Chinese 4 X 6 horizontal bandsaw question

[cbrasher]

Hi all! I joined recently to talk about my Atlas QC lathe and in the midst of my project I discovered that my FIL had a metal cutting bandsaw half buried in his side garage. I asked if he was using it and he said he couldn't remember why it was out there. I asked if I could borrow it and use it for the table project for the Atlas and he said sure. The name isn't anything I recognize, but it looks exactly like the Grizzly and HF saws (Homier Distributing Company, IIRC?).

I got it back home and the first thing I noticed was cosmoline still on the table. That raised some flags, but I went on and cleaned it up anyway. I started to use it and it was absolutely horrible at cutting, made a horrible racket, and needed a lot of TLC. First, the pulley on the bevel drive is extremely poorly machined; I got around this by flipping both of them to make it run smoother. I removed the blade, greased the top wheel, dug the awful junk out of the gearbox, added 140W gear oil, and replaced some frozen bearings. Luckily a motor place in town had some of the bearings on hand! I ordered the Grizzly vertical table and brace and they fit it. I Also ordered some machinists squares off of Grizzly to check the blade. It cut better but the old blade broke so I grabbed a new 14TPI at the local Alro Steel. I have been over and over the alignment and the blade is vertical at the table and looks square to the stock, but still does not cut straight.

One night after the kids were in bed I went back out to scratch my noggin and noticed something odd. I grabbed the vernier calipers and noticed that the pin for the pivot is at two different heights, lower on the cutting side than on the motor side. Using the machinist squares I noted that the blade moves away from the work piece as the saw goes up, towards it as it goes down, so I checked the table vs the pivot pin and they are NOT in the same horizontal plane. I will attach two pics to illustrate my reasoning on this.

Am I barking up the wrong tree or am I on to something here? As it is this thing does not cut very well at all for any kind of precision work. I have not grabbed a level to drive cross town and check a HF display, so maybe it is supposed to be that way? I also noted that the back leg on the pivot is slotted, but I can't see that being the fix in my head. Any thoughts?

 

[markba633csi]

So you are saying that the saw does not pivot up and down perpendicularly to the table? Not a 90 degree angle in other words. Correct?
If so, is this a saw model that has a separate bolted on pivot bracket or is the pivot hinge part of the table?
-Mark

 

[finsruskw]

How about a picture of this problem child??

 

[WesPete66]

I get what you're saying.. The axis of the pivot pin is not "level" (parallel) with the table surface, so the path of the cutting edge is not perpendicular to the table as it raises/lowers. Thus a cut that is not square. I've looked at that same pin on my saw and wondered, what are the chances that it is not drilled correctly (considering the source)? I might take a closer look at mine now.

 

[markba633csi]

It seems that the later saws have a hinge integral to the table; if the hole is drilled wrong the only fix would be to plug the holes and rebore, or cut off the ears and braze on new ones, then rebore. Or, as a third option, cut the ears as before and construct a new lower hinge that can be bolted on
On some older models the lower hinge is a separate part that bolts to the table and can be shimmed
The ideal design would have used a pair of large adjustable spherical end bearings but that would have been too costly
-Mark
If you do have the earlier style you can shim it with pieces of thin cardboard and tape. Be careful when you reinstall not to overtighten the bolts that hold it to the table; it's likely cast iron and can crack

 

[cbrasher]

How about a picture of this problem child??

I can grab one tonight after the kids are in bed. Get some more detailed pics if I can.

 

[cbrasher]

So you are saying that the saw does not pivot up and down perpendicularly to the table? Not a 90 degree angle in other words. Correct?
If so, is this a saw model that has a separate bolted on pivot bracket or is the pivot hinge part of the table?
-Mark

Yes, I believe I am seeing that the saw is out of square. The table part is cast in place but the long ear on the saw is bolted on.

 

[cbrasher]

I get what you're saying.. The axis of the pivot pin is not "level" (parallel) with the table surface, so the path of the cutting edge is not perpendicular to the table as it raises/lowers. Thus a cut that is not square. I've looked at that same pin on my saw and wondered, what are the chances that it is not drilled correctly (considering the source)? I might take a closer look at mine now.

Yes, that's my conundrum. I would say to definitely check your relative levels.

 

[C-Bag]

In past threads on the various things that can be wrong with 4x6 saws this has come up. If the pivot point is off, it’s going to cut funky. Mine didn’t have that problem, but if it did I’d bore the pivot holes out and make some eccentric bushings to be able to adjust it properly. That’s if it was off only a little. If its way outta whack where the eccentrics could bring it in that’s whole ’nuther bodge.

 

[cbrasher]

Found the gearbox pics on my phone just now.