Bandsaw Tuning #1

Hi all,

I've recently purchased my first Big Machine(tm) - a Delta 28-275 bandsaw for $399 at Lowe's (a good deal, I think, and a humorous story in itself). With Mark Duginske's book in hand, I'm in the early stages of tuning it up.

Having read the pros and cons of coplanar tracking, I've opted for that route. Out of the box it was not bad - only about 1/16" from coplanar. It only took one washer to bring the top wheel into plane. FWIW, the book suggests using 5/8" washers to shim the wheel. At the hardware store I found 5/8" machine bushings that were not only thinner (by about half) than the standard washer, but were also much closer in size to the existing bushing. Had I used the simple washer, I think the top wheel would have been 1/16" out of coplanar in the other direction.

Since I needed to take the wheel off, I decided to go ahead and check the wheel balance. After removing the blade, but before removing the nut holding on the wheel, I gave the wheel a spin to find a heavy side, as suggested in Mark's book. The wheel only rotated about 3/4 of a turn and halted abruptly. There seemed to be a lot of friction on this thing. I backed the nut off the axle a little and gave the wheel another spin. This time the wheel spun freely and came to a very gradual stop. With the wheel free to spin, I proceeded balance it. It was quite a bit out of balance so I had to drop about 2.5 1/4" holes through the wheel casting. After putting everything back together, my bandsaw now passes the nickel test. But there are still improvements to be made.

Now then, I told ya all that to ask ya this. When the blade is off, should the top wheel on a bandsaw spin freely (as it did after backing the nut off slightly) or should it spin down quickly (as it did from the factory) or does it not matter as long as the axle nut doesn't fall off? If I make the nut finger tight, the wheel spins easily.

Thanks, Wayland

PS. Hey Bill

Reply to
Wayland
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All rotating wheels mounted on a ball race should spin freely.

If they don't, and the ball race isn't broken, then something is acting as a brake. Chances are that some sort of sideways clamping device (like a nut on an axle) is not only clamping the centre race of the bearing in place, but is also applying some braking force to the outer race of the bearing, or the dust shield. Now this is bad, because the bearing probably isn't set up to be dealing with an axial load like this. Applying end-loads to plain ball bearings will cause early failures, because the balls aren't running along the path in the track which they ought to.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

This is why you don't use a drill press for a milling machine or lathe.

Reply to
Ramsey

Reply to
Rico

Too many people do not know that bearings are designed to be used in a particular manner. The gentleman was explaining what could cause a failure and I merely thought of the several people I know who have used a drillpress as a router/milling machine, lathe and then wondered why the bearing wore out. Se following comment today by individual on rec. woodworking

Ramsey wrote: Group: rec.woodworking Date: Sat, Aug 23, 2003, 12:12pm (EDT-1) From: snipped-for-privacy@cox-internet.com (Ramsey) Your bearing are designed to handle a thrust load-not a sideways load. I would not try. Sure, it might work for a while but when it didn't, then you have a major problem.

****************************************************** Ramsey is correct. I ruined the bearings in a perfectly good drill press by using it as a router.

Peace~Sir Edgar øøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøøø

Reply to
Ramsey

would that also apply to using the drill press with sanding sleeves/micro planes or is the pressure within tolerances?

BRuce

Ramsey wrote:

Reply to
not hardly

That is a good question. I think it would but I do it also. That is on an intermittant basis so I hope it won't. The principle is the same so if you do it a lot, my guess is that it will. I found the neatest little vertical drum sander on Ebay several years ago called the Praire Proto ar something similiar. I use it exclusively now. It does not go up and down but you can move the drum up and down. it only costs something like $75 and is some of my better spent money. It has a stainless steel table and you can put different size drums on it. I will try to find the number a post it.

Reply to
Ramsey

thanks, I have a BOSS sander so don't do this on the DP but have thought about the micro planner when I need some thing a little more aggressive. I guess what I need to do is look into making an adapter for the BOSS. I don't like the BOSS but it does the job for now.

BRuce

Ramsey wrote:

Reply to
not hardly

I was ask> This is why you don't use a drill press for a milling machine or > lathe. > to this:

A rhetorical question.

Rico

Reply to
Rico

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