Snodgrass bandsaw tuneup not working out so well

[Julie Moriarty]

Micheal Dunn mentioned the Alex Snodgrass bandsaw tuneup video in one of his threads. It was very informative. Some of the things I knew but others were new to me, such as aligning the teeth on the center of the tires. I have always centered the blade width on the center of the tires.

I now have a 1" wide blade on a Jet JWBS-18. The wheels are 1-3/4" wide. When I aligned the teeth to the center of the tire, the back of the blade rubbed against the bracket holding the top wheel in place. So I had to move the teeth a bit forward of center.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/blade_ctr_tire_zps7f4e7a50.jpg

When I went to adjust the side and rear guides above the table, I saw that the rear guide was barely touching the back of the blade. The slightest pressure and the blade would slide off the guide bearing. In the pic below, the guide bearing is just touching the blade and no pressure is applied by the side guides. If you push the rear guide into the blade, it will slide past it. This has never been the case prior to trying to center the teeth on the tire.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/BS_guide_01_zps772e8592.jpg

Looking at it closely, I realized the blade, no longer centered on the tire, was twisting a little. With the pressure on the teeth, the back of the blade was out of line with the front.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/blade_twist_zpsf4bc0953.jpg
While there is some distortion from the wide angle shot, the twist is evident.

If I increased blade tension, the twist would lessen, decrease tension and it got worse. But as I applied more blade tension, the back of the blade began to rub against the upper wheel bracket. So I had to move the blade teeth forward. The teeth were now a bit off the tire but the rear guide bushing was coming in line with the back of the blade, still not enough though. Only when I centered the blade on the tire was the rear guide in a position that wouldn't allow the blade to slip off it.

In his video, Alex talked about those who try to perfectly align the top wheel with the bottom wheel, creating a situation where the blade kept falling off. He said the factory knew what they were doing when the set the wheels. Don't mess with it! In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There is no side-to-side adjustment on the rear guide bearing. Any chance of getting the wheel in line with the blade when the teeth are centered on the tire would mean loosening several Allen screws I'm sure the factory never intended to be used for tuning purposes. I'm not going to "fix" it.

So I guess the only questions are:
1. Does aligning the teeth of the blade to the center of the top tire improve the cut?
2. Is it possible Jet never intended the JWBS-18 to take a 1" wide blade?
3. Are the tuneup recommendations Alex mentioned in his video just for narrower blades?
4. Do bandsaw manufacturers recommend centering the teeth or the blade on the top tire?

[Chris Padilla]

The teeth for my blades on my MM20 actually hang just a hair off the wheel. I've never heard of putting the teeth in the middle of the blade but that doesn't make wrong or right. :)

[David Weaver]

The manual that came with my jet (keeping in mind it has hugely crowned tires) suggests the center of the blade running right down the center of the crown. Other than a defective resaw king, I've never had any issues with it doing anything unexpected - actually, it's worked extremely well.

My saw is the X version of your saw (jwbs-18x), and my guides are entirely different.

I'd download the manual and do what the manual says to do over generalized statements that aren't specific to the saw.

[Doug Ladendorf]

The Snodgrass method has worked wonders for my bandsaw (PM 141 with 1/2" blade), but you raise some good questions for your scenario. Possibly it would work better with a 3/4" blade, and with the 1" you just need to move it forward and plan for drift? I'm surprised there is no further adjustment for the rear guide bearing. Possibly faith in the factory setting is overstated?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I would think it would depend on the particular bandsaw. I'll explain why.

European designed and manufactured bandsaws are typically made with tires that have no crown. My MM-16 for example and Chris' MM-20 have flat tires. IMHO,normally, the only time it would be advantageous to have a blade centered on a European bandsaw is if the blade is narrow. So with a 1/4" blade, I would center it on the wheel as there is too little meat in the blade behind the gullets to allow enough traction to provide normal tracking. IIRC, that is what Mark Duginske recommends in his latest book on bandsaws.

Crowned tires throw some different mechanics into play.

The accuracy of the weld on the blade can have an effect too, IMHO. If the ends of the blade weren't welded so the back edges were perfectly parallel and aligned co-planer prior to being welded, it could cause the blade to track differently. Thus, the position of where they would have to be aligned to be functional on the saw might change.

There are a lot of variables to consider, IMHO.

[David Kumm]

That's the problem with one size fits all instructions. Every saw is a little different and crowned tires by nature track blades towards the center of both the blade and the top of the crown. Flat tires are different. Wide blades, particularly carbide that will rip up the tires are best set so the teeth hang over the front edge of a flat tire. On narrow blades, the set is less pronounced and the blade guard and guides may dictate the blade be set back. As tension is increased the ability of a blade to track up to the crown is reduced so you need to start out near the center as the blade can't easily back uphill. Affects the tracking slightly so I just keep my blades in the same relative position and never worry about drift. everyone needs to experiment with what works with their saw and most important, what tension each blade works best at. That will also change with each blade and each saw. Steel saws are different than cast iron ones and very little info relevant to a 36" saw will work on a 14" or vice versa. Dave

[Roger Davis]

Julie, The Snodgrass video says to align the deepest part of the tooth gullet in the center of the tire not the front of the tooth. Roger

[Michael Dunn]

Julie, The Snodgrass video says to align the deepest part of the tooth gullet in the center of the tire not the front of the tooth. Roger

Julie, I this is what you did, then I'd surely say this is your problem. Let us know if you did this or if we're misunderstanding you.

That video helped me get my 14" Taiwanese POS cutting really nice. Same with my 10-340 as well. I think now my issue is bad blade welds. Argh!!!

[John Lanciani]

If the "Snodgrass tuneup" catches on I predict a slew of "which bandsaw tires should I buy" posts in the coming months. There is no good reason to run the blade that far back on the tires, my guess is that Mr. Snodgrass has a poorly aligned bandsaw and he somehow got it to work with his new tuneup. Bandsaws have been around for over 100 years, and suddenly he has the answers to everyones problems? It really is pretty simple; flat tires = teeth overhanging the front of the tire(blade width permitting), crowned tires = center of band roughly on center of crown (adjust tracking from here to minimize lead angle)

[Erik Loza]

Agreed with several, above: That blade is way too far back on the wheel. It's going to shred your tires. Also, the guides are set too close to the blade, IMO. "Looser" is "better" on big blades like that. That is assuming your machine can put the blade into the tension range it wants.

Best of luck.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[John TenEyck]

I really liked his line to the effect that the bandsaw manufacturers know more about their machines than you do so don't mess with wheel alignment. Well, no amount of fiddling ever got my 14" Delta to produce straight cuts until I aligned the wheels. After I had tried everything else I finally checked them - they were off by a mile, or at least 3/8". Now maybe Delta put it together correctly and somewhere in it's prior life it got hosed up, I can't say. But I can say, for sure, that after I got the two wheels just about perfectly aligned, which included adding a shim behind the upper wheel, everything lines up as it should and I get nice straight cuts.

It only takes a few minutes to take the table off and check the wheels for alignment, so I suggest you do that to at least see where they are. If they are close to coplaner then OK, but if they aren't then I think you'll know where the problem is. Tension has some impact on where the blade bearings end up in relation to the blade, but that back bearing should be behind the blade over the full range of tension. That right there makes me suspicious of improper wheel alignment. Have you put a triangle on your table and checked if the back of the blade is at 90 degrees? That will be your first indication that the wheels are not in alignment.

John

[Julie Moriarty]

Julie, I this is what you did, then I'd surely say this is your problem. Let us know if you did this or if we're misunderstanding you.

Right now the center of the blade is aligned with the deepest part of the gullet. That's where it was when I took the pics in the first post. I have to center the blade to get the rear guide bearing in the correct position.

[Michael Dunn]

So you're saying that with the deepest part of the gullet you are not able to get your thrust bearing far enough back?

[Julie Moriarty]

Agreed with several, above: That blade is way too far back on the wheel. It's going to shred your tires. Also, the guides are set too close to the blade, IMO. "Looser" is "better" on big blades like that. That is assuming your machine can put the blade into the tension range it wants.

Best of luck.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

I thought the teeth could tear up the tire too. But he zoomed in a shot in the video and said that's where they should be. As for the side guides, in the pictures above, they are backed off to ensure they weren't affecting the blade alignment. I couldn't get a straight shot because the guard blocked it.

FWIW, the tensioning "gauge" above the tensioning wheel has markers and a pointer to help you get the right tension for different width blades. It goes up to 1-1/2". That tells me Jet designed the bandsaw to take blades up to 1-1/2" wide. There's no way you could set the gullet in the center of the tire with a 1-1/2" wide blade. The wheel bracket would prevent that.

The gullet in the center theory is losing ground.

[Julie Moriarty]

So you're saying that with the deepest part of the gullet you are not able to get your thrust bearing far enough back?

No. With the deepest part of the gullet aligned in the center, the bearing slips past the back of the blade when pressure is applied, rendering it useless as well as creating other problems.

[Noel Poore]

I haven't watched the video for a while, so my recollection may be off, but I thought he recommended centering the blade on the upper wheel. I have has very good results by doing this, even if It turns out I misunderstood :)

Noel

[Phil Thien]

IMHO, that Snodgrass video gets a couple of basic concepts wrong. If you're interested, they are: (1) That the tension scale on 99% of bandsaws will not accommodate blades of slightly different lengths (he doesn't seem to understand how spring scales work). (2) That wheels in the same plane will somehow cause the blade to track poorly.

Hard to qualify him as an expert given those points.

ANYWAY...

The blade should be centered on the top wheel.

When the blade is running center of the top wheel, it will run slightly front of center on the bottom wheel.

When the blade is configured like this, you will get nice, straight cuts without having to adjust your fence for drift.

[Noel Poore]

The blade should be centered on the top wheel.

When the blade is running center of the top wheel, it will run slightly front of center on the bottom wheel.

When the blade is configured like this, you will get nice, straight cuts without having to adjust your fence for drift.

That is precisely my experience.

Noel

[Tai Fu]

I centered the blade on my 18" bandsaw (using 1" Woodmaster CT) and didn't have the problem you describe. That blade is set too far back. Actually at high tension it may not even be possible to set the blade that far back unless you're strong enough to turn the tracking knob to match.

[Myk Rian]

I don't care what Alex Snodgrass says. I put the blade smack in the center of the upper wheel.

[Michael Dunn]

I don't care what Alex Snodgrass says. I put the blade smack in the center of the upper wheel.

I think it's different per saw. I followed his setup to the 'T' on my. 14" Cal-Hawk with a good blade and was absolutely perfect.

I followed the same setup to the 'T' on my Rikon 10-340 and I have issues. At this point I think it's my technique (resaw) and a bad blade. Every saw is a bit different though.

[Chris Fournier]

Sadly, this is another instance of "I saw it on the web...". As Phil has pointed out the tension gauge comment is simply wrong. If you don't understand this concept, no matter how empahtic you are I would take every other thing that you said under advisement.

I certainly see no need to remove the table to "understand" how the lower and upper guides work together. What a waste of time.

Coplaner debunked? Grab a piece of paper, or a cad program and draw out your bandsaw and play with the wheel alignment, blade behavior is not capricious or mysterious.

I have customers come to me every day with pearls from the web that they have gleaned. Pearls that typically defy logic, science and the truth. But they saw it on the web.

The web is a resource once you have learned the fundaments of your topic, until then it is a buffet of lies, half truths and comedy all topped off with a touch of hearsay and a granual of truth.

The web has no discipline, why would you go there for good practice?

[Cyrus Brewster 7]

The blade should be centered on the top wheel.

When the blade is running center of the top wheel, it will run slightly front of center on the bottom wheel.

When the blade is configured like this, you will get nice, straight cuts without having to adjust your fence for drift.

Bingo! We have a winner.

[Julie Moriarty]

The blade is back to where it was. Where it was when I resawed a hundred or more feet of 6"-9" sapele with no problems. And I too saw no benefit to taking the table off, nor did it speed up the tuning. In fact it would have increased the time factor. It seems from what's been posted here, Alex's tuneup might work for smaller bandsaws, but not for all, especially the larger ones.

[John TenEyck]

Taking the table off will allow you to check the alignment of the wheels. If they aren't aligned no amount of any other adjustments will get a saw to cut straight, at least not a saw of the 14" Delta type. One other thing I didn't mention before is your blade needs to be sharp. Ok, that's obvious, but what's not so obvious is that they need to be equally sharp on both sides and with the same set. Still obvious? OK, what's really not obvious is that brand new blades may not be. I had 3 brand new blades that would not cut straight. I didn't have any more, so I finally took one and sharpened it on my chainsaw grinder (which is not all the hard to do on a 3 tpi blade, BTW). That blade instantly cut straight afterwards with no other changes to the machine.

John

[David Kumm]

The video I watched was limited to small saws with 1/2" or less blades. The problems come when applying those principles to wide resaw blades. Small Asian saws in particular run oval shaped crowned tires. The tires compress a little under tension so much of a small blade is supported if placed anywhere near the middle to the tire. Won't be the case with larger blades, with flat tires or even with larger crowned tires. The big saws with crowned tires are not oval like the small saws, they are shaved on each edge with a flat spot in the middle. they do not come to a point so the blades tend to find their spot somewhere on that flat. On a wide blade you want support over as much of the width as possible and that should dictate the placement. The video was demonstrating- and selling- a specific size saw to primarily a scroll saw market. Dave

[Bill White]

I set up my G0555LX just the way Grizz said. No probs at all, and the saw works very well. I use no blade wider than 1/2".
Bill

[Julie Moriarty]

One other thing I didn't mention before is your blade needs to be sharp. Ok, that's obvious, but what's not so obvious is that they need to be equally sharp on both sides and with the same set. Still obvious? OK, what's really not obvious is that brand new blades may not be. I had 3 brand new blades that would not cut straight. I didn't have any more, so I finally took one and sharpened it on my chainsaw grinder (which is not all the hard to do on a 3 tpi blade, BTW). That blade instantly cut straight afterwards with no other changes to the machine.

John

FWIW, when I began this big project I knew I needed a good resaw blade. After a lot of help here, I settled on a Lennox Woodmaster CT. That's Carbide Tipped for those who don't know. ;) As I said before, I must have resawed 100'+ of 6"-9" sapele and never had a bit of a problem. The longest pieces were over 9'. I managed to get (3) 7/16"+ pieces out of stock 1-3/4" thick. And that's after planing. Very little waste. You can't do that with a dull blade.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Kitchen%20Cabinets/Sapele_04_zpsa9e86926.jpg

When I saw the video I thought, "Do you mean I can get even better results out of my bandsaw?" :rolleyes: Aligning the blade is pretty simple - turn a knob. The guides on my saw are also easy to set, just turn a thumb screw. So making the adjustments was pretty easy. But all of the sudden the rear bearing on top wasn't contacting the back of the blade properly. And that's when I posted here.

Before I made those adjustments, I resawed some jatoba. Again, no problem. The problem came from fixing what ain't broke.

[Tai Fu]

I have a similar bandsaw to the Jet JWBS18 (but it has no tension gauge, spring, has a smaller knob at the top of the saw for tension adjustment, crappy fence) and got the Woodmaster CT for it too. It doesn't really make a very smooth cut compared to say a standard carbon steel or bimetal blade but it chews through wood like it's not even there, even if it's really thick (like 9" wide maple). However I do not know if it's because it needs more tension or something because I already tensioned the snot out of it. I keep it on my saw for general work (because it's not the easiest thing to change out) but the skilsaw makes a smoother cut... it just can't chew through 9" of maple.

I even thickness boards on the bandsaw by resawing them into the right thickness and then passing the other side ONCE through the jointer (if I needed to make more than one pass, then I flip the board over to prevent tapering)

[Steve Rost]

I am entering this discussion a little late but what the heck! Best discussion I have read on bandsaws, at least it agrees with I have found as true. Julie you have one nice shop!

[phil harold]

The problem came from fixing what ain't broke.

your not alone there!

[Ronald Blue]

Julie, this is changing the subject but where did you get the under bench storage? I need something like that. Nice shop though.

[Michael Dunn]

We're all guilty at one time or another. After abandoning some (most) of the Snod philosophy I set my 10-340 up for resaw and had some great results with some pretty highly figured Maple. I may have mentioned this already. My apologies if I'm repeating myself.

Here's a pic. It's pretty dang smooth. One side jointed, the other resawn. Keep in mind this blade is still the one that has the front to back movement from a possible bad weld. I measured it last night. Approximately .018" of front to back movement.

I'll try the other WS next and then my TW. If these don't work... WM CT here is come. I kind of hope they don't work. Then I can return them all and get the WM CT.

I agree with above... Great thread!!!

[Erik Loza]

...The problem came from fixing what ain't broke.

This ^^^..... The #1 cause of "performance complaints" I see among new MM-series owners: Trying to out-think their machine.

Glad you are back on track again.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[John Coloccia]

Micheal Dunn mentioned the Alex Snodgrass bandsaw tuneup video in one of his threads. It was very informative. Some of the things I knew but others were new to me, such as aligning the teeth on the center of the tires. I have always centered the blade width on the center of the tires.

I now have a 1" wide blade on a Jet JWBS-18. The wheels are 1-3/4" wide. When I aligned the teeth to the center of the tire, the back of the blade rubbed against the bracket holding the top wheel in place. So I had to move the teeth a bit forward of center.

Hi, Julie. Something doesn't seem quite right. If the wheels are 1-3/4" wide, and the blade is 1" wide, I don't understand how the blade riding with the gullets about centered could be off the tire enough to hit anything. All you have to do is find 1/4" between the depth of the gullets, the thickness of the ledge holding the tire on, and the bracket. It just doesn't seem possible that those three measurements together don't add up to 1/4". The gullets are probably close to 1/4" all on their own.

It's also strange that when you tracked further back the blade toed in. With a crowned tire, if you're tracking is off by an exagerated amount the blade should point in exactly the opposite direction.

I'm not doubting what you're saying but it seems like there's something else amiss here. If it's working for you now, then great, but something, somewhere, seems to be out of whack.

edit:
Now, what COULD be happening is the lip on the wheels holding the tires are proud of the surface of the tire and is pushing the back of the blade out when you track even slightly off the tire. That would totally screw everything up and nothing would ever work right like that.

[Julie Moriarty]

Julie, this is changing the subject but where did you get the under bench storage? I need something like that. Nice shop though.
I'm taking that to mean the baskets under the bench in the back and not under the workbench... I got those baskets at Home Depot probably 15-20 years ago. If they don't sell them anymore I know why - they expose everything in them to dust and debris. One day when I have nothing to do :rolleyes: I'll build some real drawers. (sure!)

[Julie Moriarty]

John, I know exactly where you're coming from. It made no sense to me either. At first I was thinking the diameter of the front part of the blade was being stretched, therefore increasing the diameter, while the back of the blade remained the same diameter. That would have caused the back of the blade to be pulled in toward the thrust bearing. But it was just the opposite. And it didn't make sense.

As to your calculations regarding the back of the blade hitting the wheel bracket, all I can say is as I moved the blade back, I started to hear rubbing. Maybe I had the blade TOO far back. I did it by eye and my eyes aren't what they used to be. :o But the location of the blade in the picture was as far back as I could set the blade without any rubbing sound.

...................

Well, my curiosity got the better of me, so I went downstairs to more closely examine the physics of the "Snod Theory".

Being a bit height impaired (5'7") :rolleyes:, I got a 2' ladder so I could see the top of the upper wheel and find out what's really happening when I turn the tracking knob to align the blade back and forth on the wheel. As I move the blade back, the rubbing sound is NOT coming from the blade but from the wheel rubbing against the bracket. That tells me Jet didn't design that bandsaw in a way that would allow any blade one might use on the saw to all be aligned with the blade gullet centered.

If I remember correctly from the video, Alex said one of the advantages of his alignment method is you would never have to adjust the position of the guide bracket, front to back on the blade, because the guides would always be in the correct position in relation to the teeth and gullets on the blade. Or something like that. If the engineers designed the saw that way, there would be no need for any front to back adjustments of the guide bracket. Yet the saw has the ability to make those adjustments.

I went to the Jet user's manual and found this:
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/BSBladeTrack_zps43785d59.jpg

Alex also says to space the guides 1/8" from the sides and the back of the blade, top and bottom. (Again from memory, so correct me if I'm wrong.) My users manual says, "Adjust the guide bracket so that the front of the guide wheels are just behind the gullet of the blade teeth... Adjust both guide wheels to rest lightly against the blade. Do not force the guide wheel against the side of the blade." And that is what I've been doing all these years. Until Snod Theory entered my world.

But not to worry. I think I found the answer to all my problems. I saw this on Craigslist and I've got my eye on it. Do you think it will fit into my basement shop?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S4VrHNmHGs

[John Coloccia]

Rubbing coming from the wheel? Now THAT makes sense :)

[Alan Bienlein]

Actually in Alex video he adjust the guide bearings the same way your manual says to. The only difference is he spins the blade after an adjustment to make sure the blade isn't touching the guide bearings. As for centering the gullets of the blade on the center of the upper wheel he says it allows you to change to different width blades with only having to re adjust the larger thrust bearing in back of the blade. I would say his video is really aimed at the cast iron 14" band saws Like the grizzly g0555 along with the delta and other similar band saws.

I will say this I had trouble re sawing until I set my band saw up just like he does in that video. Once I did it that way all drift went away no matter what blade I was using.

[Ronald Blue]

That was what I was referring to. Thanks and I can see how everything will collect dust in that system.

[Alex Snodgrass]

Micheal Dunn mentioned the Alex Snodgrass bandsaw tuneup video in one of his threads. It was very informative. Some of the things I knew but others were new to me, such as aligning the teeth on the center of the tires. I have always centered the blade width on the center of the tires.

I now have a 1" wide blade on a Jet JWBS-18. The wheels are 1-3/4" wide. When I aligned the teeth to the center of the tire, the back of the blade rubbed against the bracket holding the top wheel in place. So I had to move the teeth a bit forward of center.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/blade_ctr_tire_zps7f4e7a50.jpg

When I went to adjust the side and rear guides above the table, I saw that the rear guide was barely touching the back of the blade. The slightest pressure and the blade would slide off the guide bearing. In the pic below, the guide bearing is just touching the blade and no pressure is applied by the side guides. If you push the rear guide into the blade, it will slide past it. This has never been the case prior to trying to center the teeth on the tire.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/BS_guide_01_zps772e8592.jpg

Looking at it closely, I realized the blade, no longer centered on the tire, was twisting a little. With the pressure on the teeth, the back of the blade was out of line with the front.
http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab233/jules42651/Woodworking/Tools/blade_twist_zpsf4bc0953.jpg
While there is some distortion from the wide angle shot, the twist is evident.

If I increased blade tension, the twist would lessen, decrease tension and it got worse. But as I applied more blade tension, the back of the blade began to rub against the upper wheel bracket. So I had to move the blade teeth forward. The teeth were now a bit off the tire but the rear guide bushing was coming in line with the back of the blade, still not enough though. Only when I centered the blade on the tire was the rear guide in a position that wouldn't allow the blade to slip off it.

In his video, Alex talked about those who try to perfectly align the top wheel with the bottom wheel, creating a situation where the blade kept falling off. He said the factory knew what they were doing when the set the wheels. Don't mess with it! In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There is no side-to-side adjustment on the rear guide bearing. Any chance of getting the wheel in line with the blade when the teeth are centered on the tire would mean loosening several Allen screws I'm sure the factory never intended to be used for tuning purposes. I'm not going to "fix" it.

So I guess the only questions are:
1. Does aligning the teeth of the blade to the center of the top tire improve the cut?
2. Is it possible Jet never intended the JWBS-18 to take a 1" wide blade?
3. Are the tuneup recommendations Alex mentioned in his video just for narrower blades?
4. Do bandsaw manufacturers recommend centering the teeth or the blade on the top tire?

Julie
Manufactures and end users, including the nice folks who alerted me about your post are understanding the benefits of my setup. The deepest part of the gullet in the center of the top wheel gives you the greatest stability at the proper place of the blade.
The proper Blade for a Jet 18" is a 3/4" blade. .025 for dry wood and .031 for green wood. Milled is the only way to go. Carter is king but that is my opinion.
I'm confident that my setup will work for all blades. Please email me directly if there is any questions. Hugedolphinfan@yahoo.com
Anyone who has ever sold a resaw product and has had to give customer service loves the advice and help it gives their customers. You have a great saw and I know it will resaw like a dream. look forward to hearing from you
Alex

[John McClanahan]

Alex, thanks for joining Sawmill Creek! I hope we hear more from you from time to time.

John

[Marvin Wilson]

I tried the Snodgrass suggestion on my new Grizzly G0555X and the blade will not track as he suggested. Adjusted back as far as possible the center of the blade rides dead center on the wheel which what I have always shot for in the past. It was like this out of the box. It can only be moved toward the outside of the wheel which isn't a bad thing. I had a Delta 14" before getting this one ane the blade was all over the place on it. It cuts great the way it is so I'm going to leave well enough alone. I can't speak for every Grizzly owner but mine was adjusted to perfection right out of the box. I still find his method of setting the bearings helpful.

[Anthony Diodati]

I run mine the old school way, in the center of the top wheel.
Works for me.

[Julie Moriarty]

Julie
Manufactures and end users, including the nice folks who alerted me about your post are understanding the benefits of my setup. The deepest part of the gullet in the center of the top wheel gives you the greatest stability at the proper place of the blade.
The proper Blade for a Jet 18" is a 3/4" blade. .025 for dry wood and .031 for green wood. Milled is the only way to go. Carter is king but that is my opinion.
I'm confident that my setup will work for all blades. Please email me directly if there is any questions. Hugedolphinfan@yahoo.com
Anyone who has ever sold a resaw product and has had to give customer service loves the advice and help it gives their customers. You have a great saw and I know it will resaw like a dream. look forward to hearing from you
Alex

Alex, glad you've joined in the fray. I was hoping you would. Thanks for joining us.

For my particular setup, I cannot set up my 1" blade so that it meets your guidelines. And I do not believe I need to limit myself to 3/4" wide blades. But let me backtrack...

My first resaw experiences came with the Woodslicer. 3/4" was the widest blade I could find but 1/2" was the one I used most often. The problem with the Woodslicer is that it dulls rather quickly. Add to that, the fence on my bandsaw was stock. And it liked to move. If you want details, I can give them but for most here it would probably be boring. I'll just say I upgraded the fence and went looking for a better blade.

I posted a question here asking about a good resaw blade. In the realm of "serious" resaw blades I saw Lenox and Laguna getting the most raves. I realize you work for Carter. I own several Carter blades and Carter is great for little stuff. But I was about to tackle a big job. I went to one of the vendors that was highly recommended and told them what I was about to do. They recommended the Woodmaster CT. It was $130 and almost four times more than I had ever paid for a bandsaw blade. But I bought it anyway.

It worked like a charm! I thought I left the stone age and entered into the 21st century! And it just kept on working. No drift problems and cuts smooth as "buttah". :) I was happy as a clam.

But when I saw your video I thought, "So I can improve the performance of my bandsaw?" and I jumped at it. But it didn't work. And it was contrary to the manufacturer's specs.

You said yourself, when it came to trying to make the upper and lower wheel coplanar, the manufacturer knew what they were doing, don't mess with it. Or something to that effect. And I think that's great advice. All along, for the past umpteen years, I've set the saw according to the manufacturer specs, with no mechanical/physical/operational problems. The only real problem was the blade. It's no different than any wood cutting tool, a sharp blade makes for easier work. It's just simple physics. And in the end, I think that's what matters most. You have to take what you have and make the most of it, but don't try to reinvent the wheel.

[Tai Fu]

I do have a question about bandsaw fences:

I got one of those bandsaw table where the blade comes out the front when changing (it means I don't need to remove the insert when changing blade, and the slit gives me a reference line when cutting, but how do I install an aftermarket fence? The fence on my saw is a big block of cast iron that doesn't allow for drift adjustment and it goes out of square when I tighten it, so it needs to go. Should I go with Carter fence or Laguna Driftmaster?

[Erik Loza]

...Manufactures and end users, including the nice folks who alerted me about your post are understanding the benefits of my setup. The deepest part of the gullet in the center of the top wheel gives you the greatest stability at the proper place of the blade...

Alex, just to clarify: Running a big blade like the one in Julie's photos, with the gullet in the center of the wheel, would probably be fine on a bandsaw with crowned tires but if it's a flat-tire machine, like any of the Italian saws, it will damage the tire. I am sure you are probably aware of this. I advise anyone with a flat-tired machine and who wants to run a blade 3/4" or greater, to hang the teeth off the front of the wheel. Flat-tired bandsaws do not have any of the fussiness about tracking that crowned-tired machines do, so tracking in this manner is non-problematic for them. Again, I am sure you probably know this but I wanted to mention it here since I saw some owners of Italian machines chiming in, earlier, and this aspect of bandsaw setup is not universal.

I am manufacturer, by the way. Regards,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Myk Rian]

It's also strange that when you tracked further back the blade toed in. With a crowned tire, if you're tracking is off by an exagerated amount the blade should point in exactly the opposite direction.
What happens is the back of the blade hits the cut line, and is pushed to the right, causing the blade to cut left.

[John Coloccia]

What happens is the back of the blade hits the cut line, and is pushed to the right, causing the blade to cut left.

The issue was that the back of the blade tracked off the rear bearing. Nothing to do with the cut. That's the opposite of what should happen.

[Don Burch]

I do have a question about bandsaw fences:

I got one of those bandsaw table where the blade comes out the front when changing (it means I don't need to remove the insert when changing blade, and the slit gives me a reference line when cutting, but how do I install an aftermarket fence? The fence on my saw is a big block of cast iron that doesn't allow for drift adjustment and it goes out of square when I tighten it, so it needs to go. Should I go with Carter fence or Laguna Driftmaster?

Neither. You can design/make your own fence using Mag- jig clamps. Try controlling drift using the tracking adjustment. You should never have to set your fence to compensate for drift. Eliminate drift.

Don