Christmas in November

For some time now I’ve been doing research and stashing away money for that rainy day when bandsaws fall from the sky. Yesterday, it got cloudy. I got my Powermatic 14″ bandsaw from the lumber guys over at WoodWorkersSource:

Due to its late arrival and the recent early sunsets, I couldn’t put it completely together last night. This afternoon I was able to complete the job:

Here are a few of my thoughts on the process:

1) Getting the motor set to the right height to keep the belt properly tensioned was a major PITA. I don’t know what would be an easier system, but trying to keep the motor balanced, while tensioning the belt, in order to tighten 4 bolts/nuts isn’t easy.  I actually had to lay the band saw on its side to get the correct leverage to properly set the motor height.
2) Despite the trouble getting the motor set, the rest of the assembly was pretty easy.  I spent a good amount of time getting the table balanced and level, but that was somewhat expected.
3) I actually managed to shear one of the bolts in half while tightening it! Thankfully, it was a bolt that holds the rear rail for the fence, so it’s not critically urgent to get another bolt.

Just to use it tonight, I made a couple of ”curved” cuts in a scrap piece of wood:

The deal from WoodWorkersSource.com also included a 6″ riser block for free, so I still have the project of installing it.  Something tells me that won’t happen until I actually need the resaw capability…