trouble tracking 1/8" bandsaw blade

[Bernie May]

I just bought a 10" Rikon bandsaw to complement by 14" Rikon. I am having trouble keeping the 1/8" band tracking. I get it centered and then it tends to wander off center. Is my tension too tight or too loose? what do you all think? suggestions?

[Bernie May]

Bumping this up so perhaps someone will read again. I have no trouble tracking a blade on my 14" Rikon, but I can't seem to get the 1/8" blade on my new 10" Rikon to stay on track. It wanders to one side or the other. the original 3/8" seemed to track fine for the few minutes I tried it. thanks for any ideas.
-bernie

[John Coloccia]

So you get it tracking in the middle, using the tracking knob, and as you're watching it, it will start to wander off center? Does it wobble back and forth or does it choose a direction and go? Does it track for a little bit and then scoot off or does it wander off right away? Does it wander off for a bit and then come back to center?

If the saw is setup properly, with properly crowned tires, the saw really wants to have stable tracking and you have to work to mess that up. That makes me think that there's a problem with the blade, crown, something being loose etc. With my 1/8" blades, I sometimes can't get it tracking dead center on the crown. Sometimes I track it just a touch in front of the crown. If you're going for dead center with these tiny blades, that may be a very difficult proposition right there. It can be done, but everything really needs to be dead nuts.

[Bernie May]

John-
You are right that I am trying for dead center. I find it hard to determine what the correct tension should be for an 1/8" blade.
-bernie

[Louie Ballis]

I have the same problem with the grizzly G 0555 bandsaw, using a 3/16 blade. Which is used for cutting bandsaw boxes.

[Bernie May]

So after a few replies it seems like small bandsaw blades must need some special care for getting them to track like bigger blades. Come on folks that successfully use small blades. what are the secrets? How do you get the right tension on such a small blade and how do you get them to track?
-bernie

[Alan Schwabacher]

I don't know about a secret, but have noticed that if I set the tension too high on a 1/8" blade I have a hard time tracking it. So trying lower tension might help.

If I recall correctly, I had trouble tracking a 1/8" blade I'd used successfully before. It worked when I tracked it at low tension, then gradually increased the tension as I fine tuned the tracking, reaching tensions where I had been unable to track the blade when I'd started there.

[Van Huskey]

One thing I would do, since it is a new saw, is take out one variable, replace the stock blade and see if you can get it to track correctly payng close attention. This way you know you are dealing with just the blade. If it is just the 1/8" blade Alan hit on the number 1 cause, excess tension.

[Curt Harms]

but this works
http://www.carterproducts.com/product.asp?product_id=440&cat_id=14

It looks like it'll work on both Rikons, I'm not familiar with the 10"

[Bernie May]

Reporting back - tracks well now that I relaxed the tension a bit. I was used to tensioning bigger blades on my 14". This little 10" has no tensioning spring which also made it difficult to tell I was too tight.
thanks guys as always.
-bernie