On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 11:42:42 -0700, Bruce wrote:

|(continued from part II)
|
|Quality Impressions
|
|Everyone has different standards so read this for what it is
|worth. I¹ve seen/used a number of industrial machines and
|took notice of how they fabricate their adjustment
|mechanisms. Things that get frequent tweaking (like spindle heads on a
|vertical mill) usually have
|dovetailed ways with lockdowns and cranks. Less frequently
|adjusted things have shims and lock bolts. The MiniMax uses
|pinch bolts everywhere. To adjust, you loosen the locknut,
|turn the bolt, and then reset the locknut. A very sturdy way
|to adjust and keep adjusted, but there always is a small
|amount of movement when the locknut is cinched that often
|requires "fiddly" tweaking. The good thing is that
|"everything" is adjustable! I can¹t think of one alignment that cannot be
|changed on this saw. The table tilt has a stop bolt
|that makes return to 90 degrees easy. The trunion lock bolt
|uses two washers that get bent to conform to the trunion¹s
|curve. A curved faced washer or other mating part here would
|be a nice refinement, but what is there works. The table on
|my saw was dead flat; I only needed to square it up with the
|blade. Loosen the cinch nuts, turn the bolts, retighten,
|repeat. It takes a while, but I¹ll only have to do this once.
|The blade guide assembly tracked the blade fine as set at the
|factory with no offsets from full up to full down. If I did
|have to adjust it, there are four pinch bolts to tweak. The mechanism that
|raises and lowers this part is operated by a hand wheel that engages a
|sprocket and chain attached to the shaft of the blade guide holder. It stays
|put on its own but there is a lockdown wheel provided. An industrial machine
|probably would have a rack and pinion system here (like on a drill press),
|but this system is identical for all purposes and aside from a small amount
|of backlash felt at the handwheel, perfect for easy guide position tuning.
|All
|the hand wheels are plastic, but well made with brass
|bushings for the shafts and setscrews. The tension wheel is
|labeled "open" and "close" so I assume it¹s not made
|specifically for the saw 8^). All the sheet metal is painted
|(drip/run free) and of a very heavy gauge metal, about 1/8"
|thick (the doors are thinner). The motor belt is adjusted
|with a jackscrew, very nice to set the belt, but potential is
|there to really over do it! Access to the nuts here is a tad difficult but
|easy enough. The motor pulley is machined steel.
|The blade guides are described as ³euro style². Basically a round disk with a
|shaft that rides in a bronze bushing.
|
|Using the Saw.
|
|It turns out that the blade I wanted was "backordered" so
|being eager to fire up my new toy I called the folks that
|make the Timberwolf blades and ordered a 1" and 1/2" blade
|(blade length is 145"). They recommended a 3 TPI profile for
|the 1" based on my request to be able to resaw 10" of white
|oak.
|The blades arrived a week later and the 1" was installed that
|night. I tensioned the blade to the proper place on the
|MiniMax¹s built in tension gauge but the blade was still way
|too loose. I decided to make my own tension gauge from a very
|sensitive dial indicator I have handy and proceeded to set
|the blade to 15000 psi. The tension indicated on the MiniMax
|gauge was double what they indicated should be correct. Everywhere I read
|stated that all bandsaw ³factory² tension gauges are junk and this one in no
|exception. They work by measuring the compression of the spring in the
|tension mechanism. This spring is only about 1² long and prone to wear. I
|made a mark on the gauge based on what I had found with my dial indicator.
|After several tension/detension cycles and returning the setting with the
|dial gauge, the factory gauge I had marked was different!
|
|I set the wheel tilt and tracking with ease. No problems
|here! The blade teeth were just over the edge of the rim as specified on both
|top and bottom wheels. Next I fine tuned the table squareness and proceeded
|to
|fire up the saw. Wow! Nice and smooth! Next job was to make
|dust so I cut a 2x4 into pieces free hand. The cutting was
|not as fast as I had expected, but good enough nevertheless.
|Next job was to adjust the fence for blade lead. I grabbed a
|piece of oak, freehanded a line cut, then set the fence angle
|to match. A quick test showed I could cut 1/16" pine veneers
|from my 2x4 with ease and consistency. Next came the big
|test, resaw a 6 foot long 10" x 1" oak plank into two 1/2"
|pieces. This was difficult! Basically I could only cut about
|6" per minute. I also ended up turning the blade thrust
|guides blue in the process. Way too much work was involved pushing this board
|through! It almost seemed the blade was dull, but it still felt sharp to my
|fingers. Maybe I need a different tooth profile. I¹ll wait for the "freebee"
|1"
|blade to arrive to compare, but my initial impression of the
|Timberwolf blades is not very good. The Yahoo MiniMax mailing
|list also tends to confirm that Timberwolf blades are not
|that great. The saw never bogged down however, plenty of
|power! At least with the blades I have a lot of choices for vendors so I am
|not discouraged. The saw did fine. My only gripe was with the blade thrust
|guide.
|
|Impressions.
|
|Everything is adjustable! This is great since I can dial it
|all in perfectly. A more expensive industrial machine costing
|multi-kilobucks probably would have shims and nicer ways to
|set things, but the pinch bolt arrangement works and holds
|tight. The guides that come with the saw seem ok, but I¹ll
|probably look for something that can handle more force. The
|included guides use bronze bushings, I¹ll go for bearings
|given my experience with resawing. The tension gauge is
|totally useless so I¹ll rely on my home made device from now
|on. The fence gauge is also basically useless, but I¹ll rely
|on a more accurate ruler instead. This saw has plenty of
|power and a nice big table. It will serve me for years! After doing all this
|tuning and cleaning, I will really be able to qualify the Jet and Laguna 16²
|saws when I get a chance to see them up close.
|
|-Bruce
|
|

Wow. Thanks Bruce for all of the work writing this up. Hope you have
many years of enjoyment from your new saw.