factory and should never need to be adjusted.
If the blade is already tensioned and you tighten the bottom bolt more, that can make the blade very tight indeed. I suppose this could make the wheel difficult to turn.

There is a co in the UK that makes 1/16" blades. I'm afraid I don't know who it is, though. The problem with such fine blades is the welding of them. The last I heard their welder was broken and they had no plans to fix it. :(
Cheers
Steve
 
Hi guys thanks for the replys , my bandsaw is a startrite 502e

Can you tell me if or where im wrong here guys


First im going to make a coplanar jig
make my saw /table dead level
detension blade
back off all guides and thrust blocks
back off top wheel screw
level both wheels and make coplanar ,as far out from
the frame as possible
retension blade
hand turn wheels

also how stiff should the lower wheel turn without a blade on ?
Thanks again
 
Hi Tomas. To Steve's point it seems to me too from the first photo showing the quite heavily offset positions of the jacking (grub) screws that the lower wheel spindle adjustment/alignment may be quite a long way off.

It's theoretically possible that this appearance is the result of maybe some sort of alignment issue in the saw chassis, but it doesn't seem all that likely. The way the blade is a long way forward in the lower guide ('tool post 2 photo') but not in the top one tends to confirm this possibility too.

It's possible that a bum blade weld could cause or contribute to blade tracking issues too, and as Rog says the original is probably damaged if the teeth have bounced off the side guides - so it makes sense to buy a new one from a high quality source like Tuff. I'd definitely want to make sure that the wheels are properly coplanar (in all directions) and guides backed well off before running it though. (to avoid damage to it)

It could be that the reason the wheels are becoming stiff to turn when the lower spindle is centered in the adjusters is that this is jacking the blade tension up far too high. It's best to avoid over tensioning, as it's fairly easy to bend/damage the tensioning spring/bracket/stub axle assembly supporting the top wheel on some saws.

This book is regarded by many as a very good source of set up information http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Complete-Gu ... 008&sr=1-1. Steve has excellent material on set-up available on CD too.

You seem to be saying that it's a new band saw. If so maybe it'd be best to rope the supplier in to set it up - especially if it was out of adjustment when supplied. This to avoid warranty issues arising. Depends a bit on who supplied it too - there's not that many over here who will know much about set up...
 
Tomas:

You should also check to make sure the tires are properly crowned. It doesn't have to be much, but there needs to be a distinct crown on the tire of each wheel or your blade won't track very well. I don't know if this saw has precrowned wheels, or flat wheels that need the tired crowned on them, but if they're flat across you're going to have problems. In fact, with well crowned tires the whole "coplanarity" issue goes away unless your wheels are way out of whack.
Here's all you need:
tire.jpg


Here's the physics of why you need crowned tires:
http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol22?pg=161#pg161

If they aren't crowned, there are a lot of ways to put a crown on them. The ninth post down on this OWWM thread has links to 20 different methods on how to crown a bandsaw tire:
http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=71380&p=500111

Kirk
 
I have been watching this thread and am getting more and more confused...

one minute we have - "When i got it first
the wheels seemed to be coplanar ..but the blade was riding
on the inside of both tyres, and the teeth was cutting into the camber" suggesting that the wheels are crowned and that the blades tracking the 2 wheels together - but at 'the back' (which then brings guide issues etc)

here's where I get confused. Surely from here adjustment (the right way!) of the upper wheel angle will, after proper tension is applied, with gentle hand rotation of the wheel, bring the blade back across the (both) wheels to the required position (centred or 2/3 teeth clear of the front as rquired by the particular model) - and the guide issue (apart from any possible blade damage that might have already occured) also gets resolved.

at worst you might need to manually reallign the blade to centre to start with and take it from there

what am I missing?

so what happened when the top wheel angle was adjusted to move the blade - and was the blade properly tensioned when this adjustment was tried?

I realise that right now there are a number of other adjusments that have been made that need reversing back out, effectively it's a case of starting back from scratch.
 
Hello again
For those interested or who encounters similar problems as ive had
mainly.... The slight nicking noise from the teeth lightly scratching the tires and
also the distance change of the upper guides moving away from the blade when the guidepost is lowered/raised
Here is how i sussed it....
Step 1
Machine unplugged get a wide blade on the saw and get a straight edge (i lightly clamped a true edged bit o wood to the frame)
REMEMBER !!! the tightness of your v-belt and slacken both belt and the blade

Step 2
Adjust the wheels to be coplanar ( DONT move the left/right bolts yet on the jacking )
tension the blade properly and recheck for coplanar (ness) after about 10 turns by hand
slacken off blade again and fine tune (it doesn't take much)

Step 3
Retension blade again and repeat turning the wheels ,
If your still hearing a slight pinching sound adjust the left/right jacking bolts ....
If your guidepost has the same problems as mine did ....
Adjust the jacking so the the guides have a more consistent distance along the length of your blade when you
move the guidepost

Step 4
Recheck for coplanar (ness) ,you might have to adjust it slightly again .


Hopefully this will help someone with their bandsaw troubleshooting ,
Theirs probably a technician somewhere saying noooo and they would set up my machine
by adjusting the big shaft bolt so the jacking ,lower guides and the blade would be more centered
I haven't found any info on this anywhere ......so i left it alone

You cant really see but the blade is about 4mm closer to the edge on the bottom wheel than the top wheel
I havn't yet cut anything i just ran the saw (starting with short bursts)for about a minute and it seems fine
Also I forgot to mention that i managed to get the blade centered a tiny bit closer towards the middle of the thrust block
its still off by about 3mm
Theres this inner voice that tells me i need to adjust the big shaft bolt
anyone know the specific name for this adjustment /bolt ?

Thumbs up for Ian at Tuffsaws
it only cost me 24 euros to get a 150" x 3/4" blade including postage
to Ireland and it shipped out fast
Good luck with your band saws folks
PS click on the pics
Tomas
 

Attachments

  • new jacking setup.jpg
    new jacking setup.jpg
    123.8 KB · Views: 87
  • Upper wheel.jpg
    Upper wheel.jpg
    55.4 KB · Views: 87
  • Lower wheel.jpg
    Lower wheel.jpg
    65.4 KB · Views: 87
  • clamp a flat bitowood.jpg
    clamp a flat bitowood.jpg
    79.4 KB · Views: 87
Back
Top