Bandsaw Blade Drift-POLL

[Chris DiCiaccio]

Just curious-I have read a lot about Bandsaw blade drift on 14" Bandsaws and that there is nothing you can do about it but calculate it and adjust the fence or a jig to compensate for it. However, I have since been told that the low-tension silicon steel blades by Timberwolf are designed so that there is no need to adjust for drift, just use your fence and it will run true with no drift. Do you find this to be true?

[Jim Becker]

Chris, although Timberwolfs drift "less" than other blades in my own experience, they can still drift over time. The reason is that even with the lower tension the set on the teeth on the wheel side will become less over time from just plain usage. But I have come to swear by Timberwolfs and dealing direct with Suffolk Machinery (http://www.suffolkmachinery.com), the manufacturer, is a super experience...great advise and the best prices. (Almost half the retail packaged price from other folks who buy the blade stock and assemble them still under the Timberwolf brand name)

[Paul Kunkel]

:( On the plus side, if you build a bullnose fence (see my pics on resawing Poplar) and follow the line, you'll get some nice resawing with almost any blade. I'm not trying to say that some high dollar blades arn't worth it-(don't know) but I use Griz blades on my 20" saw and get good life outta them and they will follow the line.

[David Rose]

I'm running a Lenox Pro with carbide teeth. They are a little pricey but hey that's my main saw! It didn't cost much more than the WW for my miter saw.

David

[Mac McAtee]

I have found drift using a Timberwolf blade. However it is not nearly as much as with other blades. I also feel I have more control of the cut with a Timberwolf blade than I had with others.

[Jim Becker]

Originally posted by David Rose
I'm running a Lenox Pro with carbide teeth. They are a little pricey but hey that's my main saw! It didn't cost much more than the WW for my miter saw.

These are excellent blades for resawing. Unfortunately, the manufacturer cautions about using them on saws smaller than 18"...they tend to start cracking faster for some reason with the smaller diameter wheels.

[Rob Sandow]

Timberwolf, in my experience, may drift less, but they wander more because of the low tension. If you want the best resawing performance, get a high tension carbide blade from Lenox and an aftermarket spring for your saw. Drift, I understand really has more to do with wheel alignment and true center-of-the-wheel tracking than blade type.

Rob

[David Rose]

take this for what that is worth. $.10? I think Rob got me this blade maybe 2 years ago. It may not have been quite that long ago. I use it every day that I work wood (most days). I "religiously" detension. I run cool blocks. They are forgiving of a weld that might be less than perfect and prone to break. The saw is a Delta 14" with a 1 & 1/2HP motor that I added. I also upped the speed to that TW recommends. I can't remember the speed but got it up maybe 10% over original.

I do limited resawing, so I don't consider time to be of major importance on that job. This blade has probably seen 25 to 50 board feet of resawing. I say that because I use a very slow feed on tall pieces. With the riser block I could never get the wheels quite coplaner. Everything else is set to spec. With the Delta factory spring I am tensioning only to between 3/8 and 1/2"
settings. I know this flies in the face of much more experienced user's experiences. After running low tension blades I just gave it a try and so far have not had a problem.

I give thanks every time I read about lead and wander in that so far it hasn't shown up for me. I really believe that lead is primarily a cause of one edge of the blade being duller than the other. And I suspect that with a faster feed rate it might show up.

Maybe I just have a good blade or have not yet done "something" to cause problems. I do recognise that mine is not the acceptable approach.

Like I said in the beginning, my furniture woodworking experience is less than 3 years. I almost always go with the ideas of the really experienced. But then I will do some experimenting. If I start to see blade lead or wander I will be quick to try to rectify the coplaner problem, get a stiffer tension spring, and tension to a greater amount. Mine "ain't broke yet" so I'm not going to try to "fix" it.

David

[Jim Becker]

Originally posted by David Rose
Maybe I just have a good blade or have not yet done "something" to cause problems. I do recognise that mine is not the acceptable approach.

No question that you "can" use these great blades on the smaller saws. I was only pointing out that I've seen it reported that these blades "sometimes" have issues on them. It's good to hear that you are having good results as I just recently read a thread on another forum where someone experienced cracking on the blade. Frankly, I'm considering trying one out on my "risered" Jet 14" saw just for the heck of it, but since the cost is not trivial, it's not been a priority. And, of course, I can by 4-5 Timberwolfs direct from Suffolk for the cost of one Lenox blade.

I don't resaw "often" but when I'm in a project like I am right now with my kitchen remodel, I am resawing a bunch of stock down to provide the 1/2" material I need for the drawers and some 3/8" material for certain trim features on my cabinet design. (I have another batch coming up in the next two weeks when I start on the remaining base cabinets)

[David Rose]

would make me consider the Lenox blade. Besides the resawing I've done a *lot* of ripping and no little amount of crosscutting in the past 2 years or so with this blade. The rips I did last night on some pretty straight grained walnut could probably be glued up as they came off the saw. Of course 4 to 5 TW blades would likely have lasted this long too. But if lead changed a little with each different blade, I don't know that it would be worth the setup hassle to me (using this saw for about everything).

Did the guy who had the blade crack detension and clean up the weld, or did he say? Actually, my weld was pretty clean and his may not have broke there.

I do have some Timber Wolf blades that I used prior to the Lenox. They are now just backups if needed. One of them did show a little lead but a couple of others didn't. They were never used enough to dull them.

Wishing you success in whichever way you go! Have fun on the cabinets.

David

[Jim Becker]

Originally posted by David Rose
Did the guy who had the blade crack detension and clean up the weld, or did he say? Actually, my weld was pretty clean and his may not have broke there.

For some reason, I don't think the problem was at the weld and it was after a year of use...but I don't recall the specifics from that particular thread. No matter...everyone gets a "bad" one once in awhile.

[Anthony Yakonick]

Hey, I'm a turner so blade so blade drift is really not a problem, but 99.9% of my cutting is over 3" with the lions share being 6" and up to about 10" anything over that is done with a chainsaw (talk about blade drift). My cuts kinda have to be on the line and kinda have to be round but the blade has to cut good and Timberwolf blades cut well and last longer and the help that Suffolk gave was great.

Anthony

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

I don't do a tremendous amount of Resawing, but when I do, I really prefer the blade to cut straight. The only blade I have ever used for resawing is the Wood Slicer Blade from the good folks at Highland Hardware. Lately, I have taken a page from the "Paul Kunkel Book of Resawing" and use his technique........especially when resawing long stock, and it works like a charm. On stock less than say 3' in length, the Wood Slicer tracks pretty darn good, and any variance is cleaned up with a pass thru the planer, which is most always the final chapter in a Resaw Operation. Someone here steered me toward the Wood Slicer Blade, and this blade is awesome............probably the best $30.00 I ever spent! Works for me! :D

[Stan Smith]

I have a Jet 14" w/riser block and have tried different blades, including Timberwolf. Woodslicer is by far the best I have used. I like to use my performax drum sander for clean up because it actually flattens the surface closer to a jointer than what a planer would do. I do plan on getting a mini-max in the future, but until then it's strictly woodslicers for me.

As to coplaner, it took me awhile to figure out than there is no way to adjust for it on the Jet 14". Also you can't adjust for lead with the stock fence.

[Paul Geer]

The only thing I can add to this disscusion is I use both Timberwolf and Olson band saw blades for resawing. The Olson blades have a square sharp back so I take a small stone and round over the back of the blade right on the band saw while it's running.

This seems to take the drift out of the blade by removing that sharp edge that can catch on the kirf and deflect the blade. Timberwolf blades have a rounded back already, maybe that's why they drift less than others I've used.

Any way ripping, resawing or scrolling, this seems to work for me.

Just a thought.

[nic obie]

Everytime you change blades they end up on the wheels in a different place.

If you take off a band then reinstall it it will track different than it did the first time.

For that matter, everytime you change tension the band will track different.

You just have to adjust the fence for drift everytime you change something. It's not a big deal.




Wonder why my name got changed to Nick?

nic

[Richard McComas]

carbide baldes.
http://www.woodworking.org/WC/GArchive99/8_23mattband.html