My Homemade 18" Band saw

[mr95gst]

The saw runs pretty smooth. Since is has a DC motor, it is very quite. The only thing you really hear is the metal blade running against the bearings. The rubber is 16" bicycle inner tubes. It tracks well. I have not had any problems with that. However, my wheels have somewhat of a pointed crown. I kept reading that people were putting a 5 degree crown on the wheels for tracking and I misunderstood what they were inferring. I see what they mean now and plan to grind more of a radius profile on the outside of the wheels.

The bottom wheel is fixed with a bolted plate. I did this so I could shim the back of the plate to adjust the tilt of the axle. I found that the blade tension wants to fold the two wheels together like a taco. I can counter that by shimming the axle plate.

The top is a little more complicated. The entire carriage assembly at the top is removable from the main saw frame. The mounting hole are slotted to allow for the carriage to move left and right. This will allow me to square the blade to the table. The upper axle is welded to a plate that is hinged. Above and below the hinge are bolts for adjusting the tilt. It is similar to small bandsaws you buy at the store, but mine has a bolt above and below the hinge. I can tilt it by loosing the bottom bolt and tightening the top (and vise versa). I will try to find a better picture. The carriage glides up and down against 1" square tubing on either side. It is retained with 1/8" flat bar attached to the front and back sides of the 1" square tube. . The unpainted frame pictures only show the 1" vertical tube, but you can see the retaining pieces in the pictures with the painted frame.