Griz riser kit in Ridgid band saw

For general info and as thanks to those that told me that this would work, I wanted to post a little report:

Ridgid BS1400/1402 14" band saw...

Ordered the riser block from Grizzly for about $55 as opposed to what seems to be the same thing in a different color from Ridgid for $150+...

I was concerned a little about the brand mix, but mostly with several comments about some alignment problems and related hassles with riser kits..

I put it in myself, with the help of a few handy pieces of firewood to support the blade end of the band saw top while I was putting the bolt in to reassemble after adding the block.. Had expected it to be a 2 person job, but it was pretty easy...

Everything went together well, but I didn't follow the instruction sheet order of setup... they wanted the rear blade guard installed before the blade, I guess so that you would remember to use it? Didn't make sense to me to put it on and then take it back off to put the blade on..

All of the Griz parts and pieces seem to fit and work fine... green block in gray base isn't an issue for me.. (I can buy a lot of paint for the >$100 difference)

I had one problem, which could be either common or just my saw:

I couldn't get the blade tension loose enough to fully install the new blade... almost went but wouldn't quite go all the way around bottom wheel...

Took Darrell's advice and had a cup of coffee and came back to it... took a closer look and found that the adjuster screw was loose, but that the block that slides up and down to move the wheel was about an inch from being all the way down.. It seems that the little ear on the tracking adjuster or whatever on the back (wheel side) of the sliding block was hanging up in the hole in the back wheel cover.. I didn't want to bend the steel in towards the wheel, so I ground the hole slightly egg shaped to allow clearance of the ear.. works fine now, but it will probably hang up on me again today when I put my new blade in... just something that folks might watch for..

thanks again for the help!!

mac

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mac davis
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My biggest problem was finding a socket to fit the nut in a small country town.

Reply to
Gerald Ross

Also, I'm sure that you noticed that the bolt you took off was a different size than the one in the kit?

I think it was a 1 1/8" coming off and something like a 15/16" going back on... probably metric..

I had to hold the bolt head with a crescent wrench and used a 1/2" drive ratchet on the bolt..

It would have been nice to have the instruction sheet include a "tools needed" list, so you'd know what sizes you need before you start..

mac

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Reply to
mac davis

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