Another Rikon question

[Dave Tinley]

As those of you have mentioned before the manual that came with the saw is about as good as the blade that came with it. My question is-
How do you adjust the fence for drift?

Thanks
Dave

[Rick Lizek]

The typical way is to mount a center point type guide on the fence and point the board in the direction of drift. Each blade will drift differently due to tooth set variations. Get Duginske's book on bandsaws and you will learn everything you need to know how to get the most out your bandsaw.

[John Bush]

Hi again Dave,
I've had my saw since Nov. and am still a bit of a neophyte, but I've been trying to minimize/eliminate drift by blade position on the crown of the wheel. It takes a little time and you don't want to change blades or the tensioner when it is set. I've been using 1" Lenox Varitooth. Good luck, John.

[Mike Cutler]

Dave. What size Rikon do you have? I have the 18" Rikon and found that I didn't have to compensate for drift with the fence. The fence however was too short to adequatley support the material. This has since been modified.
If you have a smaller size adusting for drift is not hard.
As stated before, make a single point resaw fence and mount it to your saw such that the leading edge the blade is aligned with the apex, or point of the single point fence. Get a piece of hardwood stock about 3/4" thick, 6"-8" wide, and two or three feet long and draw a line along the center of the edge. Start feeding the material into the blade, keeping the blade on your drawn line. You will begin to notice that the material is going at an angle to the table and the blade. About halfway thru stop feeding the material and hold the piece at the angle it is at. Turn the saw off with one hand.Without moving the piece of material on the table, grab a pencil and draw a line along the edge of the board where it meets the table. Draw it the length of the table. Gently back the material out of the blade. The line that is now drawn on the table will not be perpindicular to the table front edge, nor parallel to the edge of the table. This line represents the drift of that bandsaw blade.
Don't be surprised if it is a pretty acute angle on a 14" saw. Also don't be surprised if your fence does not have enough adjustment in it to follow this line. You may in fact have to build your own resaw fence. The above method will need to be repeated a time or two just to fine tune everything. You will know you have it right when the material is not trying to pull away from either end of the fence as it being fed thru.
I have found that cutting thin veneer didn't require the angle. I think the blade had enough tensile strength and stiffness to sort of deflect the veneer away from the blade, and it seemed to perform differently than trying to resaw for bookmatching. Of course it could have just been my setup.
Hope this helps. When it all said and done though, don't be surprised if you go back to the single point fence and end up making a really tall featherboard. I also just saw a picture of a single point fence here on the board that was some form of a wooden roller. That looked really slick, and I bet it works great.

[Hal Flynt]

I just came across this thread on a search and as it turns out, I know the answer.

I was tweaking the table 90 degrees to the blade on my Rikon 18 and noticed that the fence wasn't parallel to the blade (90 degrees to the table) and wanted to shim it parallel.

There are 2 allen head bolts that hold the fence to the base. These screw into 2 steel cylinders with a threaded hole in them which in turn have adjustibility in them. On mine, I ended up using 4 thin strips of blue masking tape to shime the fence parallel to the blade and 90 to the table. Then I set it 90 to the edge and made a cut. It's close and I don't have much drift, but it's easy to adjust by loosening the 2 allen bolts and moving the fence to the disired angle and tightening them down.

[Dave Tinley]

Well it seems that I must have gotten a bad blade. I returned it and got a new one and now it cuts very straight.
I still dont think that the factory fence is all that great. I was cutting some two by oak for legs and I had the fence move; as in the handle you push down to lock it in place, kinda released on its own. I tried adjusting the hook assy at the other end but still had problems. So now I just use an F style bar clamp to hold it in place.
I am pondering the idea of changing out the fence for the Kreig model with the micro adjuster. I have the 18" Rikon but understand the Kreig can be modified to fit.
I do plan to make a dedicated, tall resaw fence for cutting veneers, one of these days :rolleyes:

Thanks
Dave