New Grizzly 514X2 Band Saw

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I think it depends on what style of tires your bandsaw uses as to whether or not coplanar is important.

My MM-16 has tires with no crown. I believe the wheels being coplanar is more important with tires that don't use a crown.

In theory, tires with a crown, should keep a blade aligned better if the wheels are coplanar.

[John McClanahan]

We have a coulpe of saws that have no-crown wheels. When I adjusted one of them to coplanar, the blade would not stay on the wheels. By the time I got the saw adjusted to use, the wheels were back to the original positions. When the Carter guy says that the manufacturer knows best, he is right.

John

[Gus Dundon]

Several things can cause vibration, trick is to eliminate and adjust things ( eg blade, tension , pulley, tires ) one by one until you find what's wrong.

[Erik Loza]

I personally watched a brand new MM20 practically walk across the shop floor due to the fact that it was not totally level. Unlike the old iron-framed machines, modern tube-framed bandsaws seem really prone to their own harmonics, no matter who manufactures them. They are tall, hollow, and often have very powerful motors. It's not a problem, just something to be aware of. We provide leveling bolts with our machines for this reason. When customers call me with, "I have a vibration", the first thing I will ask them to do is to 100% confirm that their machine is planted to the floor properly. This usually solves it. One thing I have observed over the years is that folks sometimes put the cart before the horse and worry about a vibration before actually making any test cuts. In my experience, cutting performance is the true judge of whether or not a perceived vibration is an issue. In other words, get the saw cutting first and then and work out from there.

Just my 2-cents as always,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[John Coloccia]

+1 on getting it level. That's the only reason mine is on the mobile base. I wanted to get the little bit of flex out of the base, and I wanted to use the levelers in the base to dial it in. Since I'm in a converted garage, leveling is not a trivial task due to the grade of the floor. My theory on it is if it's not level, especially front to back, the top of the BS flexes a little bit and loads it like a spring. As soon as any vibration gets in there from anywhere, a little tug of war starts between whatever is driving it and gravity, and the thing just starts going wongwongwongwongwong instead of just dampening it out the way you'd like. That's my untested theory.

[Keith Hankins]

Hey, man sorry about the frustration on the BS. I have the original (before the x2). It's 10 years old and still going strong. I also have the 1023slx and the 12" jointer. The first mistake you made was accepting the BS in the first place. You should have rejected it and had a new one sent. It's a chance you take with mail order machinery. My first Grizzly was the TS. I waited wanting it badly. It came and I could see where a forklift had gone through the box. The top of the box was crushed badly. I wanted it, but knew there were going to be issues. I took pictures, told the driver to take it back with him. I talked to CS and another one arrived 4 days latter and is still in the shop going strong. It was hard to reject but if you don't you have the experience like that and like you said you don't know what happened. Again hate you had a bad one, but it can happen. All I can say is mines been great and she's got some years on her. I've got her set up with a laguna carbide blade and use it for resawing and it's handled everything I've ever thrown at it. Take care.

[Bob Ball]

Brian,

I was hoping someone else would ask this, but apparently not. How do you fill the base of a 514 band saw with concrete? Do you have to turn it upside down? I have a backhoe/loader with pallet forks, but I can't imagine laying it over and then suspending it upside down.

I am interested in the details of how you've done it. Thanks, Bob.

John,nuthin fancy........ours is nested next to a brick column.It has a cpl big shapers nested in as well(the shapers are back to back,can share the power feed this way).The BS is dialed in for table height,to utilize one of the shaper tables for outfeed.

IMO,and the next time we have the saw down for any "real" repairs......we're going to fill the price point base(sheet metal,thats barely thick enough,and does cause vibration),with concrete.Honestly can't excuse why we didn't when the dang thing came into the shop?Been filling bases with crete for so long it's sort of an automatic........probably in a hurry?You can push a 514 and watch the base flex.....which is what worked the "foot" out of ours.....where it went after that,have to ask the French maid?

[John Coloccia]

I would guess you put it on a piece of wood, drill a hole through the base and fill.

[Brian W Smith]

Either do as John suggests or lay it down.Preferably on one of its narrow edges(this machine base is rectangle)....I'd orient it so we were filling from an "end" vs the wide side.Use plywood as form,leaving a narrow "slot" as fill opening.....fill slot space with whatever.

Filled bases and other machines:Concrete has tremendous potential for vibration damping.It can be either "live" or dead.Dead would see us having fasteners coming through the sides to,semi-permanently lock concrete to any base sheet metal.And with very little thought you can make it easily bolt/unbolt(for moving purposes)."Live" is when you would pre-cast,and then hang the chunk from stays or springs or rubber isolaters.It dosen't fit tightly into the base.And,dosen't really have to be in a base at all......

The problems with concrete design/engineering are very well known(compression vs tension,cracks,stress rsiers,yadayada).Theres not a lot of info on its use as weight and vibration damping.Probably not a real good topic......way to easy to get sidetracked into some rather complicated calcs on balancing.It does work,it's incredibly cheap,it's easy to work with(at least with the amts we're talking about here).

[Chuck Saunders]

You will actually absorb more vibration using loose fill. If you were to cover the bottom with plywood/steel, then fill the base with sand/lead shot/(any heavy small material). The loose material is moved by the vibration and the enregy is dissipated rather than transmitted by by the solid slab. The solid mass is designed to have more inertia (be harder to move) than the vibration has energy.

[Tai Fu]

Check the pulley alignment too... sometimes my bandsaw could feel a bit shaky for no reason, and I discovered that the motor pulley somehow slid off because the set screw came loose...

[Bob Ball]

I am wondering if an administrator-type can explain what happened to the post (I think from Richard Coers) about the problem with the wheels on his Grizzly 514? It was a part of this thread and now, without any explanation in the thread it is gone. Seems like several folks have been critical of Richard in other threads, where it appears to me he was just relating his experiences with the 514; experiences that we all can balance for ouselves against other user's experiences with the saw. When people ask for others advice and experiences I think we would like to see all the information and judge for ourselves. As a newby I am wondering how this works and why something was removed from a thread I started with no notice/explanation.

In terms of (I think positively, closing out) my expereinces with my new 514X2, the original shaking saw was picked up by SAIA freight on 01/03/2014. This saw had the plugs/patches Richard described riveted to the wheels on his saw. I did not take pictures but I think there were two patches/plugs, with two rivets each, in both of the wheels. The wheels seemed to be balanced, but out of round.

The replacement 514X2 was delivered on 01/10/2014 by Fed Ex Freight. No damage was apparent. It shipped out of the Washington State Grizzly facility; not Missouri where my original 514X2 shipped from and where my 490X jointer was shipped from in 2012. The wheels on the replacment saw have no patches/plugs/rivets; appear to be similarly balanced, but closer (maybe very close) to being truely round. Fairly low vibration, though in general it will not pass the nickel-on-edge test ( +/- once in 8 tries). Might be because I could only find one old, worn, rounded nickel. Not sure if a new nickel would improve success here. In any event I judge the current, fairly low level of vibration to be entirely acceptable. I have not put any wood through it yet, I plan to test it this afternoon once I get the fence assembled.

A fairly minor aside here: we do not use our phones that much and this incident caused me to go well over our 500 minute/month maximum, something we never do. One call alone to Grizzly CS was 29 minutes (mostly on hold), at $0.40/extra minute I estimate this cost me more than $35, but just a part of the process. I look forward to getting good service out of this saw. Thanks again.

[Richard Coers]

Congratulations Bob, first response ever ASKING about me and Grizzly on this site!