Fixed my bandsaw, miracles do happen

[dennis thompson]

I don’t use my bandsaw much. In the last year or so I could not cut a straight line, I pretty much ignored it. So a project came up where I needed it, I decided to try and figure out what was wrong. Turns out it was an easy solution. One of the lower bearings had fallen off and I guess was vacuumed away. I had a new bearing so the issue was only the bolt holding the bearing which I guess was also vacuumed away. It’s a Craftsman so the required bolt was no longer available but the Rikon one , basically the same machine, was. I ordered it, cost$.79 plus $11 shipping. Best $12 I ever spent and now it works fine.

[Jack Frederick]

Funny how you work around a tool that isn’t quite up to snuff. I was “arguing” with my Laguna BS for a while. I knew it was me and not the saw but it took a while, and a need, to get me to finally take the time to sort my head out in relation to my resale needs. Gratifying when done and I wonder why it took so long:)

[Brian Tymchak]

Funny how you work around a tool that isn’t quite up to snuff. I was “arguing” with my Laguna BS for a while. I knew it was me and not the saw but it took a while, and a need, to get me to finally take the time to sort my head out in relation to my resale needs. Gratifying when done and I wonder why it took so long:)

Did the same with my Rikon BS for several years. But when I retired I resolved to make that tool work right. Better blades did a lot. I changed the tires and upgraded the guides and finally found a happy zone I could live in. Now, I use the BS 10x or more than I did, particulary with ripping but also cutting joints.

[Lee Schierer]

Before I aligned my bandsaw, I seldom used it. Then, I aligned the table and miter slot to the blade. Now I can change blades any time I want and as long as I center the blade on the upper wheel by adjusting the tilt the saw cuts perfectly straight. Today, I needed two pieces of 1/4" cherry. I had a board that had cracked lengthwise and had a really bad knot in it. The board was 3/4" thick. I ripped 3" off the side with the bad knot, cut the knot out, leaving me with two short pieces and the rest of the board on the other side of the split. The shorter of the two cut off pieces was about 3" longer than I needed while the longer one was nearly 3 feet long. I marked a line down the center of one edge of the shorter board. Changed the blade on my 14" Delta BS to a 1/2" timberwolf blade, adjusted the upper wheel to center the blade and tensioned it up. I put the fence on my saw, Adjusted the cut to the line I had drawn, started the saw and pushed the piece through the cut while holding it to the fence. The saw worked right through the cherry without wandering and I ended up with one piece about 0.010" thicker than the other and headed for the planer. Two pieces ended up at .304" thick after a couple of passes through the planer. Once the glue has set up I will run the glued up pieces through the planer to bring them down to 1/4".

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Congrats!

I can feel your pleasure. I have a relatively new small Makita BS. I purchased it new four or five years ago but it is very low used. It started to fail run at start up but making the classical hummmming sound for failed starter capacitor. Usually I would look for the authorized service center, but COVID restrictions made me to reconsider it and try to fix it by myself. I opens the machine, discovered what was the capacitor to replace, I ordered on line for a close spec´ed one (I did not find OEM part on line) and fixed the thing. It worked perfectly. I was proud of myself!:-)

All the best,