Widen trunion holes for bandsaw table

[Brad Swanson]

I recently received and assembled a Grizzly G0514X2 band saw. I could not get the miter slot square with the blade. There is not enough play in the existing trunion holes to allow for sufficient rotation of the table to square the blade with the miter slot. Would it be a bad idea to drill-out the trunion holes by an additional 1/16" to accommodate more rotation of the table. The current holes are 3/8" according to my caliper so I would hand drill them to 7/16. Otherwise I guess I will have to live with the table being out frint to back about 3/16 of an inch. Thanks.

Brad

[ken masoumi]

I wouldn't widen the holes.
Instead,I would build a bigger table for the bandsaw out of MDF and cut a new miter slot on it parallel to the blade ,clamp/bolt it to the metal table..

[Brad Swanson]

Hi Ken,
That sounds like a great idea. Thanks.

Brad

[John McClanahan]

Go for it. I don't see any problem.

John

[Brad Swanson]

I doubt it would case a problem, but I think I'll hold off on it. I don't know how much I'll be using the miter slow, and building an auxilary table that could be adjusted to the blade with clamps would be pretty straightforward. Its a shame it can't be aligned out from the get-go.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

If this Band Saw is new, I think I would put a call into Grizzly and get a new table. Or at least get and ok in writing to over size the holes. Tom

[ken masoumi]

building an auxiliary table that could be adjusted to the blade with clamps would be pretty straightforward. .

Many build auxiliary tables to take advantage of the wider support it provides ,no matter how accurate the cast iron table is.
I made one a couple of years ago following Tom Casper's design(American Woodworker Magazine),It is very easy to build ,the fence is extremely accurate ,here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpbwH9510MY

[Alan Schwabacher]

The other thing to check is whether it's a problem of the blade or the tracking, rather than the table. If you back off all the guide blocks and thrust bearings above and below the table, does the blade track smoothly without jumping around? Jumping indicates a poor weld. Wandering off the back of the wheel indicates a very poor tracking setting. Get the blade running in the center of the top tire by adjusting tracking (under proper blade tension), then recheck whether the blade is parallel to the miter slot. It's best to do this without power, turning the wheel by hand until you're sure it does stay on the wheels. Once the blade tracks smoothly in the right place, bring the guide blocks and thrust bearings as close as you can get them without pushing the blade out of position. The blade may then cut parallel to the miter slot.

While these comments may be too simple to be relevant to your saw, I thought it made sense for the simple stuff to be mentioned in this thread too.

[Phil Thien]

Have you loosened all four bolts? A friend came to me with the same problem once, he couldn't get the miter slot parallel to the blade. He had three bolts loose, and was pivoting on the fourth. I loosened the fourth, grabbed the table, and turned it way past parallel in the opposite direction. I next got the table close, snugged a bolt, and then fine tuned before locking it down.

[Dave Richards]

As Alan pointed out, it might be the blade tracking that needs to be corrected. Before making a modification to the table or even making an aux. table, make sure you've properly tuned the wheels and the guides for the blade. An excellent reference for this process is The Complete Bandsaw from Workshop Essentials.

[Brad Swanson]

Quick update: I talked with Griz Tech Support and they said it was ok to just slightly bore out the trunion holes. The existing holes are 3/8" so I bored them out with a 7/16" bit and was able to get the table square to the blade. Problem solved.

[glenn bradley]

Quick update: I talked with Griz Tech Support and they said it was ok to just slightly bore out the trunion holes. The existing holes are 3/8" so I bored them out with a 7/16" bit and was able to get the table square to the blade. Problem solved.

Excellent. You are squaring the slot to the blade, correct? I found using a flat magnet of spring clip to hold a steel rule to a the blade gave me a much longer reference for setting up the table and fence. The rule has to be thin enough to fit between to teeth though. Same holds true for a 1-2-3 block or a combo square for setting the table surface perpendicular to the blade. Handy items to have around.

BS Tracking 003.jpg

The table on the G0514's are pretty huge already unless you are dong really large swan neck curves as a regular activity. Adding table weight also means extra effort and strain on the mechanism when tilting. Of course if you don't often tilt, that is moot. The holes on my G0513X allowed the table to swing several degrees. The G0513X was a 'tweener' saw however; cast iron wheels but, made before the switch/offering of cast iron trunnions so the trunnion assembly is a bit different.

Glad you got that worked out. I did a bit of a mod on my G0490X jointer to allow clearance for a link belt (with Grizzly's blessing). To me a bit of fettling is a small price to pay for the savings offered over other Tai-Chi paint selections ;-)

P.s. I got a blank PM from you so, if you had a question I might help with, you may want to resend.