On Thursday, February 16, 2012 03:22:53 PM dave did opine: > Hi all, > > I have a cheapie horizontal bandsaw that has performed decently well > for 10 years or so and just recently started shedding the blade after a > few turns. > > As far as I can tell the blade works its way off the non-driven wheel. > I suspect the guides (ball bearings) are at fault but will entertain > other reasonable ideas. > > What am I missing? > > Thanks in advance. > > Dave > Probably either the tire on the idler wheel is shot, the bearings in it are fini, or more likely, the idler wheels tilt in miss adjusted, whatever. That will be as critical to align as it is with any other bandsaw, wood or metal.
Since in those saws, the guide bearings also serve to twist the blade a few, maybe 30 degrees, I could see the bearing itself wearing out internally which would allow the bearing to tilt in a direction that would walk it off the idler too, so your idea is not an impossibility, however I'd tend to think a bearing worn and tilted to that degree would be pretty obvious. Test: back the guide bearings off so they aren't touching the blade. If it stays on the wheels then, running in the center of the tire on both wheels, then the wheels are in usable alignment. If it still runs off, try a fresh blade, that one could be distorted, and use that fresh blade to adjust the idler wheel tilt till it does run true. Somewhere in this testing, it should become obvious whats wrong. Feel those guide bearings to see if they still roll smooth before you bring them back to the blade, and can't be noticeably tilted on their own little axles, if they turn rough, or can be tilted a few degrees, new ones time. A metal cutting bandsaw is about the roughest service I can imagine. And that guide enforced twist in the blade has got to be hell on the blade over extended run times. Metal fatigue has got to be a factor in blade life. Proper tension is probably only half what it could be if the blade wasn't being twisted. I cut alu and brass, using std fine toothed, several per inch anyway, wood blades in a 12" Craftsman tilting head saw, using koolblock guides, and have found it works well given enough patience since that tilthead frame has a lot of give & that motor is under powered, but in 6" thick alu it gets the job done and I've only broken one blade in probably 15 feet of such cutting as I nibble off pieces of that huge, was 40lbs at one time, block of alu. Obviously a block of paraffin for jelly sealing is kept handy to lube the sides of the blade with. A case of using what you brung to the party ;-) Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> An economist is a man who would marry Farrah Fawcett-Majors for her money. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
