Bandsaw adjustment work day?

It’d be nice to get the bandsaws fixed up and adjusted properly – at the moment they all have issues, and it’s actually kind of embarrassing showing new members around: last night’s woodshop safety class with @Keiarra ran into some issues. I’m not especially knowledgeable or experienced, and it would be cool if one or two other people could volunteer to help me get them back in shape.

Might have to be done over two days – one to diagnose what can be fixed and what needs new parts, then another day once we have new parts. But it probably wouldn’t be more than an hour or two each day, I’d guess.

The white Jet bandsaw is in the worst shape – it has the wrong size tires which makes getting the tracking right really difficult – even slightly off and it’ll slide into the gutter off the edge of the tire. The guides and rollers seem impossible to get into the right position, at best the top roller is only making contact with the back half of the blade and the bottom roller is barely making contact at all. The black guides (not sure what they’re called, they’re laterally adjustable right beneath the rollers) are also barely helping, even at the limits of their fore/back adjustment. The blade deflects like crazy, making a controlled, curved cut is really difficult.

The middle Grizzly bandsaw vertical adjustment is broken, the worm on the adjustor knob is barely making contact with the gear. Maybe it could be shimmed, but likely needs a new mechanism.

The other Grizzly just needs the fence repaired, I think the handle/cam that locks it in place has gone missing. Would be also cool to have posted instructions for how to switch speeds, as it’s the best of the bandsaws but stuck at a very low speed at the moment. Might be useful to get different sized blades on the two Grizzlies as well.

While we’re there maybe we can investigate why the pillar drill has some wobble.

Anyway if anyone else who does know these tools at least a little bit is interested, I’d appreciate help either before Oct 9 or after Oct 15th (out of town in between). Otherwise I’m just going to come in and muck around and hope to not make things worse!

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Thank you for bringing attention to this and rallying for help bringing these machines up to snuff!

CC @EricP @JoeN @cfstaley @jamesfreeman

I’d really like to learn how to adjust and fix the band saws. I want process some logs (I think there is a proper term for this), and I am more than sure these are things I will need to adjust on a regular basis. So, if you plan to fix them, please shoot me a line. I can help or stay out of the way, whatever you want. Thanks!

I’ve used the mini (white?) one a few times and it kinda scares me how much I’ve seen it wobble. I’m guessing that’s probably related? I have limited experience using a band saw outside of the ones at asmbly.

Usually just opt to use a jigsaw if I can

There’s a Rikon and a Grizzly, could you please clarify which bandsaw has what issue?

Hey George. Which one in this post is the Rikon? Thank you for bringing it up. The bandsaws get a lot of use, but not a lot of attention.

-I will get some new tires ordered for the Jet.
-The Jet could benefit from a bearing kit vs a cooling blocks.
-I have started going over the saws with another person since I’m not at the shop as much as I used to be.
-The fence that is busted will be repaired(Rikon?). I will probably have a student make a new part for the cam
-We can look at the Grizzly vertical adjustment.

This is the replacement bearing blade guide I have installed as an upgrade on other saws.
JET Carter-Style Bearing Blade Guides for 14" Bandsaws (708127) - Power Saw Accessories - Amazon.com

I will be at Asmbly on Sunday. I can show how to to adjust the bandsaws at 12. It shouldn’t take long. I’m guessing 15 or 20 mins at the most.

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My mistake, I remembered both as being Grizzlies.

The middle of the three has the vertical adjustment issues. The one closest to the pillar drill is missing a fence lock and would benefit from a speed adjustment (unless there’s a specific reason we have it set so slow).

Thanks Joe, see you Sunday at 12!

That bearing kit looks a lot more adjustable / robust than what’s currently on there.

The middle one is a Grizzly. The far one near the drill is a Rikon.

The Rikon probably just needs a speed change on the pulleys. See you Sunday

The Rikon has 2 speeds. The user is free to change the speed back and forth for their specific job. The slower speed is required for resaw, or thicker work in general.

@dannym right, as I said, would be cool to have posted instructions for how to switch speeds, or to include that in the woodshop safety class, or something like that. Either way, that such a thing is possible is not “intuitively obvious to the most casual observer” (as we used to say when I was a mathematician).

The woodshop class went through it at one point, but the class has to encompass a lot of tools now and may not have the time.

It’s a RIkon 10-325. Knob on the lower right (knee height) is the tensioner. It’s a multi-groove V-belt so just make sure it’s in all the grooves not offset. Small pulley on the motor is the low speed, big pulley on the motor is high speed.

One thing to know if you’re troubleshooting- if the tracking won’t adjust properly even with the tracking knob fully out, then that usually means the bearings for the blade wheels is worn out. They are replaceable.

One extra note- the Rikon has a detensioning lever. You’d think it would be easy to adjust the blade tensioner knob once the tension is taken off. But the way that it works, the detensioner by design applies extra force to the tensioner knob and it’s even harder to turn.

I would love to use the grizzly more. If there is a part needed to fix the vertical guide I will gladly volunteer to donate the part needed or whatever to fix it!

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Hopefully we can figure out the issue with the Grizzly. Will let everyone know what we find. Might take you up on the offer. Thank you

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Thank you to @gmossessian for helping fix the bandsaws today.
-We looked over the jet bandsaw. The main issue is the tires need replacing. The tires are on order and it is still redtagged.
-The Rikon was easy. We looked at the speed change.
-The Grizzly was a bit more involved. We removed the vertical support and found that the worm gear did not mesh with the worm wheel. The stop collar had come loose and needed the help of the hydraulic press to set it correctly. We also loctited the set scew. Should be good till the next maintenance interval.
-All of the bandsaws got a once over today.
-We talked about making a video on changing a blade, set the tracking, and how to setup the bandsaw blade supports.

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Thank you for the help today @JoeN! Was great to get some experience doing maintenance on these tools and thanks to what you showed me I should be able to handle many future issues on my own. Let me know when the tires arrive, I’ll come in to help (I’m out of town Oct 9-13).

@EricP is there any chance we could order the bearing guides for the Jet bandsaw that Joe posted above? (Amazon.com)

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