New Year, new Bandsaw!

[Coxy123]

Hi all, I'm looking to upgrade my Bandsaw this year and would really appreciate some advice.

I currently have the Axminster Workshop AW1950B, which has been good but I'm now doing more resawing and it's really not fit for purpose. I've looked at plenty of options and I'm currently learning towards Record Power Sabre 350 or 450. But plenty of options from Axminster, the Laguna 14|BX Bandsaw, the Bandsaw Hammer N3800, etc too.

As always with these decisions my ideal machine doesn't seem to exist. As I'm planning on using it for resawing (max capacity of around 300mm height) I'm thinking I'll need at least 1.5HP, maybe more? I would prefer to buy new and ideally power from a standard UK 3 pin plug. I don't have experience with electronics, having read some posts about converting 3 phase to single phase it's something I would prefer to avoid unless it's truly idiot proof (I would really need it to be ). The SABRE-350 does have a nice feature of two speeds so I could cut aluminium if I needed to at some point in the future. Not something I do currently but a nice extra. I don't want to regret buying smaller though and end up struggling to resaw hardwood.

When it comes to guides, the bearing ones look better to me but I've only had the ceramic ones. If you have any experience with having to upgrade the bearings on one of these saws I would be interested to hear it as I would look to try and set up right from day 1.

I have the Axminster Professional AP50E dust extractor which may be a limiting factor too at just under 1000m3/hr flow rate.

Budget wise I'm pretty flexible, so up to around £2000. I did initially look at that Axminster Professional AP3086B but it is at the top end of price and features aren't much better unless I'm missing something.

Sorry for a bit of a brain dump there... any thoughts or experience with these or similar bandsaws would be great. I've had good experience with Axminster service so I was tempted to stick with them, any experience of service from the other brands would be interesting to hear too.

 

[Stuart Moffat]

Just a thought as you say your ideal bandsaw doesn’t seem to exist, if you have the space to keep your old one as well, it’s really useful for me having a smaller one set up with a small blade as well as the big one!

 

[Yojevol]

Have a look at my Startrite 440R It seems to be in the class your looking for and well within your budget
PM me if interested
Brian

 

[Spectric]

and ideally power from a standard UK 3 pin plug

That will limit the power, my Record BS400 runs ok on a 13 amp supply with no issues and the input power is 2Kw but if you want to go to a larger machine then you will be looking at a 16 amp supply at least. Dust is not a major issue, I think the bandsaw is one of the cleaner machines.

 

[Spectric]

That startrite looks right up your street and a good price plus you get 3700 watts. The power feeder is the icing on your cake.

 

[thetyreman]

I'd get the laguna 14 BX within that price range, unless you need more than 13 inch cutting depth, old second hand industrial bandsaws are good too with cast iron tables.

 

[Ttrees]

Have a look at my Startrite 440R It seems to be in the class your looking for and well within your budget
PM me if interested
Brian

If Brian's VFD has a de-rate function, then I might considering that.
3 horses would be ample, but nice to have more if needed.
Spend the extra on your workshop, be it leccy for dust extraction would be sensible,
regardless of which machine you get.

 

[Coxy123]

Just a thought as you say your ideal bandsaw doesn’t seem to exist, if you have the space to keep your old one as well, it’s really useful for me having a smaller one set up with a small blade as well as the big one!

I'm tempted to do that Stuart, I'm limited on space though so it may well be stored away for a future move. I've been really happy with the little machine.

 

[Coxy123]

Have a look at my Startrite 440R It seems to be in the class your looking for and well within your budget
PM me if interested
Brian

Looks like a great machine Brian, bit to big for me unforunately. My ceiling height is only 1900, I will also need to move it around my small workshop and I think that would give me too much of a workout!

 

[Ttrees]

That one might be worth looking at, but the Far Eastern machines may be more powerful for the same sized machine, should you wish to upgrade.
If getting new, then don't test it with only a narrow blade BTDT, Infact I wouldn't leave the shop without seeing the actual machine running with a decent blade on.

Difficult to get 300mm resaw capacity on anything smaller, and I'd be skeptical that anything less would be able to put decent tension on a 3/4" blade.
The weight will be the best indication of that, as these machines are all very similar.

I'd be looking for preferably near solid cast wheels, as large as possible...
that might add a bit compared to spoked wheels, or some other alloy and not cast.
Other areas which the weight would be noticeable performance wise, is the tension screw/carriage assembly.

Another saw here from a forumite might be worth looking into, without quite the resaw capacity of the Startrite above, seems a bit of a faff to be converting a small motor though
For Sale - Felder FB 450 Bandsaw 3 Phase - 1Ph conversion available

when there's something similar on the bay but single phase, unless Mr Never enough space has some 3hp motors to stick on it instead.

 

[heimlaga]

For resawing 300 mm with a feed speed exceeding single numbers of metres per 8 hour day you will need at least a 25mm blade which in turn requires a wheel diametre of at least 50 cm preferably 60 cm or more.
My Beronius with 60 cm wheels and 3 kw motor and a very solid cast iron frame is on the small side for that sort of work though I have done it successfully.

 

[Coxy123]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will report back when I get one ordered and let you know it was any good!

 

[vaj]

This may be a bit late but I think a lot of care is needed if resawing 300mm.

While not having tested many hands on the basic difficulty is that the frame on most hobby quality saws is not stiff enough to properly tension and on top of that handle the cutting forces when resawing more than a few inches at a very low feed rate.

Many manufacturers conflate (likely intentionally) and confuse resaw capacity with maximum height available under the top guide - they very definitely are not the same thing unless perhaps you are cutting blocks of styrofoam.

Deep resaw cuts especially in tougher woods require coarse (say 3tpi or thereabouts) blades which generate high cutting forces. Force per tooth x no of teeth engaged = large forces.

The result tends to be deflection of the frame and consequent misalignment of wheels and guides - and possibly serious vibration.

Many are not very accurately set up (wheel alignments) from the factory anyway - to save time and money.

Hobby saws tend to use heavily cambered wheels to keep the blade on in these sorts of situations - which can lead to cut line problems because the alignment of the blade alters quite a lot depending on where it is tracking on the camber. It may womble about on the wheels anyway if the frame is deflecting - so that this problem won't even be consistent.

Smaller/hobby saws also tend to run significantly lower blade speeds (presumably to reduce HP requirement and cutting forces), but this knocks on into slow cutting speeds.

The gurus (presumably to avoid offending the various directly or indirectly paying parties) typically avoid these issues and recommend the use of narrower and more easily tensioned blades on smaller saws. They also (with those quoting them) often poo poo issues to do with e.g. wheel alignment despite the reality that it matters. Set up is often poor as delivered on woodworking machinery in general. (cost again...)

The trouble is that while it sometimes is possible using e.g. slow feed rates to work around these problems there really is no substitute when resawing for a stiff frame, lots of blade tension and a decent blade speed. Heavy wheels probably help to smooth things out too.

The mythologies regarding use this or that guide or set up blow out the window in this case - a genuinely professional build quality bandsaw capable of deep resawing isn't hugely dependent on the guides for example and will track consistently over a wide range of scenarios.

I started out quite a few years ago trying to resaw on a German or Austrian made saw (which claimed 'professional quality') then highly recommended by the mags which broke my heart and cost a fortune in test blades.

No amount of experimentation with sets ups and blade types could persuade it to resaw more than about 4in in softwood without lapsing into loud vibration of the frame and lousy cut quality - despite it offering 12 in vertical height under the guides. It looked well, was nicely built, claimed design awards and these days costs well north of €2,500 but was no good for resawing.

A 24in Agazzani which luckily came available for very little more than the saw sold for (to a guy who wanted it only to cut profiles - when told of the problem he said he had no interest in resawing) in minutes demonstrated just what the difference between a toy and a professional quality saw was.

It has no difficulty tensioning a 1in or larger blade, is smooth as silk and cuts very much faster even on thick resaws. Measurements have shown that there is no measurable deflection of the frame/misalignment of the very heavy wheels even when tensioning a heavy blade - they remain in plane other than for top wheel tilt fine tuning to get the blade to run where wanted on the (only very slightly cambered) wheels to cut in line with the fence.

These big saws can take some finessing to run with narrow blades - perhaps the disadvantage.

Resawing produces lots of dust so good dust collection matters too.

Wheel size can be an important factor for resawing - thicker carbide resaw blades like the Lenox Woodmaster CT which radically improve resaw performance from memory may fatigue on wheels much smaller than 20in diameter. (needs confirmation)

The practical problem if going for a saw somewhere in between is to separate what in truth is toy stuff pretending to be professional quality from what truly works - a matter of finding people with hands on experience ready to call a spade a spade.

As of some years ago the Hammer N4400 seemed to be getting good reviews from users (including from one or two resawing) on the forums - this as a smaller and lower cost saw which still offered many of the features found on larger saws. (the blade speed is a fair bit lower though than on a large Italian)

This piece is about changing the spring on an N4400 but includes lots of close up photos: Upgrading the blade tension spring on the Hammer N4400 Bandsaw | Swedish Woodworking

A proper quality saw bought used is likely a far better bet than a new one of lesser quality....,

 

[vaj]

A quick PS. The 16in SCM/Minimax saw seems to be another good example of a slightly smaller saw built to genuinely professional quality that is very capable of deep resawing - as opposed to a toy saw pretending to be what it is not.

This US originating demo video which has Sam Blasco putting one through its paces has been around for years, but it proved something of an eye opener for me in that it showed just how deficient the problem saw described above actually was - it's worth watching through:



A saw of this sort given its accuracy, consistency and speed becomes a very practical tool for general ripping and joinery cuts.

The weight of a bandsaw in comparison to others of similar nominal capacity can by the way be a good indicator of possible resaw capability.

There's for reference a promotional pic attached of a US market 24in B-24 Agazzani which has just completed a deep resaw. Mine originated in the UK and is labelled as an NRA 600. It's identical apart from some minor spec differences.

Agazzani by the way were bought by a German company who may (?) have made some small changes to the spec, this is the original Italian made version.

When asking smaller bandsaws to resaw it's worth remembering that while these higher spec examples do resaw well even they are still somewhat limited in this regard.

Purpose built band resaws used mostly for production work are another step up again in terms of (dedicated) resaw capability. They run very wide blades and are very heavily built for a reason...

 

[recipio]

+1 for the Hammer N4400. It has a 4 HP single phase motor and a 310 mm cutting height . The only thing it lacks is a lever to release spring tension. You are a bit limited at 1900mm roof height so check before you buy anything. I'd keep the Axminster and put a fine tooth blade on it for cutting small pieces.

 

[Ttrees]

Here's yet another method to check wheel alignment, regardless which machine is a consideration.
As they say, where there's a will there's a way, should you stumble across something nice.

An adjustable motor is a welcome feature to me like on this old Multico..

Or at least some adjustability regarding the pulley depth on the shaft,
like on this spacer ring on the newer SCM, as if it's not right you might have some head scratching ahead, seeing as most bandsaws have flange or face mounted motors.

Looking at those things might be wise, along with some other stuff, most importantly bore wear
which isn't easy to fix.
Best looking for something with cast iron wheels rather than some cheap alloy ones,
as there is still some being made like that!, lol.
Throwing away money some folks do, sorry but I have no sympathy.

You'll get something decent for less money if you wait.
Good luck

Tom

 

[Coxy123]

This may be a bit late but I think a lot of care is needed if resawing 300mm.

While not having tested many hands on the basic difficulty is that the frame on most hobby quality saws is not stiff enough to properly tension and on top of that handle the cutting forces when resawing more than a few inches at a very low feed rate.

Many manufacturers conflate (likely intentionally) and confuse resaw capacity with maximum height available under the top guide - they very definitely are not the same thing unless perhaps you are cutting blocks of styrofoam.

Deep resaw cuts especially in tougher woods require coarse (say 3tpi or thereabouts) blades which generate high cutting forces. Force per tooth x no of teeth engaged = large forces.

The result tends to be deflection of the frame and consequent misalignment of wheels and guides - and possibly serious vibration.

Many are not very accurately set up (wheel alignments) from the factory anyway - to save time and money.

Hobby saws tend to use heavily cambered wheels to keep the blade on in these sorts of situations - which can lead to cut line problems because the alignment of the blade alters quite a lot depending on where it is tracking on the camber. It may womble about on the wheels anyway if the frame is deflecting - so that this problem won't even be consistent.

Smaller/hobby saws also tend to run significantly lower blade speeds (presumably to reduce HP requirement and cutting forces), but this knocks on into slow cutting speeds.

The gurus (presumably to avoid offending the various directly or indirectly paying parties) typically avoid these issues and recommend the use of narrower and more easily tensioned blades on smaller saws. They also (with those quoting them) often poo poo issues to do with e.g. wheel alignment despite the reality that it matters. Set up is often poor as delivered on woodworking machinery in general. (cost again...)

The trouble is that while it sometimes is possible using e.g. slow feed rates to work around these problems there really is no substitute when resawing for a stiff frame, lots of blade tension and a decent blade speed. Heavy wheels probably help to smooth things out too.

The mythologies regarding use this or that guide or set up blow out the window in this case - a genuinely professional build quality bandsaw capable of deep resawing isn't hugely dependent on the guides for example and will track consistently over a wide range of scenarios.

I started out quite a few years ago trying to resaw on a German or Austrian made saw (which claimed 'professional quality') then highly recommended by the mags which broke my heart and cost a fortune in test blades.

No amount of experimentation with sets ups and blade types could persuade it to resaw more than about 4in in softwood without lapsing into loud vibration of the frame and lousy cut quality - despite it offering 12 in vertical height under the guides. It looked well, was nicely built, claimed design awards and these days costs well north of €2,500 but was no good for resawing.

A 24in Agazzani which luckily came available for very little more than the saw sold for (to a guy who wanted it only to cut profiles - when told of the problem he said he had no interest in resawing) in minutes demonstrated just what the difference between a toy and a professional quality saw was.

It has no difficulty tensioning a 1in or larger blade, is smooth as silk and cuts very much faster even on thick resaws. Measurements have shown that there is no measurable deflection of the frame/misalignment of the very heavy wheels even when tensioning a heavy blade - they remain in plane other than for top wheel tilt fine tuning to get the blade to run where wanted on the (only very slightly cambered) wheels to cut in line with the fence.

These big saws can take some finessing to run with narrow blades - perhaps the disadvantage.

Resawing produces lots of dust so good dust collection matters too.

Wheel size can be an important factor for resawing - thicker carbide resaw blades like the Lenox Woodmaster CT which radically improve resaw performance from memory may fatigue on wheels much smaller than 20in diameter. (needs confirmation)

The practical problem if going for a saw somewhere in between is to separate what in truth is toy stuff pretending to be professional quality from what truly works - a matter of finding people with hands on experience ready to call a spade a spade.

As of some years ago the Hammer N4400 seemed to be getting good reviews from users (including from one or two resawing) on the forums - this as a smaller and lower cost saw which still offered many of the features found on larger saws. (the blade speed is a fair bit lower though than on a large Italian)

This piece is about changing the spring on an N4400 but includes lots of close up photos: Upgrading the blade tension spring on the Hammer N4400 Bandsaw | Swedish Woodworking

A proper quality saw bought used is likely a far better bet than a new one of lesser quality....,

Thanks for the detailed reply Vaj! I’ve not really looked at the N4400 so I’ve submitted a request for a quote. I actually saw a good one on Gumtree but it’s in Scotland and I’m in on the south coast so not very close! Interesting point about blade width. I was watching this video by Alex Snodgrass on the Laguna 14BX and assumed he would use the widest blade that would fit for resawing at full capacity but he used a narrower 3/8” one. Seemed to get a pretty decent result but he has a lot more skill than me which may be part of the answer too.

 

[vaj]

Not having hands on experience of them I can't advise C, but some of the 14in and immediately above saws seem within their limits to be resaw capable but many much less so.

300mm is however a deep cut...

The critical issue IF for whatever reason (maybe space/cost/all round/narrow blade capability/resaw isn't really that important?) you decide to buy at that level is as before to establish which is which.

Some of the older Startrite saws get a good general press, but I've no idea what their resaw capability is.

There are a few other smaller saws (including Eastern made ones) which have been a bit more strongly built at the request of US and perhaps other importers to improve their resaw capability - it's been a focus in that market for some years. Be aware though that there are saws in this territory (and larger as I discovered) that are rather lightly built and grossly unsuitable for resawing too.

It's pretty much certain that if you do go smaller that you will be giving away quite a bit in resaw capability versus a larger and much heavier saw - although less so in the case of something like the 16in Minimax or potentially (?) the Hammer N4400. (the next model down/smaller Hammer saw looks more like its intented for lighter work)

Beware of sales people and of gurus - despite what they might seek to suggest the point being made by myself and some others here is that if deep resawing truly is the requirement then there is an awful lot to be said for a bigger and heavier saw (used?) which cuts fast and accurately - one that steps clear of most of the problems and the requirement for picky set ups.

There's a big difference between this and a cherry picked set up which just about works...

There as before is no substitute for a hands on demo or better still an honest and knowledgeable user with lots of experience.

A larger three phase saw can be run from single phase mains using a rotary converter (it probably would need a dedicated feed taken from the board and a slow breaker plus make sure the saw is wired so that the phase powering the controls is not the synthetic one generated by the converter) - many of the larger saws don't often come in single phase.

Blade width is a mixed deal I think. A wider blade has more beam strength, but this benefit is lost in the case of a saw unable to properly tension it.

Accuracy of blade tooth geometry matters a lot when resawing - damaged or inaccurately manufactured or located teeth will cause drift and a poor surface finish. The precision of the ground teeth on a carbide blade is the major reason why they even in very coarse say 3tpi variants produce a very good surface finish.

Blade tension is a key ingredient in preventing misalignment of a properly manufactured blade and its teeth in a cut. Insufficient tension more or less guarantees that it will hunt about creating drift much like inaccurately formed teeth. The classic consequence is a cut that bows sideways.

The frame as before has to be able to handle the cutting forces on top of the tension. If the forces in combination cause the frame or the tension spring to significantly deflect then apart from potential misalignments there will be some loss of tension in the blade within the cut.

The original saw I had in addition vibrated badly in this situation - the entire frame chattered producing a loud droning noise and a bowed cut.

Feed rate is also a factor in that lighter cuts generate less force - which could (?) be why at least one of the gurus recommends the use of low rake/skip tooth blades which unlike a hook tooth permit more control over the feed rate because they don't generate so much of a self feeding effect.

 

[vaj]

The background to the above posts was that after about 9 years of casual use I'd just finished a fine set up of the Agazzani NRA 600 for a project where it will be doing some fairly heavy duty ripping, resawing and cutting of joints - it in retrospect seemed a pity not to share the experience.

It includes as well as a description of the set-up some observations on the realpolitik of bandsaws brought to mind by the exercise - which may or may not prove applicable in other specific cases.

It should if nothing else (see pics below) drive home the point about the step up in resaw capability delivered by large steel frame and similar e.g. Italian bandsaws...

It's quite long, and the set up proved quite labour intensive - so only if you are interested.

The saw has actually never caused a day of bother beyond being stiff to adjust the blade tension on and needing new guides when bought used. The latter had been abused and were chewed up - possibly related to the very blunt blade that came on it and the not very well aligned upper guide post.

The very stiff tension adjustment turned out to have been caused by a simple lack of grease - rust had been expected since the table was rust stained as a consequence of its original home having been by the sea.

Sawdust had in fact pulled the oil out of the original light coating of grease, and the resulting caked grease filler and sawdust was (surprisingly) causing the tensioner assembly thread and the vertical slides to jam.

The pic below shows a Hammer N4400 tension assembly - the principle is the same but the parts are different in detail. (the equivalent Aggazzani parts are almost all in cast iron)

It's quite a big job on a large saw to remove the (very heavy) top wheel, clean it all out and strip the tensioner - which motivated three measures beyond basic cleaning and lubrication which hopefully mean that the problem won't arise again.

The bearing surfaces (which had lots of milling marks) on the tensioner slides were lightly polished to only remove high/contact points (all that is necessary) using a fine diamond stone - this from experience with hand plane iron adjustment can make a big difference to friction levels.

Then they and the screw threads were greased with a copper containing anti-seize grease - the copper (MOS2 grease might be good too) hopefully will keep things slippery even if the oil component of the grease is again lost.

Some advise the use of dry lube etc, but the manufacturers generally do not - it's hard to see it providing enough lubrication an/or lasting for very long.

The entire tensioner assembly was then parcelled in heavy polythene sheet taped up using a heavy and high adhesion black fabric reinforced Gorilla tape. It took a bit of figuring to come to an arrangement which provided for the movement of the pin operating the tension indicator and of the wheel spindle as blade tension is adjusted - but it proved possible to get close to sealing it.

Next up was to verify the balance, true running and coplanarity of the wheels - the last using a set up similar to that in Ttrees pic. The very heavy table had to come off first to permit access - quite a struggle (care is needed) single handed.

The wheels turned out to have been very precisely balanced using riveted on lead weights (the reason why the saw is so free of vibration), and using a dial gauge to have in both cases only of the order of a few thou of runout and side to side movement - good going for a 600mm diameter cast iron item. They were also accurately aligned and in parallel planes. The lower wheel was however set about 3.5mm closer to the infeed side than the top.

Given the accuracy of most of the other wheel related alignments on the saw this could perhaps have been intended by the factory, but I bit the bullet and set the wheels coplanar - by moving the top wheel spindle towards the infeed side by the 3mm adjustment available within the boss it's mounted in at the top of the tensioner assembly. (there's a clamping screw which when released permits this limited range of adjustment) The remainder was found on the bottom wheel using the axial jacking screw it's equipped with.

The tyres were unmarked, and the sealed wheel bearings as new.

A tracking trial with the Lenox Woodmaster CT that has been on it for a few years suggested that all was well. A little tilt adjustment was then required on the top wheel to track it as Agazzani recommend (for wider blades) with the teeth at but not hanging over the infeed edge of the top wheel.

Cleaning, polishing and greasing the tensioner despite concern that it might not be effective turned out to have transformed its ease of adjustment - almost unbelievably so.

Tracking at this was dead stable, with the teeth hanging a couple of mm off the lower wheel - this caused by the top tilt.

Next up was alignment of the upper guide post.

This definitely is not the strongest point on the saw - it slides in a hole bored in the lower face of a frame box section. There is no proper bearing as such - which isn't very good engineering but shouldn't be a problem given the minimal movement of the guide post.

It's aligned by a bolted down plate with a bore in it it which the post passes through on bi-directional slotted holes on the top side of the box - which has a rotation preventing/slop take up screw mounted on it with a rectangular head which engages in the full length keyway in the back of the post. The height adjustment locking screw also engages in this slot.

It works, but is a bit of a blacksmith engineering job. It's very awkward to access, and fiddly to get accurately set up. The blade has to be fully tensioned and in it's intended tracking location on the wheels and the post fully lowered first.

The US market (see the Blasco video above) SCM/Minimax 16in saw in comparison has a set up with x4 jacking screws which ought to make the whole post alignment deal far more controllable.

The required outcome is to get the post set in the same vertical line as the blade. Adjustment is difficult because the alignment plate loses its position once its hold down screws are loosened. I got around this by making a ply fixture which clamped over one of the rearward projecting guide set mounting shafts at the lower end of the post to fix its location - the base of which was then clamped down on to the table mounting/trunnion assembly.

The post was (with the vertical adjustment clamp/locking knob released) precisely aligned by tapping the base of the fixture into the required position and then fully tightening the clamps - this by measurement from the back edge of the blade to the post in the feed direction using a vernier callipers, and by sighting the line of the post versus the blade in the other axis. (as with winding sticks) Also by verifying off the back edge of the fixture that the rotation of the guide assembly was correct versus the line of cut.

The guide/alignment plate mentioned above was then screwed down tight.

Testing with the guides set close to the blade showed that tightening the guide post clamping knob affected the post alignment a bit. Adjusting the pressure with which above mentioned anti-rotation screw (on the slignment plate) pressed into the back of the keyway in the post countered this.

Don't believe the stories about setting guide clearance with a bit of paper and forgetting them. Maybe on some saws...

It's a bit unclear where it comes from, but the guides in this case remain perfectly aligned until they are at half height, and then rotate/move just a hair out of whack. i.e. it's probably best to fine tune the guide positions every time the post height is significantly changed in use.

I find that a light held behind to detect contact with the blade followed by backing them off by x degrees on the thread the Euro/Italian pattern side guides use is best. They need oiling of the bearing on which they rotate too - just a drop now and then.

The Agazzani version of these side guides seemingly come with no locknuts fitted on the thread adjustment - they rely on friction to stay put. I fitted thin hex nuts to lock mine long ago (M22x1.5mm fine thread metric - not readily available from fastener suppliers but as widely used on truck air brake piping and valving) as there is I think a very real risk of their unpredictably moving out of adjustment and/or burning out as a result of blade contact/friction.

The table required some careful fine tuning of position and alignment to get the trunnion tilt gauge zeroed, and the table square in both directions to the blade - which again must be fully tensioned and in its intended/final tracking location on the wheels before this is done.

A bit of thought re. several of the above steps makes clear the havoc a blade which wanders about on the wheels while cutting may cause - especially on more heavily cambered wheels.

A properly fitted adjustable height (on jacking screws) 18mm ply throat plate was next - the original plastic item was chewed up.

The opening in the Agazzani table is as cast - which means the shape is irregular. It seemed best to retain the first hand fitted one for use as a router table template (held with a holding jig and double sided taped to a slightly oversize blank for shaping using a bearing guided bit) and to then run off five more for stock/to be available for use with different blades.

It's important to accurately position the blade cut in the throat plate - kept tight and stopped in line with the vertical back of the blade it functions as a secondary blade guide.

The table was then de-rusted - there was no pitting but it was discoloured. This was made a bit more awkward by the fact that the Agazzani table is ribbed and not flat.

It turns out (I had always previously used wet and dry paper) that the solution advised on some web videos of using a fibre abrasive pad (green in this case) lubricated with WD40 with a random orbital sander works really well - it was like new in 30 min.

Then the usual test cuts to verify blade squareness and line of cut - the fence required the tiniest adjustment to match the latter.

The final step was a fairly casual (no high fence or finger boards) resaw/veneer type test cut in a 160mm wide piece of old parana pine which happened to be lying around - see the pics below.

There wasn't a hint of bother - it peeled off a 'veneer' consistently 1mm thick all over with a surface finish similar to or better than birch ply. The faintest of vertical blade marks can be seen in a raking light in the last 100mm where my feeding became a bit less consistent - but it's at least as good and probably better than a really good circular saw cut.

There was no vibration or noise beyond the ususal either - and the blade tracking on the wheels was dead stable. The thrust guides were not turning despite their being set at about 0.3mm clearance...

 

[Ttrees]

] The thrust guides were not turning despite their being set at about 0.3mm clearance...

That's a good sign, and the reasoning for getting the tallest machine which can fit under a low ceiling, that is... for someone who intends to use a bandsaw for ripping and the likes, not even mentioning resawing 300mm tall timbers, which might or might not be longer than short box components, we don't know.

I am eager to see if my adjustable motor mounting plate will get things 100%
Hope so

Seemingly to me, there maybe lots of machines out there with misalignments.