My new old bandsaw...

[DennisCA]

So I was looking for a bandsaw recently as I've had many situations where one would have been real dandy. I found a small INCA for sale but the seller never bothered responding. So I put up my own wanted ad and I had plenty of responses, but the most intriguing one was from a boat building company up north. To make a short story shorter, I bought it, €200 + shipping which was 60+VAT, I had to pay another guy here with a tractor another 20 to get it inside the garage because there was no way I was getting this inside the shop, three of us where then able to drag it into it's final resting place. I am not sure a mobile base is possible for this saw. I had removed the table as well before moving it.

It is pretty much the opposite kind of machine from the INCA I was looking at first.

I don't know how many hundreds pf kilos this weighs but it's plenty enough. I had to remove the wheel and the whole wheel and blade enclosure, which turned out to be made from plywood and bolted onto the frame. I am pretty sure the saw came without it and it's a later addition due to safety regulations. The saw has a 5.5kw direct drive motor. I can't see the motor plate but the starting equipment says 5.5kw on it so I assume the motor is that. It says VEB on it which I believe is an east german AEG motor.

The brand of the saw is a Göteneds from what we've been able to tell, which is a swedish made saw, they stopped making bandsaws in 1960 so this is no younger than 54 years old, likely older still though.

The motor runs real smooth and quiet when I tested it, also takes forever to spin down but it has a brake lever. The lower wheel has a noticeable wobble to it and the saw shakes a little bit. I am not sure how to correct it, is it the wheel itself, or is the motor shaft not true. Matthias Wandel has a video on tuning up a small band saw and he shimmed the motor mounts to compensate for the wobble.

The blade guides are simple but if they work I do not care. There's a piece of wood on one side and a piece of brass on the other I believe. Strange setup...

I committed an error trying to get the upper wheel off and tried to remove the whole shaft with bearings but that was a mistake. The bearing on one end is smaller than the hole on the other side so it is held captive so to speak. The worst thing is I cannot get it back into the holder on the other side. The bearing on that end of the shaft is supposed to fit in there but I have tried for hours today to get it back, no luck. I am wondering if I can remove the whole tensioning apparatus and take it to a machine shop and they can fix it for me. It is lifted and lowered via hydraulics. I am not sure if it can just be lifted off...

The "holder" into which the bearing needs to be pressed:

 

[marcros]

I think that fate has worked for the better. Whilst the inca would have been good, I think that the capacity would have been too small. This one looks a beast and I am sure that it will serve you well.

 

[woodpig]

Now that is a "proper Bandsaw"! You are very lucky to have acquired such a solid machine. I'm sure you'll enjoy using it. If it were mine I'd strip it completely, refurb and repaint it.

 

[Claymore]

the wobble could be down to the bearings... maybe you can replace them with modern sealed bearings? looks a great bit of kit and definitely worth the money once its up and running. Looks like it will use a 1" blade?

 

[DennisCA]

The bearings are in the motor as it's a direct drive, so I'd have to replace those if that's the cause. But I feel absolutely no play in the wheel and the bearings are super quiet, the machine makes hardly any noise when running. I wonder if it got yanked on when moved and that's why. Might be it could be tapped back into alignment. I really need a dial indicator to figure out where the wobble is coming from.

As for blades, I thought you could use all manner of sizes on band saws, what the max size is I do not know. It came with one but I have not measured it. I always wanted to be able todo resawing though to save money in wood, this should achieve that end quite well.

And about the looks, I like the worn patina it has now, I am just cleaning the grime and rust off as well as I can, then I'll start using it.

 

[Walney Col]

Be sure to post a photo of your first bandsaw box ;-)

 

[Claymore]

Be sure to post a photo of your first bandsaw box ;-)

with a saw like that he will be able to make coffin sized bandsaw boxes! lol that's an idea a full sized coffin that has curved/rounded drawers etc :roll: might have to bury ya bent in half though! lol

 

[DennisCA]

I got the upper wheel shaft assembly reassembled today, a matter of proper alignment was all it was. Then I got the upper wheel back on, which was real easy just tapped it back on with a rubber mallet. There's some sideways wobble on the upper wheel too. I'm not sure what the reason is or what can be done about it, or if it's even a big deal?

Here it is with the wheel back on:

And here's the blade, I think it's a write off. While I am pretty sure the motor is not the original anymore, I think this might have been delivered with the saw from the factory :lol:

Closeup of the blade guide:

Lower blade guide:

Upper wheel closeup:

Closeup of the upper tire, it appears to be full of shavings, there was also a track in the middle which I think where made from the rusty teeth on this blade. I tried sanding it down and then recrowning but it's slow going, this was after I had sanded and turned the wheel by hand for some time.

I then decided to reassemble the table, it's insanely heavy but I got it up, also the fence mounted:

Pretty darn rusty but half an hour later and lots of elbow grease it looks like this:

Not perfect but good enough for half an hours work.

What I am going to try and do is keep on with my recrowning attempts and see if the blade will track any better, right now the blade goes back and forth when I spin the wheels. I am not sure what role the wobbling wheels have in this.

 

[SammyQ]

G'won! Post it on OWWM an' make 'em jealous!! Stuff their Crescent models, this one's continental magic!!

Sam

 

[Claymore]

tis looking better already! it could do with some sort of case on the wheels to protect ya if the blade snaps 8-( Fred Dibner/Guy Martin would love it!

 

[DennisCA]

I had not heard of OWWM before, I'll check it out. There is a protective case for the wheels and blade, they are just not yet re-assembled.

edit: tried registering on the OWWM forums, but manual activation :evil: I hate those, I already filled in a captcha. There have been sites I registered on and never posted a single post in because I had a question or thread I wanted to make then, not hours later.

 

[nathandavies]

I had not heard of OWWM before, I'll check it out. There is a protective case for the wheels and blade, they are just not yet re-assembled.

edit: tried registering on the OWWM forums, but manual activation :evil: I hate those, I already filled in a captcha. There have been sites I registered on and never posted a single post in because I had a question or thread I wanted to make then, not hours later.

Canadian Woodworking is another site that is definitely worth going on. There is a wealth of knowledge on there.

Nathan

 

[DennisCA]

Still no activation from owwm either, sigh. Haven't done anything about the bandsaw after the last update, not much I can do until I acquire a new blade and dial indicator so I can see about the runout. Looking at the tuffsaws website, lots of choices...

 

[DennisCA]

An update on this, the band saw wasn't running as well as I would have liked, the motor and lower wheel ran smoothly and quietly, when putting on a new blade and running it properly (I also assembled the blade enclosure before that). I got loads of help from the canadian woodworking forum and UK workshop user heimlaga came and visited and had a look at the saw in person.

The upper shaft and bearings looked to be in pretty bad shape, so today my new F.A.G. bearings got here and I took the shaft to a machinist for an appraisal and he'll make me a new one, hopefully I'll have it working sometime after new year.

rear bearing, same type as wheel side bearing (double row self-aligning ball bearing)

It won't come off

What the shaft looked like after I got the wheel side bearing off (had to cut it off):

 

[woodfarmer]

If you take the time to refurbish it properly it will last a lifetime.

It looked to me if the lower wheel runs off a gearbox rather than direct as you said. It that correct? if so the wobble might be in the gearbox which almost certainly will be fixable without much trouble. Would be worth changing a shaft if necessary.

Good luck with it..

PS Think I would turn guides from Bronze bar.

 

[DennisCA]

No it's a direct drive, not original motor though but when heimlaga checked it out it was pretty obvious the saw was made for direct drive, they added some bits to make the mount compatible with the new motor. When running only that, the motor is smooth and silent, can't hear it over the sound of the wheel itself. I suppose it could do with some new bearings too, as a direct drive puts stress on the motor bearings. But so far it runs good.

Given that this shaft had a runout of 7-8 thousands of an inch, looked as bad as it did (through some earlier, badly done reparation) and one bearing was practically failed already. I think a lot of issues stemmed from it, hopefully all of them.

 

[woodfarmer]

If it is direct drive, what speed is the motor?. Normally there is a need to reduce the speed of the bandwheels.

 

[worn thumbs]

The blade you posted pictures of looks like its tungsten carbide grit and the gullets allow dust to exit the job.If so its a great thing to have as it will cut all sorts of things.I used one for several years and the makers advice was that if it got clogged,just cut a ceramic tile or two to clean the grit.Google C4 carbides to see what is available.

The nice thing about your saw is that you are unlikely to ever need to replace it,nobody wishes they could have a smaller saw do they?

 

[DennisCA]

If it is direct drive, what speed is the motor?. Normally there is a need to reduce the speed of the bandwheels.

Don't know, the plate is missing, based on the circuitry in the breaker boxes it seems to be a 3-phase motor around 5kw. I should get an RPM meter to check, but if it's a 6 or 8 pole motor it should be in the suitable ball park.

 

[Shrubby]

The carbide grit blade is the type used to cut refractory materials for fireproofing stoves,kilns and furnaces
Matt