1991 Delta 14" bandsaw

[Danners]

I bought this saw from Graham McCullough writer and creator of shortcuts. The bandsaw was given to him by Delta in 1991, I am now the second proud owner.

The saw came with Carter quick release tensioning lever, 24" aftermarket Delta fence, wheel brush and 6" riser block. The only upgrade I did was put a Carter spring in it, built much needed support for the extended fence and built a larger fence for the odd log or large piece of timber to be re-sawn. Love this thing!

 

[Danners]

Fence

 

[Danners]

Back view
Carter spring and quick tension release lever.

 

[zkling]

Nice setup, but if you plan on doing heavy resawing greater than ~6", step up to a 20" saw. Even with the riser block the small 14" delta just doesn't have the rigidity to properly tension that long of a blade. With a riser block I even saw a decrease in sub 6" resawing performance.

 

[Danners]

Nice setup, but if you plan on doing heavy resawing greater than ~6", step up to a 20" saw. Even with the riser block the small 14" delta just doesn't have the rigidity to properly tension that long of a blade. With a riser block I even saw a decrease in sub 6" resawing performance.

Thanks for the complement. No I don't plan on doing a ton of big stuff it's definitely hard on such a little saw just nice to have the option. I know what you mean it's a lot to ask 14" bandsaw to do, especially with 1/2hp motor.

With the stock tensioning spring in place, I had the exact same problem with tensioning. Because of the extra stretch in a longer blade, the old spring would pretty well bottom out. But with the new Carter tensioning spring in place, this was no longer a problem.

I do find there is a certain amount of flex in the cast itself. The main issue I found with this, was that it would be slightly jumpy if fed to fast while resawing something larger than 8" This was corrected by just feeding it a little slower.
What problems did you find with resawing 6" and under? Was it the tension?