Hmmm, I’m going to have to think about that alignment and check it out. After I did the initial maintenance on this Mark 5, and was ready to use it, the first thing I did was go through a full alignment procedure, as instructed. But it might be worth checking again. How much can that power shaft (idler shaft) move off center as you adjust the eccentric to tighten the gilmer belt?DLB wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:28 pmI presume that means the original mounting posts were straight posts.(?) If I had 1/4" error with straight posts I would want to make sure I understood why. That's a pretty big error. To me it suggests a problem in the base alignment. That can be caused by the big set screw in the Headrest being out of adjustment (if you have one) or something wrong. Others would disagree with me on this, to some extent the eccentrics eliminate the need for accurate base alignment.Majones1 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:40 am Plus, I had never used my bandsaw since getting it from MickyD, and doing some clean up on it. It worked great. I had purchased some eccentric mounting posts and got it aligned perfectly with the headstock. The original posts had it misaligned about 1/4" so the power connection will have less stress on it.
Side note: IIRC dust collection can be easily and inexpensively added to any bandsaw. It ain't perfect, but it's an improvement. You do have to cut a hole in the cover, so some purists may be opposed for that reason.
- David
I bought the dust port upgrade and plan to install it soon. This was the first time I’ve used the band saw so I just work a good face mask to keep from breathing the dust. Then I vacuumed the bandsaw out and everything around it. Everything in my shop (garage/laundry room) is covered with dust now, again. It’s almost as bad as the sanding disk, and that took a while to (mostly) clean up.