tomsworkbench Posted November 16, 2010 Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 OK, so I'm using my 14" Delta 3/4 hp band saw. I have it set up with cool blocks, a kreg fence and a 1/2" 3 tpi Viking/Timberwolf bandsaw blade. I'm working off Michael Fortune's five steps to setting up a bandsaw www.ccwwa.org/NEWSITE/plans/BandsawTuneup1.pdf For some reason, no matter how far back I adjust the blade on the wheels, it drifts as if the blade is too far forward on the saw (drifts to the right on a long cut). I have some sweet thicker boards and I want to make some 1/4" slices to use for inlays... I think it may soon be beer time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted November 16, 2010 Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 I believe his method assumes the wheels are crowned. Could it be yours are not? ...and could you pass me an amber, please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsworkbench Posted November 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 I think they still are... I take the tension off when I'm not using the saw... I have four cold ones in the fridge. How do you want them? FedEx? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted November 16, 2010 Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 Try this: Check to make sure that there is a crown on your wheels using a small square. There should be, with your model bandsaw. Center the blade on the upper wheel. Set the fence so that it is parallel to your miter slot. If your fence and miter slot are not in line with the blade at this point, loosen the nuts holding the table in place, and rotate the table so that they are all lined up. Now all you have to do when switching blades is to center the new blade on the wheel, and it will be in line, without drift. What Michael Fortune's method does is replace the annoyance of having to reset your fence to accommodate for drift every time you switch the blade for the one time annoyance of aligning your table to a properly positioned blade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted November 16, 2010 Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 I think they still are... I take the tension off when I'm not using the saw... I have four cold ones in the fridge. How do you want them? FedEx? Just no bandsaw tuning with the beer! They leave nasty rust rings... I have hockey tonight at 9:30 so I'll catch up on beer then. And they get the good stuff... you know, 30 cans for $5 good stuff (I usually drive home and have a couple ambers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsworkbench Posted November 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 Just no bandsaw tuning with the beer! They leave nasty rust rings... I have hockey tonight at 9:30 so I'll catch up on beer then. And they get the good stuff... you know, 30 cans for $5 good stuff (I usually drive home and have a couple ambers) From the can to the man... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuilderBill Posted November 16, 2010 Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 Tom, Something Michael doesn't mention is that the set on any individual blade isn't necessarily the same when it comes to right v. left. Theoretically they should be equal but even a small difference could account for your problem. Try a blade from another mfg. and see if the problem persists. Another thing he doesn't mention is that the wheels might not be parallel. You can adjust the lower thrust bearing in line with the upper bearing and the lower side bearings to have the same .001" clearance, but if the wheels aren't dead-nuts parallel front-to-back you're twisting the blade between the guides. It doesn't take much before you start needing to adjust drift angle on the fence. A few thousandths here, a few thousandths there, pretty soon you need to make an adjustment somewhere. That's why those of us who own less-than-stellar equipment need to swing our fences one way or the other to compensate. Everything is relative, Grasshopper. If you need to move your fence to get good cuts then just do it. Worry not about what should be, deal with what is.... HTH, Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyV Posted November 16, 2010 Report Share Posted November 16, 2010 You wouldn't happen to have a riser block on that saw, would you, Tom? Riser blocks can throw off the alignment of the wheels to each other. I've got a Grizzly 14" G0555 BS at home that has been problematic. I bought it and the riser block kit new at the same time. I removed & threw out the original blade after mounting the saw on the base. I really have no idea how the thing behaved without the riser block. BUT . . . When I first put the riser block in, I noticed that I could get great, stratight cuts parallel to the fence & miter slot if I used Fortune's set up tips, but the !@#$$% upper blade guide wasn't parallel to the blade, so I'd have to adjust the upper blade guide every time I needed to change its height. Having to constantly readjust the guides was a pain, so I decided to shim the upper wheel assembly in order to bring the guide parallel to the blade. Well, now the blade guide is nice & parallel, but I can't get a cut parallel to the fence & miter slots no matter what I do. After finishing the shimming, I noticed that the upper wheel was way out of line with the bottom wheel, with the bottom wheel being so far forward of the bottom wheel that to get the blade to run at all, it had to sit on the rim of the upper wheel. I got some large washers & put them behind the upper wheel & this made the blade run on the upper wheel's tire, but I still can't get a good, straight cut. So I'm going to take the shims out & just deal with adjusting the guides. However, it just occurred to me that when I put the upper wheel back on, it might have twisted relative to the lower wheel, as well as the other changes. Still, the shims are going. Hopefully I can get a straight cut again after that. I need to use my band saw to rip some wide boards for a coffee table. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mking1@sbcglobal.net Posted November 18, 2010 Report Share Posted November 18, 2010 OK, so I'm using my 14" Delta 3/4 hp band saw. I have it set up with cool blocks, a kreg fence and a 1/2" 3 tpi Viking/Timberwolf bandsaw blade. I'm working off Michael Fortune's five steps to setting up a bandsaw www.ccwwa.org/NEWSITE/plans/BandsawTuneup1.pdf For some reason, no matter how far back I adjust the blade on the wheels, it drifts as if the blade is too far forward on the saw (drifts to the right on a long cut). I have some sweet thicker boards and I want to make some 1/4" slices to use for inlays... I think it may soon be beer time... I have a Jet 14” w/6” riser and use about the same blade as you and I get straight re-saw cuts without any blade drift. To achieve these cuts I use a set up that centers the blade’s teeth on the center of the band saw tire instead of centering the blade on the tire. I know this goes against all material I’ve seen or read on the subject of band saw setups but it works for me. I have to give credit for this idea to one of the Carter band saw demonstrations I saw at a woodworking show last spring. Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted November 18, 2010 Report Share Posted November 18, 2010 I have a Jet 14” w/6” riser and use about the same blade as you and I get straight re-saw cuts without any blade drift. To achieve these cuts I use a set up that centers the blade’s teeth on the center of the band saw tire instead of centering the blade on the tire. I know this goes against all material I’ve seen or read on the subject of band saw setups but it works for me. I have to give credit for this idea to one of the Carter band saw demonstrations I saw at a woodworking show last spring. Miles That's interesting. So what do you do with a 3/4" wide blade? Picturing it on my wheel would put the back of the blade nearly off the wheel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldgrowth Posted November 18, 2010 Report Share Posted November 18, 2010 Paul, I am not sure you could run a 3/4" blade on a 14" with a riser block, seems like a little too much tension. I ran a 1/2" Wood Slicer on my little 14" w/ block and man that cut like butta! I think that the problem might be in the wheels themselves, maybe off balance or not coplanar. I have had problems in the past with this and it can be difficult and VERY frustrating to deal with, but beer does help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mking1@sbcglobal.net Posted November 18, 2010 Report Share Posted November 18, 2010 That's interesting. So what do you do with a 3/4" wide blade? Picturing it on my wheel would put the back of the blade nearly off the wheel. I've never used a 3/4" blade so I don't know if it would fit but I know the 1/2" works. Also, I didn’t mention that the last time I used this setup for re-sawing on 8” tall stock I forgot to pull down on the tension release lever (leaving the blade at less than ideal tension setting) and still got a perfect cut. I’m still new at this stuff and was unsure if the blade would damage the tire but after many cuts I cannot see any damage. Miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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