Fiddling with fence alignment on a Powermatic 14" bandsaw

[Lewis Cobb]

Well the adventure continues with the setting up of my 14" Powermatic bandsaw. Some of you will remember me as the lad that first built a bracket to overcome the ridiculous motor mount that comes with the machine, and then discovered the corroded edge on the extension table (Powermatic is sending me a replacement on that).

Anyway, I am now trying to align the rails and fence on this bandsaw and it seems that once I get the fence to ride above the table a consistent amount left-right, the face of the fence is off a little from 90 degrees to the table. The manual suggests that you tweak the rails to bring the face of the fence into 90 degrees to the table, but that just causes you to chase your tail. It ends up with one end of the travel left-right being low and the fence "lands" and scrapes on the table at one end. I tried to "split the difference" and have it riding up/down as you go left/right, but I don't have the slop enough in the rail mounting holes to be able to do that. I'm not really liking the idea of egging the holes in the rail out more to get a non-consistent travel height above the table.

Too bad the little fence was not adjusted like the big T fences on cabnet saws with a couple of nylon threaded bolts that bear on the top surface of the front rail and allow you to independently tweak the face of of the fence to the table.

I may have overlooked something as I was being hollered at to come in for supper at the time so I will have another go at it here shortly, but figured I'd toss up a question on here about this. Did any of you have this issue when you assembled your beloved PM14 bandsaws ?

Thanks,
Lewis

[Chris Padilla]

Is the table adjustable? Maybe shim the table?

However, the key is for the blade to be perpendicular to the table and parallel with your fence.

[Peter Quinn]

Its been a while since I set mine up, but are you having trouble making the face of the fence 90 degrees to the table, or are you trying to set the length of the fence 90 degrees to the leading edge of the table? If the former this can be done IIR by adjusting the rails, if the latter there are four bolts that allow some adjustment for drift, which is actually the more critical alignment, fence to blade.

I think you must install and tension a blade, set the table square to the blade, and set the fence square to the blade (or at that point the table). If your tracking is close to right on there should not be excessive drift and the fence should be adjusted to compensate over its length for any slight drift which does occur with the blade in use.

When all is adjusted well I can use that stock fence as a reference to resaw veneers 1/16" over 4' that can be cleaned up with one or two light passes through the drum sander. Not a great fence system over all but functional.

[Lewis Cobb]

Its been a while since I set mine up, but are you having trouble making the face of the fence 90 degrees to the table, or are you trying to set the length of the fence 90 degrees to the leading edge of the table? If the former this can be done IIR by adjusting the rails, if the latter there are four bolts that allow some adjustment for drift, which is actually the more critical alignment, fence to blade.

I think you must install and tension a blade, set the table square to the blade, and set the fence square to the blade (or at that point the table). If your tracking is close to right on there should not be excessive drift and the fence should be adjusted to compensate over its length for any slight drift which does occur with the blade in use.

When all is adjusted well I can use that stock fence as a reference to resaw veneers 1/16" over 4' that can be cleaned up with one or two light passes through the drum sander. Not a great fence system over all but functional.

Hi Peter -
That's pretty impressive on the 1/16 over 4' - hopefully I'll be able to do the same someday !

I spent another hour or so looking things over and trying to adjust it. The rage never started to set in this time :o but I didn't really get any further ahead either. I have determined that I have to kick one side of the fence up by about .040" in order to get the face of the fence square with the table (and perfectly parallel with the saw blade under tension). I determined this by tucking pieces of paper underneath the right side slider pad that's on the fence that rides on the top surface of the front rail. When it looked good I took the papers out and mic'd 'em! There's just too little play in order to get this same adjustment through the amount of slop that's in the holes of the front rail.

I was determined to see the machine turned on tonight so I just kept on going and after doing a final check and adjustment of the upper and lower guides, followed by a spin of the wheels with my hand, I butten'd 'er all up, plugged it in, and hit the switch. It came alive and I even slid a small block of wood through the blade to say I really did cut something.

I still have to mount the riser block accessory on the saw and then I can fit my timberwolf blades on the machine - the only small blade I have is the one that comes with the bandsaw.

I'll have another look at it tomorrow but coming up with some sort of shim on the fence slider pad is not the end of the world I guess.

One other thing that I can see is going to be a real treat is the levelling of the extension table - 4 set screws and 4 bolts - what a mess - just when you think you have it even and level with the main table, you clamp down the 4 bolts to hold it and everything moves again.

Thanks for the tip on the adjustment of the fence with the 4 bolts on the top of the fence handle - I never realized that there was a bit of play in that and checked it before I came in for the night. That will come in handy for any slight skew on the blade when cutting for sure.

Cheers,
Lewis