(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

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.

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

snip bandsaw review

Thanks for the interesting write-up. Nice to see you looking at the
machine from the perspective of somebody who has worked around machine
tools and it sounds like you've got yourself a pretty decent machine
that will last you years. I'm green with envy!

Not too sure why it's struggling with the 10" oak as it should be
within your machines capabilities & it should go a bit faster. Sounds
like you set up the drift & blade tension OK & you've got plenty of
grunt. What I'd try is a higher fence than the 4" if you haven't
already - an 8" fence would be a useful size I think.

When I resaw I usually use a fence that is greater than 3/4's the
height of the timber being resawn and aswell as pushing the board into
the blade, I keep the board pushed onto the fence just in front of the
blade. If it's a long board you might require the assistance of
somebody else .... that's where SWMBO earns her keep She also earns
her keep when I'm ripping boule oak into boards on the bandsaw.
Alternatively, a decent featherboard arrangement could help with the
resawing and/or cutting your boards to length before resawing.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll sort something out given time. I've always
found it takes me a bit of time to get comfortable with new tools & it
takes me a few months before I start to `enjoy' using them.


--

Frank

http://www.freebsd.org/

To follow up my earlier post vis a vis the fence. What I'd do is make
yourself an 8" high fence that you can clamp to the table when you
have to resaw boards 6" wide. For stuff narrower than that or
ripping I'd use the supplied fence.

My shop made fence is basically half a box/come shelf which I clamp to
the table with a couple of 12" quick clamps, which means set-up time
is minimal. You should be able to do the same by pushing the existing
fence to the side. You can possibly clamp your fence either to the
table or the existing fence.

It's worth trying to keep your upper guide assembly as close to your
work as possible, reducing the stress on the back of the blade and
thus extending blade life, which is why any fence arrangement you may
make needs to be easy to dismantle and setup.

BTW, use a pushstick. I make mine on the bandsaw out of any decent
offcuts I may have and give them a sort of open bird's beak. I always
keep one hanging by the bandsaw on a nail along with a 12" steel rule.
Rule of thumb: if your fingers are closer than 2" to the blade they
are too close & you should be using a pushstick.

On the whole the bandsaw is a pretty safe machine (no kickbacks!) but
it can still make a nasty mess of you if you don't concentrate.

Hope this post has given you some ideas you may not have thought of.

--

Frank

http://www.freebsd.org/

Bruce,

Excellent review! I have the same saw, and I too completely disassembled mine
when I first took delivery. Since not everybody does that, I sorta felt a
built guilty for not writing up a comprehensive review as you did, but you did
a WAY better job than I could have ever done.

Bruce wrote:

snip

.... 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.

I've purchased quite a few blades for my saw, and most go unused. I have
several Timberwolf blades, and I've not been impressed. 95% of the time I use
only one blade: The "Woodslicer" from Highland Hardware. BUY ONE, you
absolutely will not regret it. My only complaint is that they don't make any
sizes other than 1/2 inch.

snip
... 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.

You will snicker every time you do.

--
To reply, change the chemical designation to its common name.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:01:47 -0700, Frank Shute wrote
(in message ):

Thanks for the input Frank.

One plan is to make a riser for the fence that will give me an additional
4-6" of height, I'll probably make an assortment so I can keep the guides
really close. The saw came with a nice push stick so I'm all set there.

I made a featherboard which really helped with consistancy. I tried reducing
the size of the boards I'm cutting to 6" which sped things up (in proportion)
but it's still way too slow. One thing I tried that helped some was to lube
the blade with "Remoil", a teflon based oil that I applied with a rag. It
seemed to keep the blade cleaner.

The saw is a keeper! I'll just need to build up my fixture inventory and play
with a variety of blades.

-Bruce


To follow up my earlier post vis a vis the fence. What I'd do is make
yourself an 8" high fence that you can clamp to the table when you
have to resaw boards 6" wide. For stuff narrower than that or
ripping I'd use the supplied fence.

My shop made fence is basically half a box/come shelf which I clamp to
the table with a couple of 12" quick clamps, which means set-up time
is minimal. You should be able to do the same by pushing the existing
fence to the side. You can possibly clamp your fence either to the
table or the existing fence.

It's worth trying to keep your upper guide assembly as close to your
work as possible, reducing the stress on the back of the blade and
thus extending blade life, which is why any fence arrangement you may
make needs to be easy to dismantle and setup.

BTW, use a pushstick. I make mine on the bandsaw out of any decent
offcuts I may have and give them a sort of open bird's beak. I always
keep one hanging by the bandsaw on a nail along with a 12" steel rule.
Rule of thumb: if your fingers are closer than 2" to the blade they
are too close & you should be using a pushstick.

On the whole the bandsaw is a pretty safe machine (no kickbacks!) but
it can still make a nasty mess of you if you don't concentrate.

Hope this post has given you some ideas you may not have thought of.

Bruce:

How did it do on the nickel test? I was looking at the Laguna and the
comments out on the Laguna web site has definitely made me rethink the
Laguna. I'm looking on purchasing a new BS within the next month or so and
your review was very timely. I'm also curious as to why you chose the MM16
over the S45?

Thanks
Rich


"Bruce" wrote in message
. ..
(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

Me too. I have and LOVE the S45.




On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 10:29:42 -0500, "RKON"
wrote:

Bruce:

How did it do on the nickel test? I was looking at the Laguna and the
comments out on the Laguna web site has definitely made me rethink the
Laguna. I'm looking on purchasing a new BS within the next month or so and
your review was very timely. I'm also curious as to why you chose the MM16
over the S45?

Thanks
Rich


"Bruce" wrote in message
...
(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

The MM16 is a much newer design than the S45, and many improvements have been made.

Lawrence A. Ramsey wrote:

Me too. I have and LOVE the S45.




On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 10:29:42 -0500, "RKON"
wrote:


Bruce:

How did it do on the nickel test? I was looking at the Laguna and the
comments out on the Laguna web site has definitely made me rethink the
Laguna. I'm looking on purchasing a new BS within the next month or so and
your review was very timely. I'm also curious as to why you chose the MM16
over the S45?

--
To reply, change the chemical designation to its common name.

Steve Turner wrote in message om...

-big chunk text missing
You will snicker every time you do.

That may be the case? I'll be the first to remind everyone how upset I
was when i got my JET 18 uncrated(it is lightly built),but with a 3/4
timberwolf 3 tpi(the blade is actually made by PS Wood and says by the
creators of the timberwolf)it resaws 10"ash and 8"maple as fast as i
feel comfortable feeding it.
It came with a cord and plug and roller guides.
Would I love a MM? @#$# yes.
If I had bought one prior to the JET(I was planning on it) I'm sure I
would be very happy(althought I can't believe a saw that much $$ does
not come with a cord.)But now the MM16 is the same price(INC shipping)
as my jet18,powermatic 54 jointer, and my dewalt planer combined(I
bought the Jet @www for 15%off and got a rebate on the planer)I picked
up local-no shipping.

I'm still on the fence on whether to sell the jet and get the MM16,but
don't think i'll see $1k difference for my needs.(i might feel
different after a hundred hours or so on the saw)
I forgot to say thanks to the OP for the detailed and honest
eval.Keith

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 8:29:42 -0700, RKON wrote
(in message 8TBIb.2514$zf.1226@okepread05):


Glad to help!

It passes the nickel and penny test, but the penny will sometimes fall over
when I start it up.

I couldn't find much info (opinions) on the S45 but based on it's price range
I think it is more a direct competitor with the Jet 16". It would be worth a
closer look if you just can't find the extra $. MiniMax also has another "S"
type saw listed on their website http://www.minimax-usa.com (at least it was
there a few weeks ago).

-Bruce


Bruce:

How did it do on the nickel test? I was looking at the Laguna and the
comments out on the Laguna web site has definitely made me rethink the
Laguna. I'm looking on purchasing a new BS within the next month or so and
your review was very timely. I'm also curious as to why you chose the MM16
over the S45?

Thanks
Rich

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 11:23:10 -0700, keith wrote
(in message ) :

Honestly I'm sure I would have been happy with the Jet as well, but my
current situation makes it better for me to get "overkill" now and only feel
the pain once 8^)
I think most all major power tools go exponential in price once a certain
feature set is accepted and only "small" features are added on. I'm sure Jet
has a lot higher volume and lower production costs so that $!k price
difference would probably only be about $500 if it was made in Italy.

-Bruce


I'm still on the fence on whether to sell the jet and get the MM16,but
don't think i'll see $1k difference for my needs.(i might feel
different after a hundred hours or so on the saw)

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 7:25:30 -0700, Bruce wrote:


Thanks for the input Frank.

No worries.


One plan is to make a riser for the fence that will give me an additional
4-6" of height, I'll probably make an assortment so I can keep the guides
really close. The saw came with a nice push stick so I'm all set there.

Sounds good. I'm sure you'll get better results with a higher fence
for when you're deep ripping.


I made a featherboard which really helped with consistancy. I tried reducing
the size of the boards I'm cutting to 6" which sped things up (in proportion)
but it's still way too slow. One thing I tried that helped some was to lube
the blade with "Remoil", a teflon based oil that I applied with a rag. It
seemed to keep the blade cleaner.

I'd go careful with the lube, if you get too much between the blade &
tires, your blade might not go around too fast!

I assume you're facing one side & one edge of the boards before you're
ripping, if not, you'll find that it will help to keep the board
butted up tight to the fence and table which is critical. It's also
critical that you set the drift right. I find that if I'm only a
little out, the saw starts to struggle. If I've got it set right, then
things go a *lot* easier. I set it by eye.


The saw is a keeper!

Damn! I was hoping I could arrange an exchange with you: my crappy 6"
under the guides machine for your monster....sounds fair to me

You'll get to love your bandsaw & wonder what all your compatriots see
in their table saws whilst their fingers are getting scattered around
their workshops...

I'll just need to build up my fixture inventory and play with a
variety of blades.

I usually keep my widest possible blade on with 4 tpi & only change it
to something thinner if I need to cut some tighter radii than my wide
blade can handle. I hate changing blades - a lot of stuffing around on
my machine with it's rubbish guides.


--

Frank

http://www.freebsd.org/