My new old Mini Max 17" S45 bandsaw, looking for any model info and tips...

[Randall J Cox]

Just picked up this used MiniMax S45 bandsaw in very good condition. It has a 3/4 in blade on it. it runs quiet and smooth and the blade seems to track nicely. Does anybody out there have a BS like this that may have learned some operating tips to pass along to new user? Also looking for the operator manual in pdf if someone may have a copy to share. The motor says it was built in 10 of 1995 which looks about right. It is Italian made, 230V, 60 Hz, with 1.8 HP single phase motor running at 3400 rpm. Its the two tone green model with cast iron wheels. Looks like about 12 in of sawing height. its 330 lbs, so not real heavy for this size BS. Any info appreciated. Thanks. Randy345510345511345512

[lee cox]

I have one just like it. Mine is a 1994 model. They are bigger than 17 inches and are considered an 18 inch bandsaw. There actual diameter is 450 mm hence the S45. If you call Minimax they will help you with a manual for the 1995 model. There is really not much info in the manual. I have the pdf for the 1994 model. I really like mine. It is the smoothest bandsaw I have owned. I owned a couple of Rikons before this one. I added a Kreg bandsaw fence with a 24 inch fence.

I have a thread over on owwmg.org started for my S45 bandsaw. It is called bandsaws covered.

I really like the size of this bandsaw since I have a small shop. I kind of wanted a Delta 20 inch but I just don't have the room for it. I think this is going to be really good for me. I have not used a 3/4 inch blade but I think it should handle it. I have used 3/8 and 1/2 inch Lenox blades. They are so smooth I am in aww every time I spin the wheels. It takes very little effort to spin the wheels and so smooth, did I say smooth mine is.

[Geoff Crimmins]

If you do a search of this forum you'll find several good threads about the S45, including one with some good information from Erik Loza. From what I've read, the S45 isn't as heavy as the MM16 and MM20 saw, but is still a very good, capable bandsaw.

--Geoff

[lee cox]

The latest MM16 are heavier than a S45. I wonder how the older MM16 like from 2000 compare? The older MM16 are also lighter than the newer models from my understanding.

[Randall J Cox]

I have one just like it. Mine is a 1994 model. They are bigger than 17 inches and are considered an 18 inch bandsaw. There actual diameter is 450 mm hence the S45. If you call Minimax they will help you with a manual for the 1995 model. There is really not much info in the manual. I have the pdf for the 1994 model. I really like mine. It is the smoothest bandsaw I have owned. I owned a couple of Rikons before this one. I added a Kreg bandsaw fence with a 24 inch fence.

I have a thread over on owwmg.org started for my S45 bandsaw. It is called bandsaws covered.

I really like the size of this bandsaw since I have a small shop. I kind of wanted a Delta 20 inch but I just don't have the room for it. I think this is going to be really good for me. I have not used a 3/4 inch blade but I think it should handle it. I have used 3/8 and 1/2 inch Lenox blades. They are so smooth I am in aww every time I spin the wheels. It takes very little effort to spin the wheels and so smooth, did I say smooth mine is.

Lee, as you have one almost identical, what is the little gizmo on the bottom wheel, under them motor, outside the saw, with four adjustable bolts screwing into it? Is that a way to adjust the lower bearing holder to make the lower wheel parallel to the top? Randy

[lee cox]

Lee, as you have one almost identical, what is the little gizmo on the bottom wheel, under them motor, outside the saw, with four adjustable bolts screwing into it? Is that a way to adjust the lower bearing holder to make the lower wheel parallel to the top? Randy

I believe what you are asking is the setup for the lower wheel. I would recommend not changing it. My S45 is tuned and parallel really well. I would not want to change anything to throw it out of whack.

[lee cox]

I woke up thinking I should tell you the tires are flat on the S45 bandsaw and they seem to be setup with the teeth running off the wheel. Don't panic and start adjusting everything as they run fine this way.

[Eric Commarato]

Randy,

Congratulations on the saw acquisition. This is the second of these that has popped up here in the last few weeks. I also have one and if you go back a few posts, you see were I responded to a fellow Creeker where I put a Kreg band saw fence on mine, which was a vas upgrade to the stock fence. You might want to check the square-ness of the table to the blade, my table was a little off and I had to add some shimming washers to level everything up. Also, there was a Minimax Dealer that hangs out over at OWWM.org and sold an original miter gauge for this saw, he might still have a few left you might advertise on their BOYD (Bring Out Your Dead) wanted ad forum over there if the rules will allow on foreign machinery. I can't remember the dealers name at the moment.

[Randall J Cox]

Lee thanks. Actually I'm getting ready to go on vac so won't have time to play with it for now. I don't want to change anything for a while, want to get used to it and get familiar with it as I know they do things differently in Europe. While in the USAF I lived in Italy for 3 years in the 70s and Germany in the late 80s for three years. The PO ran it for me and it seems to be set up well, so I'll just use it and clean it up a bit - stains on the table, etc. Actually minor stuff, hardly a chip on it anywhere, its in great shape for being a 1995 model. Do you have the lower euro guides that look like the upper guides? I don't, my lower are kind of mickey mouse. I note the Bandsaws.Covered thread over on the OWWM website recommends upgrading the lower guides - where do you get parts for these things? I looked up the MiniMax web site and don't see anything for their older bandsaws or prices and its all in Italian (of course). Flat tires interesting... Thanks for that note. Randy

[lee cox]

My S45 has the euro guides on the top and I guess some kind of cool block on the bottom. My guides work well and I don't think I will change them unless they break. I have heard the closer you get the guides to the bottom of the table the better off you are. If you add euro guides on the bottom they will need to be farther away from the table.

I bought one of the original miter gauges from the Ron over on the owwmg.org forum. They are hard to find. If you want to contact Ron we can work something out. Just get registered over on the owwmg.org site.

Eric what is the test you are doing for the table being square? As far I can tell my table is square but maybe I am missing something.

[Steve Peterson]

Lee, as you have one almost identical, what is the little gizmo on the bottom wheel, under them motor, outside the saw, with four adjustable bolts screwing into it? Is that a way to adjust the lower bearing holder to make the lower wheel parallel to the top? Randy

Yes, the 4 bolts are for adjusting the parallelism of the lower wheel. Once it is lined up, you probably never need to touch it.

I added a Grizzly H7528 bandsaw resaw fence. It fits onto the original fence with 1 hole drilled. It can be quickly switched between resaw mode and flat mode to slide under the upper guides.

Steve

[Peter Kelly]

where do you get parts for these things? I looked up the MiniMax web site and don't see anything for their older bandsaws or prices and its all in Italian (of course).https://www.partspronto.com

Seems like this question gets asked once a week...

[Chris Parks]

Eric what is the test you are doing for the table being square? As far I can tell my table is square but maybe I am missing something.

Mine was out front to back not side to side and as there is no adjustment the table has to be shimmed to get it right. There is a stronger tension spring you can buy for this saw, Eric may recall where it came from.

I have question that Eric may be able to answer or maybe some one else can, will this saw tension a 3/4" carbide blade adequately? Has anyone here used a carbide tipped blade on one?

[Eric Commarato]

My S45 has the euro guides on the top and I guess some kind of cool block on the bottom. My guides work well and I don't think I will change them unless they break. I have heard the closer you get the guides to the bottom of the table the better off you are. If you add euro guides on the bottom they will need to be farther away from the table.

I bought one of the original miter gauges from the Ron over on the owwmg.org forum. They are hard to find. If you want to contact Ron we can work something out. Just get registered over on the owwmg.org site.

Eric what is the test you are doing for the table being square? As far I can tell my table is square but maybe I am missing something.

Lee,

I just tensioned up the blade, and placed a Starrett combination square on the table against the blade. Mine was out side to side. I just removed the allen head cap screws that go through the top of the table into the trunions and added some thin washers to get it close. It wasn't rocket science by any means. Probably the proper way to do this is to measure how far out the table is buy measuring the distance from the square's rule to the bandsaw blade with a caliper and then use shim stock and make the shim the same as the reading on the caliper.

[Eric Commarato]

Mine was out front to back not side to side and as there is no adjustment the table has to be shimmed to get it right. There is a stronger tension spring you can buy for this saw, Eric may recall where it came from.

I have question that Eric may be able to answer or maybe some one else can, will this saw tension a 3/4" carbide blade adequately? Has anyone here used a carbide tipped blade on one?

Not sure if this will take a 3/4" carbide blade or not. the largest blade I've had in mine is a 1/2" blade.

[Chris Parks]

Is that a 1/2'' carbide tipped blade Eric? I find that choosing BS blades is one of great mysteries of woodworking to me.

[Eric Commarato]

Is that a 1/2'' carbide tipped blade Eric? I find that choosing BS blades is one of great mysteries of woodworking to me. No, it just a "plain ole" bandsaw blade...

[lee cox]

I just checked my bandsaw table for front to back and it is dead on using an 8 inch square. What I did notice is my table is just a hair out on the tilt top. When I tightened the nut on the bolt which holds the top at 90 degrees the bolt must have turned just a little bit. I now have corrected it using 2 wrenches. My top is 90 degrees all the way around now to the blade.

[Randall J Cox]

My S45 has the euro guides on the top and I guess some kind of cool block on the bottom. My guides work well and I don't think I will change them unless they break. I have heard the closer you get the guides to the bottom of the table the better off you are. If you add euro guides on the bottom they will need to be farther away from the table.

I bought one of the original miter gauges from the Ron over on the owwmg.org forum. They are hard to find. If you want to contact Ron we can work something out. Just get registered over on the owwmg.org site.

Eric what is the test you are doing for the table being square? As far I can tell my table is square but maybe I am missing something.

Lee - Yes thanks, I would like to buy a miter gauge given none of my US ones fit. How do I contact Ron? I have been registered over on the OWWM site for years, I'm USAF1 over there. Randy

[Jim Becker]

Randall, if picking up the OEM miter gage doesn't work out for you, there's always adapting a "US" miter gage by replacing the runner with a hardwood runner that is sized to fit the table slot. :)

[Randall J Cox]

Randall, if picking up the OEM miter gage doesn't work out for you, there's always adapting a "US" miter gage by replacing the runner with a hardwood runner that is sized to fit the table slot. :)

Thanks, never thought of that. As it sounds like a European replacement may be hard to come by, your suggestion might be the logical option. Randy

[Jim Becker]

Randy, I've milled some nice oak to use for jigs on my slider for exactly the same reason...so it should work for the bandsaw, too. Measure with a caliper at a few places along the slot and then mill some stock that fits without being sloppy and still slides smoothly. Make extra once you zero in on the right size so you have some stock for future playing around...and mark it carefully so you don't mistake it for scraps. LOL ;)

[Randall J Cox]

Boy, that sure is a small miter gauge slot, 6-7mm deep and 12mm wide. I posted over on OWWM for a miter gauge to fit a European slot, we'll what happens. Also called the PO to see if he might have one laying around his shop, as it probably wouldn't fit any of his US stuff. Mine came with a 3/4" 6tpi blade installed and an extra blade. Also a whole 100' roll of DoAll band, same stuff, to make more (with a $124 price tag on it). He must have used 3/4" exclusively and lots of it... Interesting as the machine looks to be in excellent condition overall. As its 21 years old, maybe I'll put it on the list to replace bearings after I use it a while and get familiar with it.

Now I have to list and sell my totally rebuilt Delta 890 14" 1942 bandsaw. I put my heart and soul into that rebuild a couple of years ago, thinking I would use it til I die (all new bearings, new paint, new blades, new homemade stand, etc). Actually a very nice saw, just a little underpowered at 1/3HP with original Delta motor - put new bearings in that also. So I'm going from 14" to 18" and 1/3HP to 1.8HP with a smaller footprint to boot!! Randy

[Eric Commarato]

Randy, I went back and looked at my emails, Ron Bechen was the Minimax Dealer that hangs out at OWWM.org and is who I purchased my new old stock S45 fence from. You could probably place an ATTENTION: Ron Bechen wanted ad in the BOYD section at that site. All in all, I like the fact that I have an original S45 Minimax Fence, but in reality it isn't much of a fence. The basic fence is just cast aluminum with a milled face and side, that didn't really have the casting flashing filed off. If I really used the fence on this machine a lot, I would probably take Jim Becker's advice and try to use something like an Incra miter gage and adapt a 3/8" miter bar to it. I think it would be a more useful setup. Ron gave me a very good deal on this miter gage and thankful he had it to offer me; if it is what you really want to keep the saw all original, hopefully he will have a couple more in stock. My saw came from a close friend who passed away about 10 years ago, and I purchased the saw from his widow. I recall my friend saying he didn't have a miter gage when he purchased the saw because they were quite expensive...like 75-80 dollars, a lot to spend for such a minimal accessory from Minimax.

[Randall J Cox]

As I don't really have any experience with this BS yet, thinking of buying a 3/8" blade as that's what I am used to on my old Delta 14" and I cut mostly curves. Might be not feasible to cut the same radius curves with a 3/4" blade, which is what came on the saw. What would be your recommendation for an all purpose blade that likes this machine (size, tpi, brand, etc) ? - I'm just a hobbyist. Can the 3/4" blade be tensioned sufficiently to use, is the saw up to it? Also, if I switch to 3/8", teeth still off the edge of and not touching the rubber? That's not much blade left on the rubber - the ops manual indicates that's the way it was designed to work, so that's what I'll do. Is the tension gauge anywhere close to usable or use the flutter method to set up? One last Q. As one of my white looking "cool blocks" is missing (broken off maybe) underneath the blade, it looks like the only way to get to it by taking the table off. Is that correct? Am assuming that can only be replaced thru MiniMax as its mm and not U.S. sized in inches. Thanks. Randy

[Erik Loza]

Randall, 3/4" is the widest blade I would run on an S45. I believe it will take a 1.0" blade on paper but on ours in the shop, 3/4" was the sweet size for any type of ripping or resawing. I did run a 3/4" Lenox Tri-master on the shop S45N, once, and it seemed to work fine, though mostly kept a 1/2" blade on it (we had the MM16 and an MM24 if we needed to use a carbide blade). I never used the tension guage on the S45N. Flutter method is fine or just test cutting and creeping up on it.

Post up a picture of the guides on there and I'll tell you whether or not SCM will be able to supply them. There were many, many incarnations of the S45 over the years.

Erik

[Randall J Cox]

346124346125Erik, these are the best photos i could get without taking the table off. I can do that if you need better pics. As you can see I have a very dull 3/4" blade on it now, that's how it came. I tried cutting my first piece of wood yesterday and it burned its way through - literally. The PO did give me some new 3/4" blades with it, so one of them needs to go on. I called the SCM folks in Georgia yesterday and the parts pronto site they gave me only shows the euro lower guides, not what I have. I'm guessing the lower guides that I have are sufficient for my needs except that the side you can't see, the little white guide is broken off. Need to replace, where would I find these? Probably all the zillions of them here for sale in the U.S. won't be the same size due to it being euro... or might they be? Any info appreciated!! Randy PS I thought I saw where Sam Blasco has taken over from you as a mini max "coordinator". How would I get in touch with him in the future? Thanks again for responding!

[Randall J Cox]

I took off the table a little bit ago and found out the cool block looking guides are actually ceramic with one broken. Were they ceramic from the factory, anybody know? Also took off the BS blade that burned through some wood yesterday to replace it. Are these blades sharpen-able? Randy

[Peter Kelly]

Are these blades sharpen-able?
https://youtu.be/GRFASuwGodE

http://www.ibuildit.ca/Workshop%20Projects/Jigs/band-saw-blade-jig-1.html

[Randall J Cox]

Interesting and looks relatively easy to do, thanks. Took my top euro blade guides apart to clean and found out no ball bearings but oilite bronze bearings for all three. No play to speak of, so just oiled and will put back in, lasted 21 years so far...

[Randall J Cox]

OK, another Q. I received the Lenox Diemaster 2 1/2" blades I ordered and installed one after taking off the 3/4" blade that came on it. It tracks like it should on the top wheel (after I adjusted it) with blade teeth just off the edge of the flat rubber on the wheel. However, on the bottom wheel it is tracking right in the center. Probably ok on any other make bandsaw but MiniMax ops manual says this S45 designed for teeth to just be off edge of rubber on both wheels. Its odd because the 3/4" blade I took off was tracking correctly on both wheels. I really have been hesitant to mess with the adjustments on the lower wheel as there are no instructions on what to do. Any recommendations from someone familiar with the Minimax S45?? Thanks. Randy

[Erik Loza]

On a half-inch blade, tracking the whole width on the tire is OK. That advice is more aimed at wider blades, where the teeth would tear up the tire if they run on it. I wouldn't worry about it in your case.

Erik

[lee cox]

346124346125Erik, these are the best photos i could get without taking the table off. I can do that if you need better pics. As you can see I have a very dull 3/4" blade on it now, that's how it came. I tried cutting my first piece of wood yesterday and it burned its way through - literally. The PO did give me some new 3/4" blades with it, so one of them needs to go on. I called the SCM folks in Georgia yesterday and the parts pronto site they gave me only shows the euro lower guides, not what I have. I'm guessing the lower guides that I have are sufficient for my needs except that the side you can't see, the little white guide is broken off. Need to replace, where would I find these? Probably all the zillions of them here for sale in the U.S. won't be the same size due to it being euro... or might they be? Any info appreciated!! Randy PS I thought I saw where Sam Blasco has taken over from you as a mini max "coordinator". How would I get in touch with him in the future? Thanks again for responding!

I have the same lower guide on my 1994 S45. I have never replaced the cool blocks so I don't know where you buy them. You might call Carter guides. I can take my top in a few minutes. It goes back on straight and square. I keep automatic transmission fluid on the screws. If you get any on the top just wipe it off.

I bought my miter gauge from Ron his owwmg.org email is rbeche. Send him an message if you want one. I will post a picture of my miter gauge after my wife comes back with the camera tonight.

I tried to contact Sam Blasco from his web page and I never heard from him. Turns out he lives about 15 minutes from where I live.

[Randall J Cox]

Lee thanks for reply and PM. Actually, I made a miter gauge last week. Bought a 6mm x 12mm piece of bar stock from McMaster Carr and mounted a normal run of the mill Delta miter gauge head on top. Had to drill and tap the bar stock, fits and works perfectly. I did find Sam's email address and we have exchanged info a couple of times. I finally took off the table and it was simple to do and reinstall, as you said. Also made some inserts to go around my new 1/2" Lenox Diemaster 2 blade. I did deviate from the ops manual and now have the blade tracking in the middle of both wheels, seems to work ok. That's what Sam Blasco recommended. I have the BS on an HTC mobile base (it came with it) and its kind of tippy (I have to roll it out about 18" to use it and I roll it back when done). Thinking of moving rear wheels out a couple of inches to give it more stability. Anyway, very happy with it and making progress! Randy

[lee cox]

I noticed Woodcraft sells cool blocks. I don't know if they have the right size?

[Bryan Cowing]

Mini Max manuals here
https://www.partspronto.com/Shop/DownloadManuals.aspx

[Richard Kee]

I purchased one of these units two years ago - a yellow one - with Carter guides. I'm well pleased with it.

I appreciate all the suggestions posted here, especially the one about using stock from McMaster Carr to make a miter guage.

I'm liquidating a very nice basement woodworking shop - Delta Unisaw, Jet Jointer, 2.5 hp Oneida Dust Gorilla, Jet 10-20 Drum Sander, and a host of table-top tools. Moving from Columbus Ohio to the Panama City area, but this S 45 is going with me.