John,
I have your Care & Repair of Shop Machines book and really appreciate the useful detail you put into it.
After wondering about the wheel alignment on the 14″ 1 HP Jet bandsaw I bought brand new 10 yrs ago, I finally checked it and found the bottom wheel it to be 3/16″ in relative to the top wheel. This confirmed my suspicion since it seemed that most blades rode 3/16″ to 1/4″ forward of the crown on the bottom wheel when they were perfectly centered on the crown on the top wheel.
I have called a couple of local Jet service companies to ask about ordering shims/washers made for this purpose and got nothing but silence on the other end of the phone.
My questions to you: Do you know of any specific bushings/washers/spacers made for the Jet? If not, will plain old washers do? And finally, is 3/16″ too much of an adjustment to try to make up?
Thanks,
Jack Anderson
Replies
Iturra Design in Jacksonville FL is a small company that specializes in a vast number of accessories for 14" band saws, many of which are more or less gimmicks that aren't really needed. They stock the bushings for aligning the wheels on Asian copies of the Delta saw and I'm fairly certain that you can add the bushings behind the lower wheel of the Jet saw.
Ordinary washers typically won't work since you only want to contact the narrow edge of the inner race of the bearing in the wheel's hub. You may need to buy a bearing puller to get the wheel off of the drive shaft. Iturra may sell that also.
3/16" probably isn't too much to correct for as long as the lower wheel still fits tightly and wobble free on the lower shaft once you put it back together.
Amazingly, Iturra doesn't have a web site, you will have to give them a call to order what you need and to get a copy of their very informative catalog. Their toll free number is 1-866-883-8064.
John White
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