Is it normal for my bandsaw wheel to wobble?

[Matt Armstrong]

I just took delivery of a new grizzly bandsaw. When I open the top wheel cover, if no blade is on the wheel, I can hold the wheel and it racks back and forth a little bit, as if something wasn't tightened. Is this small amount of play on purpose so that the blade can track appropriately? looking through the blade tracking window I can see the wheel shake a little bit when in operation.

As far as I can tell, this looseness is not where the wheel and bearing meet, but in the tensioning mechanism as it needs to slide up and down.

Thoughts?

[Mitchell Andrus]

The blade's tension should take up any slack in the adjustment mechanism. If the top wheel wobbles under tension, it's bent or warped.
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[Caleb Larru]

I just took delivery of a new grizzly bandsaw. When I open the top wheel cover, if no blade is on the wheel, I can hold the wheel and it racks back and forth a little bit, as if something wasn't tightened. Is this small amount of play on purpose so that the blade can track appropriately? looking through the blade tracking window I can see the wheel shake a little bit when in operation.

As far as I can tell, this looseness is not where the wheel and bearing meet, but in the tensioning mechanism as it needs to slide up and down.

Thoughts?


Yes that is normal for the top wheel. The top wheel is adjustable for tracking purposes. There is an adjustment screw on the back below the tensioner that controls it. Once a blade is put on and tensioned, the wheel becomes rigid and travels at the angle the adjustment screw is set.

[Matt Armstrong]

I'm probably not describing it correctly... the wheel doesn't have slack in the axis that the tracking adjustment corrects, it has slack in an axis that would seem to be something you would adjust with another tracking adjustment knob 90 degrees away from the current one.... so it's not as if the top of the wheel wobbles back and forth inside and outside of the chassis, it's as if the front and back of the wheel (the part furthest to the front of the saw and furthest to the rear) can wobble a bit.

[Adam Strong]

Because of the tension and tracking adjustment ability, the top wheel can "wobble" until a blade is installed and tensioned. Install the blade and try to move the wheel around, it should be rock steady. If it still moves around then, you may have an issue.

[Lee Schierer]

Matt, the upper wheel is mounted on a hinge so that the tilt of the wheel is adjustable. With the screw on the blade tensioner you should be able to tilt the top of the wheel toward you or away form you as you stand on the infeed side of the table. If the wheel moves relative tot he side of the hinge the shaft is on then you could have a problem. If the wheel is loose left to right as you look at the saw from the infeed side, then you probably have a problem.

[Pete Bradley]

If it doesn't move when it's running, don't worry about it.

I'm not sure what wheel carrier design this machine uses, but a lot of them have play when not under tension. If the carrier runs in angled ways, it may have an adjustment to move them closer together.