Grizzly G1012 Used

[Michael Spivack]

I recently purchased a Grizzly G1012 bandsaw with a number of blades up to what looks like an 1" and a Half blade with 3tpi. I'm new to this bandsawing but I wanted to try my hand at resawing. The saw was a steal from a auction and I couldn't pass it up. I only had to replace the upper guide block, and rewire the magnetic switch to work correctly. I have a cheap central machinery one from harbor freight that is a nightmare to use and I'd like to move over to use this one as my main saw even if its painful to change blades.

First thing before I even bid on the saw was to check for wheel wobble and parallel and coplanar. They are still just fine and I am still able to get the wheels coplanar and parallel. I tried a 1" 2 - 3 tpi blade that he gave me, not sure on brand.

I guess my concern and hopefully I'll be able to upload these pictures. I can't for the life of me keep the blade from running forward when I manually turn it 6 to 10 times it slides so the teeth are completely off the wheel on the bottom wheel and about half the teeth length on the top wheel. This is of course without adjusting the alignment screw up on the top wheel and keeping it coplanar. I could put the blade all the way to the back of the wheel behind the crown and it will stay but seems to far back for my taste.

I guess my question is.... Is it ok to run the bandsaw full tentioned and with the alignment screw screwed in a good amount just to keep the blade aligned even if its not coplanar. If its not ok, could I get some recommendations like changing the tires, reseating the wheels. Oh there's no adjustment mechanism for the bottom wheel that I can see. It almost seem like the tensioner is not putting enough tension on the blade and I need to tilt the top wheel to get it enough tension. I also am a bit afraid of tensioning it too much maybe someone can help me understand cause there's not meter or gage on the tensioning knob, just how far the block sits above it's threshold.

Ugh I think I put too much. Help if you can guys. I'm a novice too so please be nice.



Thanks,
Michael

top.jpgbottom.jpg

[Benjamin Miller]

It's much more important for the blade to track consistently on both wheels than for the wheels themselves to be perfectly concentric. Setting the wheels coplanar is a good starting point, but what you really care about is how the blade tracks.

I would not worry about overtensioning a 1 1/2" blade. The right amount of tension for a blade that wide is somewhere between "metric crapton" and "holy smokes". On my 18" bandsaw, it takes all the force I can muster to even approach enough tension for a 3/4" blade.

Perhaps the best course of action would be to verify the saw works well with a brand new blade. I find that on my saw, a 1/2" 4tpi blade works perfectly well for resawing, and it costs a whole lot less than a deeper blade.

[Michael Spivack]

upper hinge together.jpgupper hinge sep.jpg

Ok a little further inspection behind the upper wheel reveals that the upper wheel sliding bracket and upper hinge assembly were cracked and I noticed that the upper wheel would not stay parallel when pressure was applied. 50 dollars and hopefully that'll fix it. I'll let you guys know.

[Michael Mayo]

I have the same saw or one almost identical. I got mine for a song. The upper wheel adjuster was broken on my saw as it seems like that was very common on those saws due to the crappy metal they used to make that important part. The previous owner had repaired it making a whole new part from scratch which is miles better than the original with nice heavy steel. That piece being broken would cause all kinds of blade tracking problems IMHO. I added Carter guides to mine at Christmas time and it makes it a whole different saw. A brand new blade on that saw will have you resawing with no issues.