Subject: Enco 'kit' bandsaw problems

From: [email-masked] (Eric Murray [TEMP])
Date: 5 Jun 1995 16:21:49 GMT

I assembled my $150 Enco bandsaw yesterday.  I'm having trouble
with getting the wheels aligned properly.  The blade slips off the
lower (driven, non-adjustable) wheel when I start cutting.

I have the blade tension adjusted to what I think is correct
(tips welcome) and have the angle of the top wheel adjusted
so the blade stays on when the saw's running and not cutting.

What am I doing wrong?

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From: [email-masked] (Barry Wolinetz)
Date: 6 Jun 95 16:06:23 -0500

Eric Murray [TEMP] ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I assembled my $150 Enco bandsaw yesterday.  I'm having trouble
: with getting the wheels aligned properly.  The blade slips off the
: lower (driven, non-adjustable) wheel when I start cutting.

: I have the blade tension adjusted to what I think is correct
: (tips welcome) and have the angle of the top wheel adjusted
: so the blade stays on when the saw's running and not cutting.

: What am I doing wrong?

A couple of things to check.  Are the roller guides adjusted correctly?  When
I set mine up, the roller guides were too tight as delivered from the factory.
According to the manual there should be a .000 to .001 clearance between the 
rollers and the blade.  I tighten them till I can just slide the blade in
with moderate resistance.  (I had to grind down a 12mm open end wrench to 
fit on the adjustment nut due to limited clearance).

Is the blade any good?  The carbon steel blades that ENCO sells are pretty
trashy.  None of the ones I tried ran well and the welds cracked after a short
time.

The Bi-metal blades run a lot nicer and the welds are finished a lot nicer.

Is your down feed pressure too great?  My blade would jump off if I tried
to force it to cut by pressing down on the saw.

I am not real crazy about the adjustments available on the saw, but for $150
it saves a lot of wear and tear on my arm, plus with a bit of fiddling 
I can get it to cut pretty darn close to 90 degrees in both planes.

It seems that Enco has improved the leg arrangement with the addition of a
shelf.  My saw seems to be quite stable compared to the complaints others
have aired in this newsgroup. (of course, I havn't tried sticking an 8ft
length of 2" steel in the vise yet, so ......:-)

Good luck

Barry
--

Barry Wolinetz                       My opinions, Only!  I would not
The Northern Trust Co                claim to speak for my employer in 
Chicago, Il                          most matters discussed here!

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From: [email-masked] (Peter Brooks)
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 19:21:07 GMT

/ hpcc01:rec.crafts.metalworking / [email-masked] (Eric Murray [TEMP]) /  9:21 am  Jun  5, 1995 /
>so the blade stays on when the saw's running and not cutting.

I've had my enco a couple of months now, and have been tinkering a
bit to saw fairly reliably.  A couple of points; the blade will slip off
the bottom wheel if any of several things are off.  This includes the
blade guides as well as the tension.

I've had the most luck so far with:

1) using a bimetal blade at a 'kinda high' tension.  No numbers, but it's
higher than the original blade liked.  Basically, I tighten until just before
the knob starts taking some real effort.

2) setting the wheels for parallel *at the tension I plan to use*.  I don't
think the frame is flexing, but the adjusters are a bit flimsy.  The
adjustment is kind of fiddly, but it'll come in eventually.

3) the bottom wheel blade guide seems to want to be set on the low
side.  I tried moving it up, but this made things worse.

4) if you are using cutting oil, the blade guides will gunk up.  I had some
luck by cleaning them.  Methinks the guide adjustments are important.

I won't join the chorus of those hating Enco, but then I haven't been buying
mail order from them--there's a showroom a couple of miles from work and
I'll go there to buy.  It makes for fewer surprises.  The people at the
showroom seem decent enough.

Pete Brooks