Stephen Bannasch
08-29-2014, 5:54 PM
I'm trying to figure out what happened to our Grizzly G0514X2 bandsaw and how to fix it.
After severely over-tightening the blade tension the top wheel now has a great deal of play when rotating it in the vertical axis -- if I grab the wheel on the left and right sides I can easily rotate it back and forth about 1/2" in the vertical axis. I'm pretty sure this play wasn't present before -- but am not certain.
---- details ----
We have a Grizzly G0514X2 bandsaw in a shared shop. Someone who wasn't familiar enough with the bandaw noticed the blade was loose and tightened it by using the tension adjusting wheel instead of the tension lever. Later I came in to use it and used the tension lever to tighten the blade. Later I found out this increased the tension to 8!
First thing I noticed was the tracking was off -- to the controls side of the top wheel -- and I couldn't adjust it to the center. Then I noticed the tension was set at 8 so I started the blade tension setup procedure and lowered the tension to 4.5 using the adjusting wheel. I started the saw and continued lowering the tension until seeing the blade start to flutter. Then I starting increasing tension using the adjusting wheel. Thats when I noticed that when I increased the tension with the adjusting wheel the whole bandsaw blade rotated far enough in the vertical axis to touch one of the guide bearings (which I had adjusted to be as far from the blade as possible).
At this point I released all the tension, removed the blade, and looked more closely at the top wheel.
While I never checked the vertical axis play in the top wheel before it doesn't seem correct. The wheel does need play in the horizontal axis to be able to set the tracking -- but I can't imagine any reason for play in the vertical axis.
I made a short youtube video showing the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCdrBGN3GVk
If you have a similar Grizzly bandsaw can you check and let me know if there is a bunch of top-wheel play in the vertical axis on your saw.
Assuming this is a problem anybody know how to fix it? I haven't taken off the top wheel yet -- but this appears to be a sensible next step to look more closely at what's possibly bent in the alighment mechanism. I tried unscrewing the hex cap screw holding on the wheel, it moved about 1/8 of a turn and stopped (with a medium hard torque using a small allen wrench) -- at that point I tightened the cap screw and decided to do some research.
Thanks for any tips.
After severely over-tightening the blade tension the top wheel now has a great deal of play when rotating it in the vertical axis -- if I grab the wheel on the left and right sides I can easily rotate it back and forth about 1/2" in the vertical axis. I'm pretty sure this play wasn't present before -- but am not certain.
---- details ----
We have a Grizzly G0514X2 bandsaw in a shared shop. Someone who wasn't familiar enough with the bandaw noticed the blade was loose and tightened it by using the tension adjusting wheel instead of the tension lever. Later I came in to use it and used the tension lever to tighten the blade. Later I found out this increased the tension to 8!
First thing I noticed was the tracking was off -- to the controls side of the top wheel -- and I couldn't adjust it to the center. Then I noticed the tension was set at 8 so I started the blade tension setup procedure and lowered the tension to 4.5 using the adjusting wheel. I started the saw and continued lowering the tension until seeing the blade start to flutter. Then I starting increasing tension using the adjusting wheel. Thats when I noticed that when I increased the tension with the adjusting wheel the whole bandsaw blade rotated far enough in the vertical axis to touch one of the guide bearings (which I had adjusted to be as far from the blade as possible).
At this point I released all the tension, removed the blade, and looked more closely at the top wheel.
While I never checked the vertical axis play in the top wheel before it doesn't seem correct. The wheel does need play in the horizontal axis to be able to set the tracking -- but I can't imagine any reason for play in the vertical axis.
I made a short youtube video showing the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCdrBGN3GVk
If you have a similar Grizzly bandsaw can you check and let me know if there is a bunch of top-wheel play in the vertical axis on your saw.
Assuming this is a problem anybody know how to fix it? I haven't taken off the top wheel yet -- but this appears to be a sensible next step to look more closely at what's possibly bent in the alighment mechanism. I tried unscrewing the hex cap screw holding on the wheel, it moved about 1/8 of a turn and stopped (with a medium hard torque using a small allen wrench) -- at that point I tightened the cap screw and decided to do some research.
Thanks for any tips.