Thread: Universal Bandsaw Questions

Hi Dean, my 14" uses 2375mm blades which fit OK. If you want another couple of inches resew height have a look at the Woodgears site. Mathius has a post explaining how to do it.

Blade guide for resawing on a 14" bandsaw

Cheers

Thanks for that info. I have just been looking for information and saw a couple of mentions of Mathius on other sites. I have looked at his site a number of times before. Great stuff.

I should mention that I have been almost exclusively active on the Metalwork Forum after starting here originally. The metalworking machinery became available first. I live a long way from capital cities and have limited choices locally. Now my main issue is with lack of shed space, but that is another matter. I have a table saw in my shed still in its boxes waiting for space to set it up. It is equivalent to the ST54 with sliding table.

I have never owned a bandsaw, except for my horizontal metal cutting saw and have very little experience with them. I had seen mention of a riser block in passing. My searches show me that they are pretty common and available commercially for some saws.

I was told that this saw had "about" 200mm cutting height when enquiring about it. I had to travel over 400km to pick it up. It only has about 160mm cutting height. I have some very nice acacia branches that I wish to cut up. I have actually asked about this on the forum. Probably over a year ago. One of these branches is now cut down and another bigger one is going to be done when I get around to it. I have lots of trees to deal with. Just a clean up of partially dead or otherwise misbehaving trees. I have a 43 acre property. I also have a Rubinia/Robinia tree that needs removing before it dies completely. I have seen Rubinia timber photos in the Timber Milling section.

Dean

The riser block is simply an extension to the frame of the saw. Easy to do and makes the saw much more useful. 100 mm is the most common but can be bigger. If you make the riser yourself it must be absolutely square. Fourteen inches is the basic bandsaw and great to figure out how to tune them up and use them. Roller bearings guides are good if you can find a set to fit your machine.

The riser block is simply an extension to the frame of the saw. Easy to do and makes the saw much more useful. 100 mm is the most common but can be bigger.

I have watched a couple of YouTube videos now. There were mixed feelings about how good the result was tho. I think it would be about how well it was done. 6 inch seems to be common. US of course. A 150mm high block will give me about 300mm of cutting height. I recently acquired some steel scrap including 2 bits of 100mm x 100mm x 20mm plate. I also heve plenty of 100mm SHS up to 6mm wall thickness. Sounds like a riser block to me.

If you make the riser yourself it must be absolutely square.

Easily done as I have a lathe and mill. I could use either.

Fourteen inches is the basic bandsaw and great to figure out how to tune them up and use them. Roller bearings guides are good if you can find a set to fit your machine.

I have already done some simple cutting on it and found it to be very handy. There are some things that need doing. It does not have a fence or mitre gauge. I have a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw with roller bearing guides. I don't think it would be too difficult to make up a couple similar to them. I was not sure whether they were any benefit on a wood saw. The idea had crossed my mind.

Dean

The 100mm SHS sounds like the go, 20mm plate might be a bit of overkill.

Originally Posted by Toymaker Len

The 100mm SHS sounds like the go, 20mm plate might be a bit of overkill.

Do you think so? Hmm.

These are the only bits of 100mm square plate I have. I could cut out some thinner stuff, but why bother when they are the perfect size already. They are exactly 100mm square. Just seemed like it was a sign. It certainly won't hurt.

I will make it a bit longer overall and machine it off square. This will remove some thickness.

Dean

Well the 20mm plate will be the strongest part of the machine so you won't be introducing a weak spot.

Update. The metric bolts/nuts I found were not actually metric, it is just that metric spanners/sockets were the only ones that would fit. Most of the bolts on this saw are like that. 12mm heads/nuts. I have WW sockets which would not fit. I had to find some new nuts and actually found some the same in my container of 1/4" nuts.

I have had the motor out because of a squeaky noise I heard when turning the saw over by hand. Also the capacitor was stuffed. I temporarily fitted the new capacitor yesterday. The noise was not bearings as I thought, but the centrifugal start/run switch loose on the shaft. I fixed this as well. The motor ran nicely on the bench. I then reassembled the whole lower section of the saw. I still have to connect the motor. I made some new feet from HDPE as the old rubber ones were stuffed or missing. Handy having a metalworking lathe. These may not self level on my floor tho and I may need to buy new rubber ones yet. The floor where the saw is to be located is a bit rough from something corrosive leaking in the past. This is only a temporary location tho. As soon as I get my shed organised........

Dean

I finished reassembling the bandsaw yesterday. I reset the tracking and guides as per the directions from Alex Snodgrass. The table was then not square to the blade, which I fixed. It is ready to use, but needs some things done to it. The top rear blade guide bearing is a bit loose on the shaft. It is held onto the shaft with a circlip. The shaft is formed with a flat on it. This allows the bearing to rock a little. Not my idea of precision. The bottom guide bearing is a rubber shield type. It will not spin freely because of the shields. I presume it is meant to be metal shielded like the top one. The bearings appear to be ok. The top wheel securing nut was not tight. I am glad I went over it and checked things like this. The table mount bracket cap screws were not very tight onto the main frame. These required a 6mm allen key for a 5/16" screw.

The belt cover is missing so I need to do something about this. It might be easier to get one made up. I don't have sheet metal equipment and it would probably not look good. I also have more than enough to do at the moment.

The blade tensioning system is not what I would consider perfect. The adjusting bolt had a couple of bends in it so the end wandered around in a circle. I fixed this. I would prefer to see the end contained to avoid the risk of bending. When I fit a riser block I might drill a locating hole for this bolt to sit in and turn the end of the bolt to match, sans thread.

Dean