Old iron, best iron? (24" bandsaw)

[Dennis Aspö]

Truck called, they left the saw outside the garage, it's apparently a little bit taller than the garage door... Now it's up to me to get it in. Yikes....

Also been reading up on the pros and cons of direct drive motors and it seems to me a direct drive motor is better (runs quieter and smoother, less vibration), if you got 3ph power so it can spin up that heavy wheel from a standstil better. So I'm keeping it like that even if it needs a new motor.

[Dennis Aspö]

Well I am not getting this inside myself... Called for help and on saturday I should have it inside.

[Jim Matthews]

Noudattaen perinne, olet surkea.

When you bring the saw into the garage,
remove the cast iron table, if you can.

Rather than wrestle with something so large,
and risk dropping it - may I recommend you remove the section of
your garage door that is in the way.

rollers.JPG

[Dennis Aspö]

I have removed the upper wheel and cast iron table last night infact, so it wil fit inside the garage door now (it is a door that slides up). But it is still too heavy and I am alone.

I think I might have been able to roll them off using the same principle as your picture shows, it was my original plan. If the guy who left the saw had oriented it straight towards the door, now I'd have to roll it off the pallet and then turn it, or turn the pallet, I cannot do these things alone.

They will come on saturday morning and lift the saw inside the door using a tractor forklift, then we can roll it off using round logs as your picture shows and place it at its final destination.

The saw is sitting outside right now wrapped in a tarp.

---

I also removed the covers that encapsulated the wheels and blades, they are made from wood and are painted metallic green. I think they are an addition after the saw was built, due to safety rgulations, this saw is likely old enough that it was made when those things where not required. I found the company that used to make this saw and they stopped making them in 1960, so this saw is no younger than 54 years old, but likely a bit older.

When I took off the wheel, I was told it'd be easier to remove the whole housing with bearings and all than remove the wheel itself but I screwed up and I removed the shaft with bearings, except it wouldn't come out since the bearing is held captive on the other side, So I had to put it back but couldn't get it back in, the bearing on the far side is supposed to fit into this "holder" which also goes up and down via a screw, this allows you to tilt the blade. On the plus side the bearings look to be in top notch condition.

I took the wheel itself off instead using one of those 3-pronged pulling things. Still need to figure out how to get the shaft and bearings back in later though.

The table was easy to remove, just 4 bolts, but it's heavy as heck! Also found the saw did have a cast iron fence, I had not seen it in the pictures but that's a nice thing to have, don't have to make one now.

I had no time for pictures, perhaps on sunday or saturday.

[Dennis Aspö]

Got the machine inside today and I took some initial pictures. I am having problems getting the shaft and bearings back into the "holder" that keeps it in place and also tilts the whole mechanism. I can't get it back in, tried banging on it and jiggling the holder up and down while doing so, I even tried using the plate on the other side and screwing it in but that didn't work either. I just don't know how to get this thing back in and I am afraid of damaging it.

side view


The "holder" into which the bearing needs to be pressed:


I dunno if I need to try and remove the whole thing and take it to a machine shop or something.

Here's the main part of it where it sits in my shop now, I don't think it'll be moving in the first place. Took a tractor with forklift and 3 people to move it inside, and thats after the top wheel and table came off.



Blade guides, rather primitive but if they work who cares. Seems to be a brass piece on one side and a wood piece on the other, one big bearing at the back.

[Jim Matthews]

Is it possible to suspend the wheel, from above?

The tolerance on the bearing land are "tight"
there's little room for alignment errors.

If you're muscling around something so heavy as a 24" cast iron
wheel and sliding it onto a shaft that small - remind me never to
challenge you to arm wrestling.

If there is a load bearing beam in your garage, or a pair of taller ladders handy
you could sling the wheel to take the load while you get it back on.

Best of luck
(* you still suck - $200? *)

[Dennis Aspö]

The wheel is not that heavy, it's a spoked wheel like the bottom one so not a lot of material, 10-15kg at most I think. But no that wheel is on the ground and won't be a problem to put back on again later I believe, a bolt is screwed into the center of the shaft, large washer and nut are put on before and by screwing on the nut it'll push it the wheel back on to the shaft, same principle as with a lot of electric motor shafts.

The wheel itself has no bearings, the shaft itself turns and has two large bearings. It's getting those bearings back into the "holder" again that is giving me grief.

And yes 200, plus the shipping and the cost of paying the guy with the tractor, so 280 total or so, so far.

[Jim Matthews]

Gotcha.

That's above my paygrade.
Any machinist nearby to query?

Stop whinging about the outrageous cost.
Most of us hate you enough, already.

It will probably resaw straight the first time, too.
Some guys have all the luck.

Even in Finland.

[Dennis Aspö]

Sorry I thought you where asking about that. Anyway I got the upper wheel shaft assembly reassembled today, a matter of proper alignment was all it was. Then I got the upper wheel back on, which was real easy, just tapped it back on with a rubber mallet. There's some sideways wobble on the upper wheel too. I'm not sure what the reason is or what can be done about it, or if it's even a big deal?

Here it is with the wheel back on:


And here's the blade, I think it's a write off. While I am pretty sure the motor is not the original anymore, I think this might have been delivered with the saw from the factory


Closeup of the blade guide:


Lower blade guide:


Upper wheel closeup:


Closeup of the upper tire, it appears to be full of shavings, there was also a track in the middle which I think where made from the rusty teeth on this blade. I tried sanding it down and then recrowning but it's slow going, this was after I had sanded and turned the wheel by hand for some time.


I then decided to reassemble the table, it's insanely heavy but I got it up, also the fence mounted:


Pretty darn rusty but half an hour later and lots of elbow grease it looks like this:




Not perfect but good enough for half an hours work.

What I am going to try and do is keep on with my recrowning attempts and see if the blade will track any better, right now the blade goes back and forth when I spin the wheels. I am not sure what role the wobbling wheels have in this.

[Brian Kincaid]

Dennis, you should order a new blade or two. It might be the blade weld causing the blade to go back and forth.

-Brian

[Dennis Aspö]

Yes I ordered a new 1/2" 3TPI blade from Tuff Saws in the UK, I wasn't sure what I needed or of the exact size. But that combo is apparently the best all-purpose blade based on what I've read. I'll probably acquire more blades later but this will do for now.

Using the formula I found here I was able to determine I needed around a blade around 175" long:
http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodwork...-blade-length/

Instead of measuring at the middle point though I measured at both minimum and maximum tension to get the shortest and longest blades I could use, and got something near the middle of the two values.

[Dennis Aspö]

Apparently the brake on the saw has a high chance of being made from asbestos, any idea how I should proceed? I took the whole lever off and taped up the part with the pad in a plastic bag. I wonder if I can just hand it in to someone who can replace it with a new brake pad. I guess I should wipe down the saw too with a rag & dishwater.

I had a guy over who looked at the saw and who is very good at these old machines and he thought the wobble was a fart in space, to paraphrase. In his opinion lots of these old industrial saws are like that and it's mainly americans on youtube with their small and lightweight 14" bandsaws who need to be that anal about a little wobble. Test running the motor showed that the saw did not vibrate any, exceptionally quiet in my opinon. So we'll see how it behaves when my new blade gets here.

[Brian Kincaid]

Dennis,
I don't have any ideas about the brake, but can you add some clarification on the blade going 'back and forth'
From the perspective of where you feed wood to blade is it wobbling 'side to side' or 'to and away' Also how dramatic is the wobble, a kerf width or less?

I have diagnosed a few of these before, since you noticed it I hardly think it to be a 'fart in space'.
Some are tire issues, others are blade weld, others are kinked blade, etc.

-Brian

[Dennis Aspö]

It is side to side runout now that I believe I found the proper english terminology, I have ordered a dial indicator so I can see how much it is.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Dennis, you can likely have a car brake shop look at relining the brake, or ignore it which is what I'd do personally. They likely can, or can ship it somewhere.