bandsaw blade keeps coming off wheels

[Mike Minto]

i know my bandsaw is not properly 'set-up', or 'adjusted'; i also don't know exactly how to do so. i suspect this is why my blades keep coming off the wheels, binding up in my wood and ending up in the trash. this did not start to happen until i had been using it for over a year - this is what makes me think something is out of adjustment (what a genius). it must have something to do with the guides, bearings, whatever - anyone know of any good sources of information regarding bandsaw set-up? this is VERY annoying. thanks in advance, mike

[ROY DICK]

Mike,
Check this out.
http://search.aol.com/aol/search?&query=HOW+TO+TUNE+UP+A+BAND+SAW&invocationType=TB50CL.

Roy

[Cody Colston]

Sounds like the tires are loose on the wheels.

[Josiah Bartlett]

It could be a number of things- incorrect tension, flat tires, improper guide adjustment, or a problem with the wheels being out of coplanarity. What machine do you have?

[Mike Minto]

i have a rikon 14 deluxe. i've been playing with the guides some, to no avail - the upper ones, that is. i can't figure the lower ones out - instructions aren't the greatest. it's probably 3 yrs old now. mike:(

[John Thompson]

Mike... it sounds as if you are not overly familar with how the saw works. You didn't mention if you checked or attempted to adjust the tracking. Did you turn the wheels by hand and adjust the tracking when you put a new blade on? If it's a simple matter of tracking the blade will move forward or backward and jump the wheel when spun by hand.

Open the top case and watch what it does. If it moves the the rear of wheel you turn the tracking adjuster to make it move the opposite direction. I don't know on your saw if clock-wise is forward or rear and vise versa with counter-clockwise. Just turn the adjuster and it will reveal itself.

Good luck...

[glenn bradley]

i have a rikon 14 deluxe. i've been playing with the guides some, to no avail - the upper ones, that is. i can't figure the lower ones out - instructions aren't the greatest. it's probably 3 yrs old now. mike:(

The guides are moved into position once the blade is tracking correctly . They are not used to position the blade where you want it. Although there are different takes on this, I set my guides so that they are not touching the blade at all unless the saw is cutting. The guides are the thickness of a piece of paper away and get contacted as the blade shifts while cutting.


I would run through the setup in the manual again for starters and then adjust from there. Please keep us in the loop.

[Mike Delyster]

I think Sarge is on the right track here. You have to get the blade tracking in the middle of the tires with the blade guides backed off and not touching the blade, just keep turning the top wheel by hand and adjust the tilt until it tracks in the middle of the tire, then turn it on and make sure it stays there, then after your satisfied with the tracking of the blade set up your guides. If your blade is damaged there is a good chance you won't get it to track properly, you would be better off to throw your old blade away and start with a new blade right from the start of the set up. Try goggling Michael Fortune "Five Tips For Beter Bandsawing" he explains in that article how to properly set up a band saw.

P.S. you never said anything about the blade if it is the original ,I would suggest getting a new 1/2" 3TPI blade and trying that first, that’s the size of blade I run on my 14" Delta for 95% of my bandsawing.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Go to Rikon, and down load the manual. My guess is your guides are not set properly. Bandsaw basics is a good book to get. It will tell you how to adjust everything.

[Mike Minto]

the saw tracks great, it's the one thing i can tell. i will look into the links and info you all provided me with, and will get back with you after i have had a while to try some adjusting. it's worse with smaller blades, which oddly enough seem to require more tension than the bigger blades to be useable at all. i've gone from being able to resaw to not even being able to make curved detail cuts in thin stock. mike

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike,

Go to Amazon.com and order Mark Duginkse's latest book "The New Complete Guide to the Bandsaw"....it is now $13.57 plus shipping. That book is a wealth of knowledge and an invaluable reference. I'd recommend someone buy it before buying their first bandsaw. He even has a chapter on buying bandsaws and what to look for if you are buying a USED bandsaw. A wealth of information....well written...well illustrated....

[Stephen Edwards]

All good advice. Remember to unplug the saw when testing the tracking by hand with the doors open!

I was having some problems with my Grizzly 555X with riser block. I followed the advice that Glenn gives here in regards to setting the guide bearings so that they're not touching the blade when the saw is turned off. What a difference it made! I was going through guide bearings way too fast! Now, the saw runs quieter, cuts just as well or better as before and my guide bearings aren't freezing up on me anymore.

So, the first thing to do is get the bearings well away from the blade. Then follow Sarge's advice for tracking. If you can get it to track properly by hand, then set the guide bearings to the blade, rather, very near the blade. Make sure that the front edge of the bearings are set behind the blade gullets.

My two cents..........

[phil harold]

Alot of good advice here

but first I would start with a complete bandsaw tune up and see how things are after that

Here are some great instructions on how to do that

http://www.ccwwa.org/NEWSITE/plans/BandsawTuneup2.pdf

http://www.owwm.com/files/PDF/FAQ/110124076.pdf

http://team358.org/files/mechanical/BandsawTuneUp.pdf

http://eberhardt.bz/GME_Wood_Land/GM...up_Bandsaw.pdf


Good luck

[Mike Minto]

rikon tech support returned my call this morning; nice guy said send him some photos of my guides (upper & lower) and he would give it a visual, providing me with any parts which he felt might be missing (!) or needing replacement (i hope it's the entire guide assy :p). i'll post again when i get his pro opinion, and parts, if necessary. mike

[Frank Guerin]

I have an old Rockwell band saw which I rebuilt. I tried everything I could think of. The wheels were in plane after adjusting tilt on the top wheel and I had problems using it. When I tried to get the blade (different one's) to track exactly in the middle of the wheels I had the same problem. Finally I gave up and just adjusted it untill I had no problems. The blade does not track exactly in the middle of either wheel yet does what I want it to do, at least for the last eight years.

[Curt Harms]

I have the same saw, it works great. The blade that came with mine really wasn't too bad. I still have it for less fussy sawing. The advice about aligning the blade with the guides all the way "loose" is good. I think people try to use the guides to make up for improper set-up. That seems unlikely; a smaller bandsaw blade is simply not rigid enough for that to work IMO. I remember a demo when I was first getting into woodworking. The demonstrator set up a 14" bandsaw then with the side blade guides as far from the blade as possible proceeded to do some very nice curves and resawing. His point was that trying to use guides to bull an improperly adjusted bandsaw blade into doing what you want is unlikely to work.

A couple things I've noticed about the 10-325. One is that I can't see how to run a 1/8" blade with the ball bearing guides. I got a Carter stabilizer for narrow blades and it seems to work fine. The second thing I noticed is that the rear thrust bearing wouldn't adjust back far enough to center a 3/4" blade on the wheels. The thrust bearing/lower blade guide hits a big carriage bolt head that is part of the table assembly. My solution was to get a smaller O.D. bearing for the lower thrust bearing. Rikon has a retrofitted carriage bolt with a ground-down head to increase the rearward lower thrust bearing travel. The downside to my solution is that the lower thrust bearing can barely be adjusted forward enough to support 1/4" blade centered on the wheels. That doesn't concern me because the side bearing guides barely engage the smooth portion of the band behind the teeth with a 1/4" blade. I cannot envision a narrower blade working well with roller guides. Hence the Carter stabilizer.

I think you'll be happy with your saw once you get it working properly. I find myself using the bandsaw more and the table saw less for ripping solid stock as I become more comfortable & confident in it. Properly set up I can rip straight enough that one light pass over the jointer does the trick nicely and without the pinching/kickback risks of a table saw. Good luck and let us know how you make out.
Curt

[Ben Silverman]

Here is how I recommend you approach saw setup:

For safety sake, be sure to unplug the saw before opening the doors. I was taught to spin the upper wheel backward but most spin in the normal direction. Back off both the upper and lower guides before you adjust the tracking.

Because the amount of tension affects tracking be sure you have the blade centered on the two tires and set the tension properly before you adjust the tracking. Any change in tension will cause a change in tracking and a significant change in tension can cause the blade to track right off a wheel.

As for the amount of tension, I have a MM16 and try for 20,000psi with a Lenox carbide blade and tension gauge. Other Creekers can share their thoughts on the appropriate tension for your particular blade.

Once you have the tension set correctly for you blade, turn the upper wheel by hand slowly and use the tracking adjustment to get the blade to track. The wheels of my saw are co-planer so it is easy to get the blade to track in the center of both the upper and lower wheels. If you saw wheels are not exactly co-planer, you will need to find a compromise setting that keeps the blade stable on both the upper and lower wheels. If you cannot get the blade to track approximately in the center of both wheels, you will probably have to adjust the lower wheel. Hopefully you will not need to do so.

Rotate the upper wheel slowly at first and do not let the blade jump off the wheel. Watch the tracking on both wheels and adjust. Once you have the tracking set so the blade stays in the middle of the tires, you can spin more quickly to confirm the adjustment. If the tracking is stable, lock the tracking adjustment.

Maybe I am paranoid about having a blade jump off a tire, but after I think I have completed the adjustment, I let the saw run under power for a minute, kill the power, and let the saw coast to a stop. I open the covers and confirm the tracking.

After you confirm the tracking, you can adjust the guides to almost but not quite touch the blade. In operation, the blade will deflect and the guides will spin or rub as you feed the work. That’s it. You should be go for sawing. After you set change blades a few times, the sequence will take less time to do than it does to read about. Ben

[Michael O'Sullivan]

the saw tracks great, it's the one thing i can tell. i will look into the links and info you all provided me with, and will get back with you after i have had a while to try some adjusting. it's worse with smaller blades, which oddly enough seem to require more tension than the bigger blades to be useable at all. i've gone from being able to resaw to not even being able to make curved detail cuts in thin stock. mike

I am having a hard time seeing how you can throw the blade if it is tracking properly. If you power up the saw with the guides backed all the way off, does it run properly?