Bandsaw Headache


paul sallak

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Hmm, all those G0555 fans must be doing something wrong.  Realizing this saw comes in several flavors the LX is supposed to be one of the higher end of that line.  Hindsight always being better than average, I would not wait for the warranty to run out before I got a satisfactorily operating machine.  I don't have the patience to not have a new tool's problems dealt with ASAP.

I have had no problems with my G0513X but, it is a $1000 17" bandsaw.  That is quite a bargain.  If I had paid $3000 for it I would be upset.  I was able to tune it to my satisfaction and so have been happy with it for the money.

Troubleshooting bandsaw issues cause people to spout National Enquirer like reasons for this and that.  If your wheels are co-planer, your tires are in decent shape, you are running a quality blade and your guides are operating properly . . . away you go.  If the saw is not holding alignment then something is obviously not correct.  If it does not have to do with some sort of failure (you mention breakage) then Grizzly tech support should be able to resolve the problem on that saw or provide one that operates correctly.  Failing that I would be after a refund but, would have been after it within the first 30 days.

Regardless of whether one feels that $600 for a 14" saw is a lot or not, in today's market the next quality tier of 14" saws seems to start around $1000.  My point is that even though $1000 was a fair chunk of change when I bought my saw, the other option I was considering was around $3000.  When I got a saw for a third of the price I accepted that I would have to fiddle a bit.

P.s. I just re-read this on my phone and it sounds a bit harsh or blunt.  That is not my intention, I'm trying to be helpful.  I just can't stand trying to edit my post via my phone :rolleyes:

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Have the LX. 

I've been breaking blades. Bearings seizing up. Tracks fine, did it the Snodgrass way then I broke a 1/2" 3tpi laguna blade after resawing a bunch. Then another. Then a 1/4" blade. 

 

Ordered some Carter guides. Hoping I stop busting blades. Dropping $60 on two blades in two weeks hurt. Only getting cheap Bosch blades now...

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On 10/7/2017 at 9:57 AM, paul sallak said:

Had castings break out portions of  threaded areas.

 

On 10/8/2017 at 3:53 PM, BillyDoubleU said:

I've been breaking blades.

How much tension you guys putting on your blades? If you lose 2" of resaw capacity after tensioning it might be a bit too much! I had a G0555 in the past, and currently have G0513X2 and Jet 14" and have never broken a blade on any of these. I did bind and destroy a 1/2" blade cutting green peach for smoking wood but that's my fault. 

On 10/7/2017 at 7:54 PM, gee-dub said:

I have had no problems with my G0513X but, it is a $1000 17" bandsaw. 

Me neither and it will resaw just fine using both 1/2" and 3/4" blades without a ton of tension. Now they aren't ROS ready coming off the saw but a few passes on the drum sander does the trick.  I know stock bearings can be hit and miss but I'm still on my original ones after 10 years but I also make sure the blade doesn't touch them when not cutting. 

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Any time you have to force material through a cutter, it is either dull or you are over-running the tools ability to remove material.  The cutter removes material and you feed additional material to the cutter.  A cutter that removes material by moving north-to-south isn't going to remove any more material than its maximum simply because we apply more pressure east-to-west.  the result of over-running a cutter's capability is a low quality cut at best and damage to something (including possibly you)  at worst.

All that being said, a 5HP 20+" machine would be awesome.  Despite all the fancy technology we have available to us today, there are a few areas where I just prefer raw horsepower; cars, sound systems and bandsaws :D

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1 minute ago, BillyDoubleU said:

That's the thing. I literally hurt my thumbs pushing so hard with the stock 3/8" 6tpi blade and it was and is fine. The new blades just melted the wood away with barely any pressure. Just gave it at the rate it took it. 

Idk... 

6tpi is too many tpi for a resaw...but hurt thumbs means dull blade almost certainly.

Resaw is a slow-go for bandsaws with less than 3HP.  Requires patience and concentration.

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28 minutes ago, Eric. said:

6tpi is too many tpi for a resaw...but hurt thumbs means dull blade almost certainly.

Resaw is a slow-go for bandsaws with less than 3HP.  Requires patience and concentration.

Oh I know. I just didn't have a new blade and was using what I had. I replaced it was a 1/2" 3tpi laguna proforce. Just sucked the wood through it. But I may have been too aggressive still. Even with the curves which seemed very shallow. 

Point was that that crappy dull blade didn't break with the same tension and guide method and a stupid amount of feed pressure. But the new proper blades did. So troubleshooting reasons. 

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On October 7, 2017 at 8:36 AM, Dave's Not Here said:

What has been the response from Grizzly Customer Service Dept,? 

They went by the book, literally. Page after page of the manual. Found out that they were shipping out eccentrics that had 2 diameters on the pins.  Mounting brackets require all eccentrics have  matching pin diameter. They were surprised by that and it  took a couple phone sessions to get that resolved. They also shipped me a bag of eccntrics with same dimensions as the originals.!

Arggh!

I'm beyond frustrated, and would love to get it out of my shop. Still will not track and am looking at having to deal with lateral adjustment for my next task. Manual gives a very loose directions. I have had side to side play ( approximately .125)which is "normal" according to their  techs. 

With no access to local techs, it's a crap shoot when talking to them. 

I had my dad spent a day with me going through every adjustment and  at end of day, we required several adult beverages. 

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Has anyone measured the flex of the frame at different tensions?  A bandsaw is such a simple thing, if it's built beefy enough.  

My 24" Centauro will resaw just fine without any guides on it.   I needed to resaw an important piece of wood that was several inches over the standard capacity of the machine.  I took the upper guide assembly off, the table off, and rigged up a "thinner" table for it to do the job.  It cut perfectly straight, but that was with the thick, 1" Woodmaster blade, and probably pushing 35k tension on it.  In other words, the guides are there to help, but they shouldn't be make, or break, of capability.  

That machine is about 4hp.  Blade speed is a lot more important than horsepower, but I see that it's hard to find the blade speed listed on the smaller saws.  I wonder if many people even realize that the larger the saw, the higher the blade speed.

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I can really understand the frustration you must feel with having to deal with this for going on a full year.  Hopefully you have some form of documentation saved detailing your dealings with Grizzly.  After almost a year without any satisfactory solutions for the issues with what was originally a brand new bandsaw I think I would be considering a Small Claims Court solution to this issue.  All companies produce a lemon every now and then and Grizzly is no exception to that but usually an issue like this doesn't take this long to resolve.    

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It seems like a design problem to me.  They may have not designed the frame to be strong enough to start with, or corners were cut with material quality during the build process.  With one open side, a bandsaw spine needs to be really strong, and stiff.  I remember that Jet had a problem with this some years ago, with a triangular cross section for the spine.

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