Thursday I sawed a 3/8" dia rod of mild steel on the horizontal band saw. The resulting cut was probably 30 degrees off of vertical. Is that normal or does the saw need tweaking?
Thanks.
Chris
Something was off. Properly adjusted and working it should be nearly perfect 90degrees
I’m not familiar with our particular saw, but there is usually a way to adjust cutting force. If it is trying to cut too fast, it may be drifting.
Thanks guys. I guess I will submit a ticket and see if someone in Metal Shop who is familiar with that saw can look at it.
Good luck with the ticket,
To the best of my knowledge the vertical band saw has always been in a state of sub-par working condition. I believe chuck graff tried dialing it in a few times but, he didn’t seem to hold onto the enthusiasm to fight the project all the way through. The last I remember there was an issue with the support shock, which made the feed rate erratic. It would either not feed at all or it would feed too quickly. This is based on old info though, there have been 2 metal shop heads since I last looked at the vertical band saw.
You wrote Vertical Bandsaw, but I believe you mean the horizontal.
From my experience, the primary problem with this saw is dull blades. Every time I have used it after @bgangwere has replaced the blade, I have gotten performance. The one thing I do, though, is to set the weight to its lowest setting (nearest the pivot point), so that the blade is not cutting aggressively. This has worked well for me cutting both aluminum and low carbon steel.
Thanks, Walter. Stop badmouthing the Powermatic, Nick. :)grin:
I’ve heard numerous complaints that the Wellsaw doesn’t cut straight. Every time I’ve used it I’ve gotten a near perfect 90 degree cut. So it’s certainly capable of that.
Rather than opening a ticket, why don’t you fix it? If the blade is dull, let Lee or myself know and new ones will be ordered.
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I have had the same near perfect 90 cut. But I take it slow, adjust the weight and use lubricant. 
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I’m my experience with my personal horizontal band saw, if there was too much force on it, it will not cut as straight as you want it too.
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Thanks for the info,
I’ll have to try it again sometime.
Bryan, I’m really sorry that I don’t know how to fix the saw. But if someone is willing to work with me, I’m glad to invest the time to try to fix it.
Chris
Thanks Walter, I didn’t know to do this adjustment.
Just went out to Metal Shop, someone (thanks, kudos to whoever) has readjusted the rollers to fully support and align the blade correctly.
Didn’t cut anything but it looks aligned and supported correctly.
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I want to add my thanks also! I really appreciate it. If I had known how to fix it, I would have.
I wasn’t sure how to do it either - or I’d have done it the day you cut the material.
Lee and I have worked on the saw several times. As someone pointed it, it is an older saw with some problems. In fact, every time I have needed to do some reasonably accurate cutting, I invariably have to tweak it - usually because someone has changed the angle of the fences and not reset them, or the blade has been slipping etc.
Generally, a saw like this that is not making cuts 90deg to the floor is experiencing one of two problems -
a) the rollers, which someone has since adjusted, or
b) tension on the blade is too loose.
The biggest issue of late has been the tracking, which has caused the blade to come off the drive wheels on several occasions. When you are putting it back on, you have to pay attention to the rollers, something I don’t think most users have been doing. Lee and I dialed the tracking in as best we could but, eventually, it may need a pretty thorough teardown, cleaning, and reassembly. Like any machine, it is misuse that seems to cause most of the problems. Of course the transmission leaks, the hydraulic piston that helps manage the cut rate is broken…and so on :).
BTW this is the very same thing that is frequently a problem with the vertical bandsaws in the woodshop - users push the tool to do things that the machine or the blades are not intended to do (like cut too fast, or turn too tight a radius) which screws up all the settings which leads to problems.
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Thank you very much for working on it and fixing it.