Narrow blade on a crowned wheel

[Michael O'Sullivan]

I have a 14" Delta BS with a riser block. I was cutting with a narrow (1/8" or 3/16") blade and noticed a little "flutter" in the blade. But when I tried increasing the tension a bit, I found that the blade would simply ride down the crown a little (or a lot, depending on the tension increase). The result was that the tension remained essentially the same, as the increase in nominal tension seems to have been offset by the slightly decreased working diameter of the wheels.

Is that normal? It does not happen with the wider blades (3/8") that I usually work with.

[William Falberg]

What kind of tires are you using?

[Lee Schierer]

It sounds like your wheels may not be coplanar. You may need to adjust the wheel alignment or the tracking adjustment on the upper wheel.

[Josiah Bartlett]

You may also have a flat spot dead center on your tire.
I like to run narrow blades a little toward the front of the tires on my saw (16" Walker Turner) so they aren't exactly on the center. It cancels out the blade lead.