Bandsaw wheel alignment

The wheels of my bandsaw are misaligned. Blade is to the back of the top wheel, to the front of the bottom wheel. 105 x 3/4 in. @ 3 tpi.

It is a 14 in. King three speed model with a riser block that allows me to resaw to about 12 inches. The top, bottom and riser block all have pins in them for alignment.

Spent most of yesterday working on it. Tried shims under either side of the riser block. No work!

Added a shim behind the top wheel so it would be farther ahead. Helped maybe?? Had to grind down a washer for this.

The tensioner slide to which the top wheel attaches is also sloppy in the guide. This is the way it came. No adjustment possible.

The blade tensioner is a long pointed bolt which fits into a predrilled hole in the top casting. I am starting to think that perhaps this drill hole may be out a little?? causing all my problems.

Any and not all but some ideas would be appreciated. Thanks. <!--emo&:D-->http://69.93.183.37/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif<!--endemo-->

Egon

No specific ideas; but a few comments. If the saw is relatively new, first thing I would do is check with the manufacturer. If it is an old saw and the maker is out of business, then I assume tha problem has existed for a while?? If it is not causing a problem, I wouldn't mess with it. If you start "grinding washers" and adding shims, you might create other problems???

Maybe you should email a copy of your postm to this guy??

tfuller@kingcanada.com

Not familiar with your saw, but it looks and sounds like the standard Taiwan 14 inch model sold by Jet, Grizzly, and everyone else.

With no tension on the top wheel, it will seem sloppy. I have never heard of a problem with the position of the hole where the pointed bolt goes into the top casting.

Your wheels need to be co-planar in addition to aligned. A long straight stick (straightedge, ruler) should touch the top and bottom of both wheels at the same time. I have heard of people who needed to add washers or shim to the bottom wheel mount or shaft to move the wheel out and align it.

A 3/4 inch blade fits on these machines, but requires a blade tension that is at the upper limit of the frame, especially with the riser block. Do you have the same problem with a smaller blade? Could the tension required by this "maximum" blade be bending the frame enough to make the blade run unevenly? You may need to invest in a larger, heavier bandsaw if you are routinely going to cut wood as heavy as in the picture.

Saw is four years old.

A staight edge shows the top of the top wheel as being back from the toothed side of the blade. It would appear either the bottom wheel or the top wheel be moved in/out for alignment.

Need the 3/4 in. blade to be able to make straight cuts in thicker material. The blades do not last long.

Smaller blades also have this problem.

Surely like a good saw but poverty 55 prevails. Should not complain though as the saw has been well used.

Egon

A properly tensioned and tracked blade may not ride in the same place on both wheels. Many of these 14" saws also do not remain co-planer once you tension and track the blade because tracking is accomplished by tilting the top wheel. The crowned tires assist in this, too. The bottom line should be, does the blade stay on the wheels when under tension and cutting and is the cut acceptable.

Egon. This statement sounds really wrong to me.

"The blade tensioner is a long pointed bolt which fits into a predrilled hole in the top casting. I am starting to think that perhaps this drill hole may be out a little?? causing all my problems."

On a 14" Jet. There is no "hole", however that "pointed" tension rod can quickly drill a hole thru the frame, like mine did, and cause all kinds of problems. Primarily, you will not be able to get the required tension. The frame is hollow, at least on a Jet.
One more thing to look at is the threaded rod itself, and the nut that slides along the recess.
The threaded rod on my Jet was of very low quality steel, and the threads were stripped again causing tension problems.
The square nut was a little undersized and had the ability to rotate in it's channel.
I ended up using 5/16" threaded rod, machined my own square nut, repaired the frame and epoxied a boss at the point that the rod contacted the frame.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Cutler

Egon. This statement sounds really wrong to me.

"The blade tensioner is a long pointed bolt which fits into a predrilled hole in the top casting. I am starting to think that perhaps this drill hole may be out a little?? causing all my problems."

On a 14" Jet. There is no "hole", however that "pointed" tension rod can quickly drill a hole thru the frame, like mine did, and cause all kinds of problems. Primarily, you will not be able to get the required tension. The frame is hollow, at least on a Jet.
....snip...

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My Grizzly 14 inch is made from the same castings as the Jet (I owned the Jet before the Grizzly). The Grizzly has a tension release lever, so the pointed bolt does not hit the casting, but there is still a hole (not through, but a dimple in the casting) where the tension adjusting bolt pushes against the casting.
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Charlie.

It sounds as if the Grizzly had a feature that the Jet did not.
I was a little disappointed when I finally figured out what was happening. It took awhile because the threaded rod would drill a little deeper each time it was tensioned, and everything seemed okay, but I was constantly having to readjust for blade drift, it drove me nuts. It also drove me to buy about 3 more bandsaw blades that I didn't need
The whole tension asembly needed to be reworked, and I'd only had the bandsaw a year or so, with infrequent use. Everything works fine on it now. It tensions great.
The wheels are slightly out of plane, but everything is working correctly so I left it alone.

The saw is made in Quebec,Canada by King.

The tensioning rod works well and fits into a dimple. [ not a hole ]

The blade runs at the back of the top wheel and the front of the bottom wheel. The wheels are not coplanar. The blade tracks well.

Blade guides are all of the roller bearing style.

I have 4 ft. infeed and out feed tables attached to the saw base.

Many thanks for all the replies. They have definetly eased my state of mind.

Egon

I have a 14" Grizzly and recently went to change the tires, only to discover that my wheels were not co-planar. I scrounged various shims for both the lower and upper wheels and hit upon the correct combination to align them. I installed them, put the blade on and found that they didn't come into plane. Hmm? I took it back apart and discovered that the upper wheel axle shaft is simply pressed into the pivot bracket which allows the tilt adjustment. The axle shaft was pulling out of the bracket when I tightened the nut securing the wheel to the shaft. I called Grizzly and they said the newer models have a roll pin to lock the axle into the bracket. They said they're not interchangeable, so I drilled and tapped my bracket to accept a set-screw to secure it. So far, so good. Just thought I'd throw that in as something to watch for.
Jerry

As far as I know, all King machines are Asian imports.

Brent

Brent:

You just may be correct.:)

I've probably confused the distributor with where it is manufactured.:confused:

Egon:D