My 2014 Bandsaw

Checkout one of my most ambitious projects that I built in the second half of 2014.

Click on picture to view construction in chronological order.

Bandsaw 44 - Table update

As posted earlier when I fitted the new table to the saw I neglected to make sure the blade was correctly tensioned and aligned in the blade guides, so when I did setup things correctly the table ended up to the right of the blades true position - bugger. This in turn threw out the alignment of my freshly made insert so I had to butcher that to make it fit.

Wait there's more, then I noticed yesterday the table was also not parallel to the front of the saw - skewed to the right a bit. This morning we are going back to fix all that.

Bandsaw 43 – Guide arm skewed

In this post I am rectifying something that is the result of my previous effort to rectify something that was overlooked originally when I was building the saw last year that should not have slipped past me but it did so I failed to rectify the original stuff-up - confused now !
With regard to the last fix I noticed the the blade guide arm was skewed to the right with respect to the main frame and in fixing that I noticed today while cleaning the saw that the same arm was now not at right angles to the table but angled back a bit - hmm.



The blade guide arm which slides up and down for cutting height mates with that length of timber with the four screws. All of that had to come off to fix the skew issue and and when I fitted that bit of timber back I neglected to drive the screws back into the original holes. I lined up the top screw OK but failed to notice the timber was not parallel to the tension block (to the right a bit at the bottom) so the bottom screw ended up to the right of the original hole.

Bandsaw 42 - Update oops

Seniors moment during construction - last year!
Noticed today while using the saw that the whole upper blade guide arm assembly is skewed with respect to...err...everything else! How did that happen? with a good eye for true & square even before I pick up a square that should not have slipped past me!

Backtracking dismantling stuff to find out where the skew problem lies.

Bandsaw 41 - New table update

In the previous workshop post I routed a track down the table for cross cutting, here I've done another track across the table for rip cuts.



This is where I finished the previous session with a track down the table…

Bandsaw 40 - New table

Further to this just finished routing a 12mm mitre track down the table for cross cuts. Next job is to do one across for rip cuts. Oldies reading this should note the make of the (all metal) mitre gauge!

The Ryobi trim router was a good buy.

Bandsaw 39 - Replacement table

Finally got around to replacing the temporary table that was a rush job so I could start cutting wood on the saw.



With the old temporary table removed you can see stuff that's normally out of view; the bottom wheel and lower blade guides.

Bandsaw 38 - Full view photo

It turned out to be quite a large beast! Using a old measuring stick I'm 6'2" and the saw is 6'9", no wonder 

I had to use a small stepladder when working on the top wheel tensioner assembly which also facilities blade tracking.

Bandsaw 37 – The old tyre

This is the lower wheel tyre that I just replaced because it has stretched quite a bit.

I mentioned in the previous post that I did not do a good job of cutting out around the valve…and you can see that in this picture. I suspect this contributed quite a bit to the tyre stretching.

Bandsaw 36 – Tyre change

While replacing the damaged lower wheel outer bearing flange it got me thinking just how much load/strain is placed on the lower (driven) wheel and it’s related components. When fitting the tyre back onto the wheel I noticed that is had stretched quite a bit as it went onto the wheel too easily!

Putting the tyres onto the wheels last year was a real struggle so why has this one stretched ? will the upper tyre the same ?

Had a closer look and can see why it stretched, I cut out to much around the valve base and created a week spot. Decided to put a new tyre on the wheel so off to Kmart to buy another 12” kids bike inner tube for $5.00.

Same procedure as before cut neatly and exactly around the inside middle of the tube.

Bandsaw 35 - checking wheel balance

Balancing a wheel can take time.

Normal practice is to remove weight by boring out material around the circumference but I prefer to add weight in the form of metal washers.

During the balancing process I use masking tape to hold the washer(s) on to the side of the rim and when finally satisfied with the position (or run out of patience) I then glue and screw them on.

Bandsaw 34 - Prepping for wheel balancing

It's not a good idea to balance the wheel as it is...on it's 25 mm shaft. Bearings of this size have far to much friction so what I do is temporarily mount the wheel onto a smaller set of bearings (10mm) that have a much lower (relative) friction.

I don’t have any small bearing left so we had to 'borrow' the pair of thrust bearing from the lower blade guide assembly.

Bandsaw 33– Flange repairs done

Back in the shop and had a tidy up, here is video to show the results of my efforts to minimize wheel wobble.

Before I put the wheel back onto the saw I will need to balance it again so that’s the next task.

Bandsaw 32 - Mounting new flange

The main challenge when mounting bearing flanges onto either side of a wheel is to minimize wheel wobble. Run out is not an issue here, that can be taken care of later. The purpose of the 4 holes in the wheel is to allow clamps to be passed through to hold the flange bearing during the gluing stage.

The wheel needs to be mounted on the workbench so I removed the lower shaft from the saw and made a temporary mount for it which is clamped to the workbench.

Bandsaw 31 - New bearing flange

I have made a new flange block and pressed in the 6205 bearing.

Bandsaw 30 - Creaking noises???

While using the beast today noticed a strange creaking noise emanating from down below underneath the cutting table? Stopped the saw and removed the lower blade guard box to have a look and noticed that the front bearing was separating itself from it's wooden flange which has cracked/split on one side.But wait...the front bearing can't move forward because it's secured with a hose clamp on the 25mm bearing shaft? Had a look around the back of the wheel and no hose clamp to secure the rear bearing - my bad. So...except for the front bearing everything else (wheel and rear bearing flange) has been slowly working it's way along the shaft to the rear exposing the front bearing - good thing I stopped to investigate!

The bearing should be flush with the flange - which has split!

Bandsaw 29 - Base with castors

The saw is finally sitting on it's base which I just finished constructing.

Bandsaw 28 - Excessive vibration

When the saw is running there is a lot of shaking so went looking for the cause(s) of that and discovered there was excessive flexing between the saw base box and the main vertical beam - we need some more bracing.



Added a bracing panel with another one below the top one (out of picture) which fixed a lot of the shaking and vibration.

Bandsaw 27 – Upper blade cover

Bandsaw 26 - Temporary table

Friday is cleaning day so got my part of that chore done so I can head off to the workshop for a little session before I take Holly for her rehab walk.

As I said before this is only a temporary table so I can start cutting wood! Found a nice clip-on halogen lamp to light the work area - perfect.