Jet 14” Bandsaw Wheel Alignment?

[Archie Sullivan]

I recently pick up a used Jet 14” bandsaw on CL. This is my first bandsaw. I am working on getting it set up/aligned but I am a little confused with the alignment of the wheels. The upper wheel is about 3/16” to 1/4” further out than the lower which I understand is about normal for the Jet.

I have the Iturra Design catalog which discusses (and sells the shims for) the aligning of the wheels. I also have a copy of a Fine Woodworking article “Bandsaw Tune-up”(July/August 2002) which talks about aligning the wheels by shimming the lower wheel.

Here is where my confusion sets in - I also have a copy of the Fine Woodworking review of 14” bandsaws (“New Breed of Bandsaws”, September/October 2007) which states “…wheels on the Powermatic and the Jet were the most misaligned and could not be fixed with shims” and “…the misalignment on the Jet and Powermatic could not be fixed because their bearing shafts are too short.”

http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowconfused.gif

So…

Is it worth trying to align the wheels?

Is it even possible to align the wheels on the Jet?

If possible and for those that have done it on the Jet, was it difficult? It appears to be a matter of removing one bolt, pulling the lower wheel (with gear puller if necessary) installing the shims and then re-installing the wheel and bolt. Am I missing anything?

Thanks for your help.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Archie, the big question is does the blade track properly and the saw cut properly?

If the answer to the above questions are yes, then no further work is required.

Regards, Rod.

[Archie Sullivan]

When the blade is centered on the upper wheel it is not centered on the lower (closer to the front of he wheel).

[Chris Schumann]

On my 14" Jet, the top wheel has an adjustment with quite a bit of motion. You loosen the wingnut and turn the knob to move the entire top wheel. Tighten the wingnut to keep it from moving itself.

[Archie Sullivan]

Chris,

Mine has the same knob/wingnut which is used to adjust the blade tracking.

My original post was refering to adjusting the wheels so that they are in the same plane. By doing so, it is claimed that the blade will track better and there will be less stress on the saw and blade.

Archie

[Bob Hampton]

Hi archie
I have the same bandsaw ...bought new 5yrs ago ..i have never had to align the wheels ..I have replaced the tires when the blade wont track right but other then that its been good ..
The only 2 complaints i have had with it are that i didnt get the quick release tensioner for it and one thing to really watch is to keep the lower blade guide bearing clean ..blow it off after your done using it ...if u dont it burns up quickly and its a $10-$15.00 replacement everytime.
Bob

[Steve Mellott]

Archie:

I think it is very unlikely your wheels need to be aligned. Install and center the blade on both wheels of the band saw and turn the blade by hand to see where it tracks on both wheels. If it does not track in the center of both wheels, then turn the adjusting nut on the back of the saw (not the blade tensioning nut). When you turn the adjusting nut, the blade will change position on the wheels. Keep adjusting until the blade is centered on both wheels. Hopefully this will solve your problem.

Steve

[Jason Beam]

I really think Archie understands how to tension and adjust the tracking on his saw. At least that's what I keep seeing from him.

Yes, you can adjust the wheels to bring them closer to coplanar. I say closer because I didn't have washers that were the proper thickness, but i've found being off by only 1/16" or so hasn't really hindered my performance. It's nice to be able to have the blade track in the same spot on both wheels - it makes adjusting tracking easier since one crown isn't working against the other.

Ya gotta yank the wheel off and add some spacing washers to the "deeper" wheel. Mine had a couple washers already on the bottom wheel, but not quite enough.

[Phil Thien]

From the Iturra Design catalog:


Delta and JET Wheel Shims
We often hear it time and again from woodworkers attempting to tune-up their band saws. Your normal hardware store washers are either too thick or too thin to get the wheels into alignment or the washer size is too big. ITURRA DESIGN has an answer! Our arbor shim kit provides an assortment of precision-ground, fully hardened steel arbor shims ranging in thickness from .001 to .125 (1/8"). There are a total of 19" shims in the kit which is more than enough to bring both of your band saw wheels into proper alignment. By aligning your bandsaw wheels, you will find that your blade tracks much better and is more stable. Also less tracking control is needed to maintain blade position.

During our comparison tests between Delta and JET 14" bandsaws, we discovered JET doesn't supply any adjustment shims behind its upper and lower wheels like the Delta. When attempting to align JET's wheels into co-planar, we found the upper wheel was positioned further away from the frame than the lower wheel. In this case the only way to align the two wheels is to shim the lower wheel outward to the same position as the upper wheel. This is unlike Delta saws in which you usually shim the upper wheel out since its easier to remove. So in a nutshell, we recommend buying the upper shim kit for the Delta and the lower shim kit for the JET.

10014 Delta/JET 14" Upper Wheel Shim Kit/$8
10015 JET 14" Lower Wheel Shim Kit/$8
10400 Delta 14" Lower Wheel Shim Kit/$9.

Iturra Design
866/883-8064 (toll-free)
904/371-3998

If you call Louis to order a shim kit, consider having him weld you some Blade Runner resaw blades. They are made from the same Sharp-Tech stock that the Woodslicer blades are, but are considerably less expensive.

Good luck!

[Archie Sullivan]

Thanks Phil. I have a copy of the Iturra Design catalog.

The trouble I am having is that I have two sources of information (Iturra Design and FWW) that say to fix the misalignment by shimming the lower wheel and another source (FWW) that says the misalignment on the Jet cannot be fixed with shims because the lower wheel shaft it too short. I was looking for someone who had actually shimmed their Jet so I could verify which is correct.

I guess I could say the two FWW articles cancel each other out which leaves the Iturra Design article. The shims are only $8 ($10 at McMaster-Carr) so it's not the cost. I just didn't want to take my saw apart only to find out that what I was trying to do couldn't be done.

[Phil Thien]

I just didn't want to take my saw apart only to find out that what I was trying to do couldn't be done.

Maybe call Louis and tell him what the FWW articles said. I'll bet he has done it before and may offer an idea or two that the FWW folks may have overlooked.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Put your widest blade on the saw and tension it properly, then check the alignment. That is what matters. You can see how much you would need to shift a wheel to get them coplanar, and look to see whether the shaft is long enough to allow this on your saw. It doesn't really matter whether the ones tested by FWW were too far out of alignment, what matters is whether yours is. And even if you can't make the wheels coplanar, you may be able to get the saw to cut just fine.

[Jason Beam]

Mine had about 1/8" of room. But... wouldn't this depend on the two castings being aligned, too? Something tells me that if you don't have enough length on the shaft, then maybe moving the castings around would remedy that. Granted, you may play hell getting them lined back up again, but if they're so far out of whack anyway it's probably good to fix that, too.

[tom carlson]

Hi Archie, did you ever get your Jet bandsaw wheels aligned (co-planer)? I have the same issue. Thanks.

[Robert Engel]

I'll give you my opinion that is, there has been a lot of misinformation (& frustration) disseminated regarding co-planar bandsaw wheels. I think a lot of it is the result of Alex Snodgrass' theory that you can eliminate drift. I went down this rabbit hole with both my bandsaws (Rikon & Jet) and finally concluded it wasn't worth the effort. And keep in mind as soon as you change blades, it may not be the same.

Not saying it can't be done, or it doesn't help performance, but on some brands of saws it can't be done easily and the return is not worth it.

So I did my own research and this was based on the fact that my Rikon came from the factory with non-coplanar wheels. The first question I asked myself is "maybe this is normal?" So I did some checking. I also talked to the tech guys at both Jet and Grizzly and they confirmed that is the factory setting.

The first thing I would do is consult the owners manual they should have something in there about alignments. Then I would give a call tech support & see what they say. I own several Jet machines and have always had excellent luck with the tech guys.

I would say as long as the wheels aren't SO far out I wouldn't worry about it.

As for drift, I do it like I've been doing it for 30 years: adjust my fence to the drift angle.

One thing I've always wondered about is with different sized blades & different tensions, when the top wheel is adjusted, won't the blade ride differently on the bottom wheel?

[glenn bradley]

Hi Archie, did you ever get your Jet bandsaw wheels aligned (co-planer)? I have the same issue. Thanks.

Archie's last post was over a year ago. You may want to PM him.

As someone having a different experience than Robert E, I adjust all my bandsaws for co-planer wheels. There is a school of thought that the blade on a well aligned machine wants to track true. This is just a good example of the value of the forums as you get multiple views and a mix of information which I see as a good thing.

Drift is a myth in my shop. I change blades often (for a specific function) and with impunity and they all track nicely, even with the guides backed off. Despite statements, often taken out of context, from Alex Snodgrass and Michael Fortune, I say that wheels being co-planer on crowned-tire machines is very important to your ongoing happiness with the machine for non-curved cuts.

This is based on my (probably limited) experience across multiple machines over the years. I have taken little 10" or 14" machines that wandered hopelessly and by aligning the wheels and tables I have made them very usable.

I cannot speak to your particular Powermatic or Jet but, unless the shaft is too short or there is a machined shoulder that you cannot overcome, adjusting for co-planer should be available. On an older Delta 14" CI machine, the top wheel was easily shimmed. On a 17" Grizzly the bottom had to be shimmed out but, again, this was a matter of a washer between the fixed axle base and the wheel. I added a link belt while I was at it and the machine runs spooky quiet.

[Charlie Hinton]

I have the entry level Jet 14" saw.
Leading up to the purchase I researched it to death.
Lots of conflicting information then and now about wheel alignments.
The wheels on mine are not perfectly coplanar but I don't remember how far off they are.
I went with the don't worry about it theory and just adjust the table so the back of the blade is square to the table which is more important when cutting curves than when resawing so do this with a skinny blade that's tracking properly.
Mine pretty much cuts perfectly.
13 years later it has polyurethane tires, roller blade guide bearings, and a Kreg fence.
I use the bandsaw on every jewelry box I build to resaw all the pieces for book match tops/bottoms and wrap around grain flow and overall I am very pleased with it.
Like everyone else with 6" capacity tools sometimes I wish I had taller/wider capacity and more horse power but most of the time I am quite satisfied.
I usually have a 1/2" blade on the bandsaw but on occasion I use 3/16" and 1/8" blades too.
I probaly need to check out the Iturra blades if they are the same as the Woodslicer and cheaper.

[Van Huskey]

Bandsaw tuning often takes on the guise of a black art. With tracking, drift and wander there are usually multiple adjustments that impact them and often when one finds a particular adjustment that works it becomes their holy grail to fix all the woes, you see it with everyone including the experts. BTW all the following comments are directed at crowned wheel saws since flat wheeled/tired saws behave differently and require a moderately different approach. In the past 20 or so years I can only think of one saw I checked coplaner on and that was a PM 141 that I bought where the wheel had been rubbing the upper cover and the axle and upper wheel had been abused and literally bashed together in a way that made them impossible to separate without destroying them, I checked coplaner to see how far it was out from the factory settings to see if I thought I had a shot at tuning it without dealing with the axle/wheel interface. Many of these saws come with the wheels no co-planer on purpose. It sets up a level of tension that makes tracking more stable and reacts more slowly to upper wheel adjustment. Sometimes making them co-planer helps a person get a particular saw tracking properly but it (usually) makes it more finicky as well. This isn't to say some used ones (and maybe the rare new one) isn't too far out but with the used one if nothing is worn it is likely due to someone fiddling with the lower wheel when they shouldn't have. Messing with the lower wheel should be a last resort, and even then it is usually best to start over from the beginning instead of going there. Once that factory setting is gone it is likely never coming back.

I see the co-planer issue a lot like bandsaw guides (I will address them in a moment) when one changes the planer alignment of the wheels it forces them to do a comprehensive top to bottom adjustment/tune and I am convinced far more often than not the eureka moment attributed to the planer adjustment was really do to the care taken in retuning the bandsaw. Guides are similar. You often see people who change their guides from stock blocks or bearing guides on a $500 saw to a set of $180-$230 Carter guides and proclaim it is a whole new saw. Part of it is confirmation bias but I think a lot of it is again the careful top to bottom tuneup. There are reasons to change guides (I am not quite bored enough to go into the whole scope of guides) but there is no night and day difference between the functioning of a simple metal block guide and a set of Carter guides, in fact, the block guide is actually a better guide in many ways. However, that is a subject for a different day.

[Van Huskey]

I probaly need to check out the Iturra blades if they are the same as the Woodslicer and cheaper.

Both Iturra and Spectrum Supply sell the same bladestock as the Highland Woodslicer, it is produced by Atlanta Sharptech (sp?) and sold by Iturra as the Blade Runner and Spectrum as the Kerfmaster, Highland is the most expensive and Spectrum the least. They have different names since Highland holds a trademark on Woodslicer, where most tooling is "named" by the manufacturer Highland gave it a wood-centric name when they started selling it since the actual band had been used to that point in the meat cutting industry. Cowchopper, Pigpeeler or whatever the butchery name was probably wouldn't sell so well in the wood market.

Spectrum is the only one to sell the 7/8" .016" version which I think is the very best resaw option for 14" Delta & clone saws.