Grizzly G0514X2 bandsaw vibration help

[Jon Prouty]

Looks like a solution has been worked out with Grizzly that works for us both. A new saw is being prepared and will be assembled and nickel tested prior to shipment. I hope to have the new saw in the next week or so and the old one will be out of my life. I have high hopes for a positive resolution with a working saw in my shop soon. I am pleased with how Grizzly has responded.

Will keep this this thread updated as things progress.

Jon

[Dustin Brown]

Wow, I really hope I don't have to go through the same thing. I just got my 514X2B in yesterday and set it up and test ran last night, same exact situation you describe. Called grizzly this morning and they are sending me a new lower wheel. I really hope I won't have to go through all that and wait a month or more before I can use my brand new bandsaw. I didn't have any problem with my dust collector or jointer. I was going to order a new planer next week, but I may wait and see if I need to find an alternative.

[John Coloccia]

I know this is late, but it's just a helpful hint if you run into something like this again. You can often times figure out where vibration is coming from just by looking at the frequencies involved. If it were coming from the blade, the frequency would be somehow linked to the frequency of the band going around...sometimes 1x....sometimes 2x depending on the problem....but the band goes around fairly slowly so it would be obvious.

If it was the motor, the motor turns at 1750 RPM....it would almost be like a buzz. Again, it would be obvious.

I know about what 200 beats per minute sound like, and I guesstimated the frequency to be maybe 3 times that...maybe a bit more. A couple of seconds of calculating how quickly a 19" wheel must turn to get 3500 FPM (just look in the specs) gives 700RPM. So there's your culprit.

My 514X2 is pretty smooth, BTW. It's not perfect and I'd trade it for a Minimax in a heartbeat, but it's a good value when it's working right.

[Jon Prouty]

Wow, I really hope I don't have to go through the same thing. I just got my 514X2B in yesterday and set it up and test ran last night, same exact situation you describe. Called grizzly this morning and they are sending me a new lower wheel. I really hope I won't have to go through all that and wait a month or more before I can use my brand new bandsaw. I didn't have any problem with my dust collector or jointer. I was going to order a new planer next week, but I may wait and see if I need to find an alternative.

Good luck - my fingers are crossed that the next one is going to be right. Did you check out the videos on youtube to see if your saw looks like it is doing the same?

[Dustin Brown]

Yeah I checked them out, looks like the exact same thing. With no blade on the table is vibrating back and forth almost 1/4" total travel. When I removed the wheel and ran the motor only I got the same result, just a slight hum but smooth operation.

I didn't even notice it was vibrating until I installed the table. I had tensioned up the 1" timberwolf blade they sold me so I could check that the wheels were coplanar while I had easy access. Wheels were DEAD on, never expected this. I do notice that when the blade is tracking on the upper wheel, the tips of the teeth run about flush with the left side of the bottom wheel.

I hope the new one works out for you, I've seen a lot of people raving about this model. Would be nice to see.

[Jon Prouty]

I'm going to be curious to find out how the testing in house goes before they ship me a new one. I wonder if there is a bad production run or if we were just unlucky. I'm surprised they started with a new bottom wheel for you - hope the new one you get is better than the one they sent me.

Like I said, I'll keep this thread alive until final resolution.

[Kevin Goss]

Did you loosen the motor bolts to give the v-belt some slack. My grizzly was too tight causing a lot of vibration and I slid the motor down 1/8" and it has a lot less vibration.

[Jon Prouty]

An update:
Grizzly sent another saw - this one is much better. They appear to have opened the crate to test it but I'm not sure how they did it. Before shipping they promised to unpack the saw and verify no vibration. They definitely did something but seeing as how the paper was still stapled to the blade and the table was in the original box with cosmoline my suspicion is that they didn't run it full up. Whatever, that is a nitpick because as soon as I uncrated the saw I plugged it in and gave it a test. Much better than the first saw I had!

I decided to reuse all my old saw's table, fence and miter guide. I had scratched my original table doing something dumb and had a little surface rust showing. I didn't want to send the old scratched table to Grizzly so I sent them back the new table with the old saw (left in original packaging).

Once I got everything moved around (old saw hot and new saw in) I installed the same blade I had been using in the other tests. Said a prayer and fired it up. I am much happier now with how it runs. I still have a little vibration but I can live with it because bit is so much better than saw number 1.
Here is the nickel test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKPDt1cFVZc

The old saw was packed up and picked up by UPS Freight last week. I was happy to see it go.

I am thankful that Grizzly stood behind their product and did right by me. I am considering my next purchase (new cyclone dust collection) and Grizzly is back in contention.

I hope to give the saw a proper workout in the next month or so.

Anyway, that is the latest and greatest.

[glenn bradley]

For what it's worth my saw became almost silent with the addition of a link belt.

[Jim Sevey]

Glad it is being worked out. I know the occasional problem is going to crop up. Tools, after all, do break or have glitches. Grizzly customer service has always been first rate and I got a stomach ache reading your posts thinking that Griz might be going downhill in customer service. I hope it work out for you. My new 15" planer is due to be delivered in about 10 days.....always nervous when you punch "go" for the first time. Good luck!

[Jon Prouty]

Gave the saw a workout today... Processing some acacia logs. My chainsaw didn't fair as well (started getting a lot of smoke from the bar - electric chainsaw working for a few hours ripping really put the strain on). Now the saw with a 1" 1 TPI blade ran through the wood like a hot knife through butter! I used the saw to cut all the checked ends off. Only problem is the dust collection plugged up and filled the lower cabinet with dust - I should have been checking it but kept running great (my bad - I'll watch it in the future). Here are some pics of the mess.

Loving the power of this saw - so far so good.

Jon