4x6 Bandsaw adjustment

[Gamble97]

Anyone else having issues with blade alignment on theirs? I can't get this right at all.
From looking down on it, it would cut straight. From looking at the side the farther down it cut the more of an angle it would cut at. So I started yesterday by adjusting the up/down cut as it was really far off. I used a piece of 3/4" hollow aluminum square to practice the cuts on to see how the adjustments made would work.
I adjusted a lot of crap and got it to be damn near perfect. Now onto the top, it moved...way off. So I spent a good 35+ minutes getting it to cut straight again from looking downward. I made adjustments and got it pretty damn close, then looked at it from the side and it was all off again.
I've watched those videos and tried to do the same as the other guy but it's just a pain in the ass. Anyone have any tips/tricks?

 

[turboglenn]

this is commonly a dull blade or cheap blade issue. the other thing to do is adjust the bearings that guide the blade as well as having proper tension (i use as much as i can puton it with two hands on the tension wheel)

the other thing to do is grind or shim the upper sliding blade guide or to do the same to the lower stantionary one. there's a LOT of tweaking to get these saws running right but once it's done they tend to cut pretty good.. when i get angled cuts these days it's usually a dull blade since i've taken care of everything else. If you're not using at least morse or blue-mol blade that's probably your issue

like i've said before any harbor freight or sears blade isn't even worth installing, they will dull withing a few cuts of 1/4" wall aluminum

 

[tim3kgt]

4x6bandsaw : 4x6bandsaw

4x6 Bandsaw Mods

check out these links i found @ garagejournal.com these band saws can be made/ modified into a much better unit !

 

[Gamble97]

this is commonly a dull blade or cheap blade issue. the other thing to do is adjust the bearings that guide the blade as well as having proper tension (i use as much as i can puton it with two hands on the tension wheel)

the other thing to do is grind or shim the upper sliding blade guide or to do the same to the lower stantionary one. there's a LOT of tweaking to get these saws running right but once it's done they tend to cut pretty good.. when i get angled cuts these days it's usually a dull blade since i've taken care of everything else. If you're not using at least morse or blue-mol blade that's probably your issue

like i've said before any harbor freight or sears blade isn't even worth installing, they will dull withing a few cuts of 1/4" wall aluminum

They are the blades you recommended, the morse ones. I just actually ordered another.
I'm not sure what it's called but say I move that arm down so that less of the blade is showing to prevent cutting yourself as I tighten it, the blade twists.
The tension is as tight as I can go with 1 hand, there is about 1 thread sticking up ontop of the case.
For the guide adjustments, I don't know what any of them are called so I'm clueless if you say adjust X Y or Z

 

[turboglenn]

Here's an idea of how good a blade and some tweaking can make this saw. this is a piece of 2.5" 6061-T6 hardened AL. It cut in about 3-5 minutes (slow is better on these little saws, and plenty of lube. WD-40 is kick ass for AL)

I cut this for making a jig for some turbo machining i'm working on, after the cut i decidedto chuck it up in the lathe to demonstrate how accurate or straight of a cut my 4x6 can do , it took less than .010" facing to get all sides exactly the same height (or level all the way across), on solid 2.5" 6061-T6 this is a damn imnpressive cut for a 4x6 HF saw that's 10 years old, been jammed up where the motor was smoking and is still in use to this day, it's been beaten to death and is still a great tool that i feel no need to replace or even mess with at this point


Learning to adjust the top wheel is the key (each time you put a blade on is best), along with doing some shimming or grinding to square up the blade guides, none of it comes super easy and you have to take a chance on trusting yourself to modify the saw, once that's done if your cuts aren't at least this good then your blade is dull or your adjustments are off (or you're cutting WAY too fast for the blades these run), they're not thick enough and the saw isn't sturdy enough to cut somethign like this in a few seconds like my suppliers saw can. patience in both setup of the machine and cutting speeds will pay off in a big way.. MY saw has less mods and time put into it than a lot of the people writing about doing it on the net, so cuts any less accurate are a simple sign of hasty setup or hasty cuttings speeds with no lube (after the obviouse dull blade anyway )

All the adjustments i use or perform are outlined in the manual you get with it or can download right off the harbor freight web site, so if you can read a .pdf and turn a 12mm wrench then you're armed with the same amount of tooling and knowledge that i am (remember that the wheels need to be level with each other and then after that you adjust the angle of the top one so that the blades "back"barely rides the "lip" on the top wheel. also keep in mind the blade should barely touch the back bearing wheels that support (support is during the cut) they shouldn't really touch the blade when it's running free (not cutting) they really shouldn't even turn until you're engaged into some stock.. if you get to turning the "center" bolt that the top wheel rides on too much and put it off plane or off level with the bottom wheel you'll get big tropuble with the blade always popping off and bad cuts.. idon't want to sit here and re-write the manual this is all from, so i'll cut it there with those marked as important and let you read the manual and experiment, if you need helpjust ask


here's pics in the lathe after cutting and a profile pic to show the height I removed from it to test how far off the angle my saw was cutting.. it took less than .010" to get it flat,

in the first pic the "touch n go" cut shows there's "some angle" to the cut, but the profile shows actually how little was needed to square the peice up perfectly

 

[Gamble97]

FML I wrote a whole bunch down and it got deleted. I'll make this quick.
Made adjustments and was able to cut a piece that .009 thick if I pushed the caliper tight on it. then the blade started to hit the back cover so I played around with tracking and it still hits from time to time.
The back blade bearing on the top is like 1/4" or 3/8" away from the blade so I took off tension and pushed it on, made a cut and it moved itself back out. So I'm thinking that is all blade tracking, I'm going to have to re-read your post and download the manual and try again. Blade still hits the back cover but it looks like the blade is centered on the pulley.
Final piece cut tonight was a 1" square aluminum block, one side ended up being .012 and the other end was .024.
Do you have do this EVERY time you change the blade?