Perplexed by my Bandsaw Riser Block

I’m right with you, Bob. You have the Grizz 14” saw, correct? It uses 93” blades without the riser, and with a 6” riser it takes 105” blades. They should work fine. I think we need some pictures.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I agree with Mot that we’re gonna need some pics – or a video? If you take pics (or video) include pics of the upper wheel assembly from a couple perspectives and a shot of the tension adjuster assembly, in addition to the riser block…

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

I am going to take a guess that maybe you haven’t fully released the tensioner on the top wheel?
It could be set too high to slip the blade on.

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob , I had edited the above and added that you might want to check the blade length with a piece of string too but the edit disappeared.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Good point, Bob. Check the length of the blade. The variable might be the $20 one.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I had the same problem with my Grizzly 14” bandsaw after I installed my riser. There is an adjustment on the tension knob that will allow you to adjust the wheel up and down. Allowing you to fit the 105” blade. It’s hard to explain, but there is a section toward the end of the manual that talks about this adjustment. Have a look, and if you can’t figure it out I’ll try and snap some pictures on my saw and try to explain it further.

-- http://theinquisitivewoodworker.com/

I’ll have to play some more in the daylight today. I had done pretty much everything you guys mentioned (I bought 3 new 105” blades and none fit) I’ll take a look at the tension knob adjustment. I had loosened it as much as I could see too. I’ll check it out again and let you know how it goes.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

A call to Grizzley support may be in order…

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I just checked my Jet 14” with riser.
The difference I notice is that the top frame on my saw is straight while yours appears to rise from back to front, so that might make a difference on the riser and the total distance between wheels.
My tensioner is different, more like the Carter tensioner, but it doesn’t seem like that would affect it.
I’d measure the distance between the wheel axles and add the diameter and see what you come up with.

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

I managed to get the blade installed by adjusting the spacer on the tension knob. Now the tension knob seems locked up. The tension still seems loose but the knob is tight. I’m really surprised by the simple mechanisms that bandsaws use. It seems like some reasonably basic engineering could make setup much easier and more precise and reliable. Maybe if I had mortgaged the house and got a Laguna.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

It took some playing around with spacer on the tension mechanism, but I was able to get it to a place where I could adjust the tension and still get the blade on. Where able to get things worked out?

-- http://theinquisitivewoodworker.com/

Hi Bob,
I wonder if you measured your new blades. Someone could have made an error.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

“It seems like some reasonably basic engineering could make setup much easier and more precise and reliable.
Maybe if I had mortgaged the house and got a Laguna.”

Hi Bob: I wondered if you got that BS working.

After struggling with a similar set up for about 5 years I recently purchased a “Busy Bee 18” here for $799.00 on a special.

Shown here is the for tension it spins in a circle to adjust tension and flips up to release the blade .
Could not be easier.

It’s night and day difference from the old saw that would not stay tuned and was under powered.
When you consider the resale value of 14” BS to the uninformed the difference is negligible
Here’s the boss using it
Sorry folks the embbeded image feature is not working for me today.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

test

test from picassa href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/boboswin/PicsFrom2005/photo#5087535588394557010”>
just as I thought.

Picassa is calling the image a larger size than it seems to be storing to the allbum site.

The top pic is stored on with service provider while the bottom on is the same image stored at Picassa.

IS THIS A PLOY TO GET ME TO BUY MORE WEB STORAGE? GRRRR!

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob: And it was some Taiwan Engineer that designed it, and it’s being made by the lowest bidder.

Hope you get it resolved.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

I know how to resolve it Karson.
I just move along. <g>

They don’t have a feed back area so the heck with em

bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I managed to get the blade on and finally got everything working. Definitely a dumb design though.

Bob….try photobucket.com, very easy, you can set it to resize your photos for blogging on the fly, easy copy to clipboard…lots of space…..free!

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

I’ll do that .Thanks Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

test from photobucket

I checked the discussion groups and this is an ongoing problem with Picasso that they have apparently decided to ignore.
So, Goodbye Picassa- Hello Photobucket!

To warn others: If you choose Picassa as your site to build your Web albums the software will reduce your image output sizes dramatically making you wish you had not chosen them.

Apologies to Bob Babcock for hijacking this thread and also thanks for pointing me to Photobucket.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Great Glad you got it solved. So what is your resaw capability now?

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Hi Karson:
With the new saw I have 12” plus a 2 hp motor.
I can manage a wider blade now too (1”) that should get rid of that barrrel cut I got when the older smaller machine started to bog down.
The tracking is amazingly good on the new saw.
It has a steel double fold back “U” shaped rib that joins the top and bottom wheels .
I buddy of mine got a cast iron one (16”) about a year ago and complains of some bending(deflection) of the castings under tension.
So far I can’t pick up any deflection under functional loads.
The Carter “type” bearings seem to take a lot of the guesswork out of setting the blade gap—but—- they don’t like pitch from fir or pine.
I guess that’s the “only advantage” of the old phenolic blade guides. <g>
With dual 4 inch dust ports it’s not a dirty as I thought it would be but it’s still a bandsaw so unless you want to build a separate room for resawing Dust remains a part of the equation.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob That’s great. I’ve had good luck with the Timberwolf blades made by Suffox Machine in Long Island. They make a thin kerm resaw blade.

I’ve also tried the woodslicer from Highland Hardware but I got lousey life. I did some practice cuts to check out the saw and blade, but when I went to cut the real wood the blade was dull and wouldn’t cut. I had only resawed some popular so it wasn’t tough wood.

I currently use Laguna carbide tipped resaw blade. Expensive like priced per inch. but hey will also resharpen when you need it done. So you don’t have a throwaway blade.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Hi Carson:
I used som impregnated carbide blades from Supercut on my 14” saw and was pleased with them.
I have used Timberwolf as well and they are O.K.
Right now, I am like many Canadains, using Industrial blades from R&D bandsaw.

I’m quite happy with them and they are not pricey at all.

I would still like to give a decent carbide blade a shot though.
The thought of keeping 2 of them gives me a bit of a jolt though $$$$! (one to use while the other get sharpened.)

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

No problem Bob…I actually enjoy seeing threads take a turn and get new life.

I hope that Woodslicer from Highland was an anomaly Karson. That is the blade I just put on my saw to resaw the cedar for my Summer Challenge Project this week.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

I hope so too Bob. It was a great surface finish and I got about 8 slices from a 1” board so It could cut veneer great but when I got ready to use it, nothing would make it cut ok.

And Bob here is the edge from the Laguna blade. You can see the welded teeth on the blade.

There is a pretty good chunk of carbide on each tooth. It gives a great edge (sanding required, but not as deep as regular blades)

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †