Trouble with my cheap HF metal cutting bandsaw.

Col Defender

Col Defender

Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
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I've had the saw close to a year I think and it has been flawless in cutting out blanks until two days ago when the blade came off the wheels. (I did put a quality Starrett blade on it when I first got the saw.) No trouble until the other day.

There is some wobble in the upper pulley wheel but it is not in the bearings, it is the entire chunk of metal, in the pic below, which produces the wobble. It is either loose in the framework (the red metal) and allowing he upper wheel to wobble and lose the blade or it is tight and nothing moves.



I have tried the adjustments for tracking and for blade tension and for now have removed the upper and lower blade bearing assemblies to be sure that they are not the problem. When I try to make the adjustments, it seems I have it too loose and the blade pops off again, or they are too tight and the whole thing locks up. I have not tried putting a brand new blade on and do wonder if that might help.

Any thoughts?? Production of all new blades is stopped for now!

Thanks.
 
Is the black piece in the picture both tension and tracking? Moving up and down in the slot for tension, and using the jack screws for tracking?
 
Still sounds like your tracking to me. Have you tried adjustment pretty exhaustively? There should be a point at which the blade tracks just up to the wheel rims but not super tight to them.

I had a saw a long time ago, on which the alignment got so bad, the blade would run onto the rims and bend into an L-shaped cross section!
 
And that's what wobbles when you say causes the wobble in the pulley? When you adjust the tracking, are you backing one jackscrew off and turning the other one in to maintain compression on both of them?
 
Have you tried a new blade? They tend to stretch over time, even if still sharp. I've had plenty L-shaped blades, too. A new blade and it was fine.
 
Well, I've seen this many times over a period of several years. I have a machine that must have been the grandfather to that one you have but they are both the same without without changes on yours. It's true, that good bi-metal blades work best at least for me.
That upper "plate" must be free to move in and out as well as up and down. Place your blade on the lower wheel once you have it through both sets of guide wheels. Take up the tension - the big knob at the top of the machine. Tighten as much as you can by hand and without tools or gloves. Now give the switch a quick on and off. Get the blade to move a bit. Does it want to come off or climb the upper wheel? I'll bet it does and it could be because the blade has stretched but more likely because the adjustment screw - bolt has changed position. You will need to turn play with it to get your blade tracking so that it just touches the back of the top wheel without trying to climb the ridge. No there isn't a locking nut there. It will now be a good time to check those back wheel guides. Your blade should either be a hair from contact or just making contact. In the actual cutting the blade should be causing the wheels to spin.
I hope this helps. My machine is probably 35 years old. I've replaced blades and guild wheels but it's a good cutting machine. Oh yes, mine has a grub screw not a bolt for setting blade position. I hope this helps you. I know it should. Take your time. You will get it working right again.
Frank
 
Read the manual for the purpose of the screws

Grizzly writes nice manuals.


Also check the position of the pullys on the shafts.

The bottom pulley can slide back.
Once you have it set correctly, drill a divot in the shaft for the grub screw
 
Well I messed around with the saw for part of another day, got better at adjusting it and even cut out one more blank and then lost the blade again. So I put a new blade on, adjusted and tightened everything as best I could and now I think it's up and running. Finished another 3 blanks. Thanks to everyone for their input including the encouragement. :o
 
Now that you have it running, be sure to let the saw do the cutting. Don't force the material into the blade too hard.
You will develop a feel for doing this.
 
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