Bandsaw rebuild / Advice wanted

[Keith Woodworth]

Found this forum a couple of weeks ago after I bought a 1975? Delta 14" Bandsaw and I've learned a lot of great informaion from just reading all the bandsaw posts. The saw has dated castings but no serial number plate so I can only do a rough guess on the age. I paid 200 at an estate sale so I know very little of the history, but it appears to be in good shape even if a little disused. My intentions are to do a full rebuild on this thing before I use it, I spent years on my Delta table saw upgrading the fence, motor and link belt, now I wish I had done it all at the start.

So far I have purchased
1.5HP TEFC motor to replace the .5 HP it came with. ( The old motor will end up on my grain mill for faster beer)
Woodhaven Band Saw Fence
Urethane Band Saw Tires
105' Carter and Timber Wolf Resaw Blades
1/2 Link Belt
Taper pin

Looking for a good price on a quality
6" Riser kit

The order I want to place with Iturra Design
Delta Bandrollers
Hybrid Ceramic Thrust Bearing Kit
Spinner Tension Adjuster
High Tension Spring
Wheel Brush
Wheel Shim Kit
Upper Wheel Bearing Set
Lower Wheel Bearing Set
Delta 14” Door Knobs
Blade Tuning Stone

Future improvements
Carter Quick Release
Blade Tension Gauge

Is there anything I should look at replacing that will help with the operation of this saw or make resawing easier/better? Replacing all the bearings may seam like over kill, but I don't want to have to tear it back down over a 30 dollar part after I've spent the time truing everything up.

Thanks,

Keith

[David Kumm]

Take a look at owwm.org. there are about a million Delta bandsaw restores over there. Sealed bearings have about a 20 year life so you are right in changing them. Dave

[Barry Mabery]

You should also check the affiliated vintagemachinery.org site, especially the Wiki Knowledge Base. You will also get multiple opinions on every detail, but you might also want to read the urethane vs. neoprene tire discussions. Whatever the amount of work you put in to it, I'm sure you will be very happy with the outcome and be both miles and $$$ ahead of the many Delta knock-offs.
PS - Can't beat Iturra for good quality components and advice.
Barry

[John TenEyck]

You'll like having the 1.5 HP motor for resawing. That's what I have on my 14" Delta and I have no trouble resawing 10" or more. You might want to rethink the Timber Wolf blades though. They're OK, but there are far better resaw blades out there. I'm using Olson MVP bi metal blades at the moment, 1/2" 3 tpi, and they cut very well although not as smoothly as some others, and stay sharp a long time. Lenox are very well thought off, too, and I think you can get them from Iturra now. I actually used a Powermatic riser kit on my Delta. I had to do a little modification to it since the pin placement isn't the same, but it works fine, and the blade guards fit perfectly. Make sure you tighten the riser kit bolt really, really tightly, to eliminate any slop/flex/movement in that area. I bought a long hex shaft for the upper blade guides from Iturra. I think others have used the Grizzly riser kit successfully also.

John

[Gus Dundon]

I have ceramic thrust bearings on my old saw, I like it because they don't rotate like the metal type. I don't use Timber
wolf for resawing, The weld quality is not really good. Try to consider Highland or Lenox blades for resawing. I have
Haltbar blade for general wood cutting. You're in good place with Iturra. Goodluck in your restoration.

[Keith Woodworth]

Thanks for the blade suggestions, I got the Carter and the Timber Wolf to try out, I will look at getting a Highland and or Lenox also, want to try several blades before I order a supply.

[Carroll Courtney]

Welcome Keith,sounds like you already have a very good plan.Over on the owwm site you can download a manual if you don't have one already.One of the things I like about Delta is the wheels are already crown so that is one hurdle that you don't have to deal with.Myself I like the rubber tires and while your talking to Iturra ask about rubber vs urthane tires go with what the master of BS suggests.I'm right in the middle of restoring my Delta/Rockwell BS which my be from the late 70's or 80's which had the parcial enclose cabinet.I had made some doors for it, installed some hinges to aid in changing belts if ever needed,to enclose the cabinet 100%.I purchase me a s/s switch from Grizzly and installed it inside the cabinet.Good luck and please post progress of your BS so we can all learn---Carroll

[Myk Rian]

Your machine may not need all those bearings. 1975 isn't that old. They do dry out, but if they aren't noisy, use them.

IMHO Carter stuff is over priced bling.
Same with the band rollers and ceramic guides. I make my own guide blocks out of hard wood soaked in mineral oil.

You might be better off spending the bucks for a new riser kit, instead of waiting for one to show up used. They do come along from time to time, but......
Cost will be about the same anyway. With a new kit, you'll get the upper blade guard. Doesn't always come with a used one.

Just my opinion that has worked for me all these years.

[Thomas Canfield]

I would recommend replacing the bearings. I had the lower bearing seize and ruin the shaft which was a major expense.

[Curt Harms]

Your machine may not need all those bearings. 1975 isn't that old. They do dry out, but if they aren't noisy, use them.

IMHO Carter stuff is over priced bling.
Same with the band rollers and ceramic guides. I make my own guide blocks out of hard wood soaked in mineral oil.

You might be better off spending the bucks for a new riser kit, instead of waiting for one to show up used. They do come along from time to time, but......
Cost will be about the same anyway. With a new kit, you'll get the upper blade guard. Doesn't always come with a used one.

Just my opinion that has worked for me all these years.

I agree with Mike about the band rollers. My Rikon came with bearing guides - not Delta or Carter so that may matter - and I made wooden replacements. I like the wooden replacements better, especially with narrower blades. 1/2" blades it doesn't matter but 1/4" blades the bearing guides only contact the very rear of the blade. If the wooden guides run on the teeth worst case is I have to replace the guides. If the bearings run on the teeth, it may mess up the set and now the blade drifts. If it were me, I don't know that I'd get both the spinner tension adjuster and quick release. If you have the quick release you probably won't adjust the tension that often and if you have the spinner tension adjuster it might not be that bad to just relax the tension a few turns if you aren't going to use the saw for a few days.

[Keith Woodworth]

Thanks for all the input, I really don't plan on using it for much other than resawing, but I might get a set of cool blocks, or make some for when I do. The blade tension gauge can be added with out tearing anything down so I can get that at any time, and for 150 bucks I can spin the wheel a few times when I finish for the day. After I get a few more tools like a track saw I can go for the quick release. I was checking to see if I'd missed anything that I would regret not having done at this stage.

[Randy Bonella]

Hi Keith,
I think I have gremlins in my computer (thought I had posted this a day or so ago) but in any case I did a rebuild of a similar machine. I put about $120 into mine including replacing the top wheel bearing. It was a mess and I posted on this forum a bit ago on my rebuild. You can find it here http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?162040-Refurbished-1967-Rockwell-14-quot-Bandsaw&highlight= Take a look and I'd be happy to answer any questions as best I can. In this link is the link to my bearing issue. Fixed it and still going strong after a couple years. Still would be good to get that wheel replaced. Because of the state of my machine when i got it I didn't worry about rebuilding to its old form. I had to make a base for it as It didn't have one when I got it. Amazing to me is that the 1/2hp motor that is standard does a pretty dang good job on 6" hard stock as long as you don't go to fast. I'm looking for a 2nd machine that I can setup for resaw only and with 10"-12" capacity So many pieces of wood that could use the extra 4" or so :)

Good luck with your re-build.
Randy...