Thread: BS 4A Bandsaw blade issue

This is the part where I have heard about a few guys machining or filing the joint wider so there is more adjustment. With the bade off and the bolt slackened off you should be able to to turn the bearing block clock wise and anti clockwise a bit.
The bolt I am talking about is on page 35 of the manual figure 53
http://cdn0.grizzly.com/manuals/g0622_m.pdf

I could measure the gap on mine if you like?

Dave

Hi Mick,
we must have the same Bandsaw or they were made by the same person.
I had exactly the same problem....exactly. I picked mine up cheap because the previous owner couldn't keep a blade on it. He had stored it right behind his metal polishing buff since the 1980's so when I got it home it needed a total rebuild which highlighted a few problems.
First problem was the angle bracket that holds the head frame to the base and incorporates the hinge. The angle part didn't match the angle on the headframe where the two parts met. Without a milling machine I used the 9" angle grinder on the bracket until they did meet. You probably don't have that problem but it might be worth a look.
The second issue is like yours. I couldnt get the guide rollers to twist around enough to get the blade perpendicular to the base. In the Grizzly manual it says to loosen the hex bolt and twist the bracket. Thing is I had run out of twist so I removed the bracket and filed, and filed,and filed (remember I don't have a mill....yet) the mounting slide until I did have enough twist. the second photo shows where. I didn't file the area under the hex bolt as the alignment issue needed to be corrected back in the mounting slide area.
If this is confusing I can pull the saw apart and show exactly what I did.
The saw has done hours of work and not thrown a blade yet.
Hope this helps

Phil

ps. Sorry about the quality of the photos and I am still learning the arrows and text bits.

Hi Phil,
Does your have movement is you undo the bolt?

Dave

Originally Posted by Dave J

Hi Phil,
Does your have movement is you undo the bolt?

Dave

Hi Dave
it has such small movement you would hardly call it adjustable

Phil

Hi,
Mine has a bit of movement, maybe the guy before me did something, but from memory it looks factory in that area.

Dave

Just to complicate things, you actually have too issues here. One is the blade tension but the other is cutting square.
Squareness of cut can be influenced by a number of things. One is machine design/ manufacture as discussed but 2 others to think about are blade wear and feed rate.
If the blade is worn on one side it will tend to cut more on the other side and so veer off line. Check the blade condition - that it has not got missing or clogged teeth or some have not been blunted by running over some weld.
The other issue, feed rate, can also cause the blade to run off line. It is important to set the downwards feed (difficult with th cheap saws I know) so that the tooth gulllets are not chockers. Try a larger pitch blade (more room) or a slower feed (less material cut per tooth pass). Blade sharpness also has an influence here. Basically if the blade is pushed into the work faster than it can cut, it will twist in the cut.
A bandsaw is a useful tool, but at the same time it is not a high precision tool. If you want spot on square you should be looking at a cold saw or similar. I usually think that if I can get a cut square to within say a mm over 30-40mm I'm doing well.

Michael

Originally Posted by Michael G

A bandsaw is a useful tool, but at the same time it is not a high precision tool. If you want spot on square you should be looking at a cold saw or similar. I usually think that if I can get a cut square to within say a mm over 30-40mm I'm doing well.

Not super precise, but you should be able to get get better than that though. My BS-4A cut almost perfectly square straight out of the box (that is after I tightened up the blade adjustment as hard as I could). Of course I mucked that up with some tinkering - but I found with a bit of trial and error that I regained the original squareness (0.5m over 90mm) in both axes. Part of the trick is to make sure there's not too much weight on the blade pushing into the work. I sometimes hold the weight of the saw until the blade is full depth into a cut before letting it go on something I'm nervous about. Not exactly set and forget, but then again, I'm not doing hundreds of cuts either. Cheers - Mick

Originally Posted by 4-6-4

.... Has anyone had any success in silver soldering band saw blades. 4-6-4

Yep --

• grind (carefully so not too much heat that might de-temper too much of the blade) bevels on the ends of the blade to increase the contact area (about 0.5cm overlap) - Do get the bevels and ends joined up the right way round - producing a perfect join with the teeth backward is frustrating
• use a jig to hold the ends so the blade straight - must have an air gap around the actual join so the join can be heated, while the metal of the jig limits heating of the surrounding blade.
• 245 cadmium bearing silver, spotless cleanliness and heaps of flux
• not too much heat but enough just on the join! - I've not tried it with straight propane torch yet only with oxy-propane in Dad's shed. It won't be long 'til I try it here in Melbourne (I actually hope it is a while but blades will be blades)