Hello all,

I bought a 14" Powermatic band saw a little over a week ago. I'm not that
familiar with it yet. Today I picked up a 3/4" blade on sale at a local
lumber supplier. I tried to install it a little while ago but ran into a
few issues. It went on fine, or so it seemed. The lower bearing that
rides at the back edge of the blade does not seem to have enough travel to
allow the blade all the way in. It goes most of the way, but it does not
seem possible to set it according to the owner's manual. In other words,
it will always be touching the back of the blade and it touches it pretty
hard if you know what I mean. To complicate matters, that bearing doesn't
spin freely anyway. It's too stiff to spin like the rest of the bearings.
I will tinker with it and replace it if necessary, but the travel issue is
still a problem. The combination of the two problems resulted in a
slightly hot bearing with a slight groove beginning to wear in the bearing.
This was after a short test run.

Questions: Should I pull the blade off and just accept that a 3/4" blade
simply won¢t fit even though it is supposed to fit? I seem to remember a
recent discussion saying that fitting a 3/4" blade on a 14" saw is a common
problem. I sure did like the result of the test run I made. Are there any
adjustments that I am missing that would remedy the problem? Anyone
familiar with this saw enough to tell me what I need to know to run a 3/4"
blade in it?

Thanks,
Brian