Blade guide problem

[mike rawl]

I have a strange problem with my bandsaw that I need some help with. I have a half inch blade on my bandsaw and with the blade tracking on the center of the top wheel the blade guides will not advance enough to get to the gullet. In fact, it only gets about halfway over the blade. Is there any thing that I can do short of getting new blade guides to correct this problem?

[Curt Harms]

What model saw?

[mike rawl]

That is important isn't it it is a Delta 28-206 import 14" with the quick tension release that I bought in the late 90's. It is a good and with the exception of the blade guide issue I haven't had anything to complain about.

[Jeff Duncan]

I'm not familiar with your particular saw, but my advice is to look the guides over carefully. Sometime there is an adjustment to move the entire guide forward which would resolve your issue. At least I know my saw has this setup allowing for a wide range of motion.

good luck,
JeffD

[Nelson Howe]

Additionally, my saw has a separate adjustment for the thrust bearing, which runs behind the back of the blade. You need to change that setting as you change width of saw blades.
Nelson

[Howard Acheson]

Can you post a picture or two? Has this always been a problem or is it something new?

[glenn bradley]

As Nelson said, the entire guide assembly moves up and back and the thrust bearing moves up and back within that assembly. Is the entire assembly not moving forward enough or is the previous thrust bearing setting getting in the way?

[mike rawl]

It is the import version of the Delta 14" and has your normal Delta blade guides. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow. I looked at the bottom guides and they are set next to the gullet as the should be.

The thing that I dont understand is the guides seem to be fine, just for some reason the top guides just never seemed to be able to advance far enough.

[mike rawl]

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I tried to attach pics of my blade guides. I hope this shows the issue I am facing. The thrust bearing can still advance quite a bit.

[Nelson Howe]

It looks to me like the upper thumbscrew allows you to move your thrust bearing, your lower thumbscrew the side guides. Back out the thrust bearing first. Move the side guides forward or back until you have them so they line up with the back of your gullets. Then move your thrust bearing up until it almost touches the back of the blade.

Is this what you have doing?

Nelson

[mike rawl]

The thrust bearing is not an issue. I can have it all the way backed off and I wond have any issues. The problem that I have is the bottom portion, the one that holds the blocks that hold the blade, does not advance enough for the guide blocks to reach the gullets. I have the bottom assembly advanced as far as it can go but that is as far as it will go. I do not have any other sized blades to see it i have the same problem with them but if IRC I have had the same problem with a 1/4 blade. It just seems as if the post moves back and forth just isn't long enough.

[ken masoumi]

This is what I would do,remove the wheel covers,table,blade guard.then push thrust bearings out of the way,loosen the guide blocks,basically start from scratch,,now start by tensioning the belt properly,and readjusting the thrust bearings/guide blocks etc.
I had the same issue with my upper guide block,it was driving me crazy until I realized my blade did not have enough tension:o.
Something as simple as that could create all sorts of problems.

[glenn bradley]

There seems to be a lot of thread showing out the back of the lower guide adjustment. It may just not be clear enough for me to really see but, I think you are saying that even if you loosen the locking "wing-bolt" and continue to turn the knurled knob at the lower rear counter-clockwise, the lower guides do not move any further forward. Is that correct?

[John TenEyck]

It could be that your blade guide assembly is not running parallel with the blade. Move the guide assembly up it's highest position and note where the guides and thrust bearing are in relation to the blade. Then lower it all the way down. Is everything in the same location relative to the blade? If they are you're OK, but if not then you'll need to realign your saw. Put a square behind the blade, flat on the table. When you bring it up to the back of the blade is there a gap at the bottom when the top hits the blade? If so, your upper wheel is not in plane with the lower one and that will cause the guide problem you are having. To fix it take off the wheel guards and table and put a straight edge across both wheels. Does the straight edge hit the top and bottom of both wheels, or is there a gap between the straight edge and the top wheel? I'll bet there is. If so, you'll have to remove the upper wheel and add a shim washer to bring it forward until it touches straight edge. You may need to adjust the wheel tilt mechanism to get the upper wheel parallel with the straight edge; don't let that confuse you with getting the upper wheel coplaner with the lower. Anyway, once both wheels are in the same plane, it should all line up OK.

John

[Lee Schierer]

I have a strange problem with my bandsaw that I need some help with. I have a half inch blade on my bandsaw and with the blade tracking on the center of the top wheel the blade guides will not advance enough to get to the gullet. In fact, it only gets about halfway over the blade. Is there any thing that I can do short of getting new blade guides to correct this problem?


I have a similar saw, mine is a model 28-274C. I was curious about your problem so I went out and looked at my saw and I may have the answer. First, here are some photos of my saw with a 1/2" blade centered on the upper wheel. 263996263997263998263999264000 Note that the adjustment for the guide blocks keys off the knurled nut so when the guide is all the way forward the maximum amount of thread shows behind the knurled nut and the knurled nut is tight against the guide casting. (Note, I would not run my saw with the guides located as shown)

As you can see I have the same guides and they clearly come past the gullets on the upper guide. What you have to insure, and this is where I think your problem lies is that your lower guide is not letting the blade set back far enough try backing off the lower guide thrust bearing as far back as it will go and loosening your guide blocks so nothing touches the blade and see where things line up. You have to set bot the upper and lower guides when you change blades.

I've also found that my 1/2" resaw blade works much better when I set up the saw following the method advocated by Alex Snodgrass (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU) which puts the back of the gullets on the center of the upper wheel.

[mike rawl]

I looked at the blade guide assembly and that looks like it may be part of the problem. I will look at it a little more carefully and shim it at the riser block. Once that it done I will see what else I need to do.

Lee I looked at the bottom guide assembly and the bottom trust bearing is not a problem. I do not know why, but the bottom trust bearing was nowhere near the blade so it wasn't pushing the blade forward.

Thanks for your help guys. I think that this will get me moving in the direction needed to correct the problem.

[mike rawl]

I checked out the Alex Snodgrass video and I think that will help me out a lot too.