On Mon, 6 Jun 2005 16:08:45 -0400, George wrote:

"Brian Mahaney" wrote in message
news
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.

Well, you might have been able to move the blade forward with tracking, but
if you're doing all right with other blades, do without. I've a Delta, and
it does fine with the 3/4 blade, especially the thin one from Suffolk.

Never have been able to figure out why, if the upper thrust bearing was on
an eccentric, the lower wasn't. Can lead to those kind of problems you
mentioned if the blade was too far inside the rim, even if the bearing spins
like a sweetheart otherwise. Remove and reverse the bearing, though you
still might want to bitch and get another from Powermatic.

I did try to move the blade forward with the tracking, but it was too far
forward to be safe or practical by the time it wasn't touching any more.
It was already pushing the limit of being "centered" when it was rubbing
against the bearing. I'm still tinkering with it. I may have found a
solution. I'll post it if I do.

Thanks,
Brian