Bandsaw Tracking and blade tossing question

[Trevor Walsh]

I've got an old 14" Powermatic in the school shop, about a year ago it got a new upper axle and bearings, and har ran for several months no problem, then after waiting a few months for new blades and installing them, it started tracking poorly and would run the blade off the back side of the top wheel. I checked the coplanarity of the wheels, sure enough the guy before me who did the axle swap must not have checked that and they were about 3/8" out of plane.

I made a spacer that shims out the top wheel and they are now coplanar, will that be the end of my worries or might there be more to it than that?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Trevor, yes the wheels should be coplanar to start, however that's the start position.

Once you put a blade on the machine, then you take the two wheels of out plane with the tracking adjustment, to get the blade to track in the middle of the wheel or just off the front edge of the wheel depending upon the bandsaw design.......Rod.