Band Saw Weirdness

[Scott Welty]

Never saw this before. Started cutting a small piece on band saw (Delta 14) and the saw jumped and made bad sound as in TURN ME OFF! Unplugged and tried turning by hand and something was clearly not right. Binding somewhere. Blade off, messed with upper bearing, lower wheel seemed to turn too hard but then it's got a belt and motor to turn too. Turned it on with no blade. Bottom wheel turned ok but that looks too fast. What the heck? Opened up the back the the belt had somehow jumped to the rim of the bottom pulley! That explains too fast and other strangeness. Got it back in the groove and put back together and all better now.

How does this happen? Anyone else every get this event?

Scott

[Lee Schierer]

It sounds like your belt tension was too loose and/or the motor was not properly aligned with the saw pulley. You could also have a damaged belt.

[Scott Welty]

Lee-
I checked the set screw and key on the bottom pulley and all is tight. Used this saw for a couple of years so if it was out of line . . . My only other thought is if a small piece of wood got in between the belt and pulley it could have wedged the belt out to the rim.

Just made a number of cuts and all seems fine.

Still . . . weird.

Scott

[Ray Selinger]

What did you do to offend the bandsaw god?

[Scott Welty]

You know what . . . I'm just back from burying my 99 year old dad who taught me what he knew about woodworking. Maybe his ghost is just messing with me!

Scott

[Matt Day]

Lee-
I checked the set screw and key on the bottom pulley and all is tight. Used this saw for a couple of years so if it was out of line . . . My only other thought is if a small piece of wood got in between the belt and pulley it could have wedged the belt out to the rim.

Just made a number of cuts and all seems fine.

Still . . . weird.

Scott

Scott,
It's a bit hard to understand what you checked by the way you wrote it. Did you check belt tension as well? If the belt was too loose it could jump I suppose. Also, put a straight edge across the pulleys to make sure they are aligned.

[Van Huskey]

Belt alignment and tension are the two most likely causes as others have mentioned.

[Mike Chalmers]

Scott,
It's a bit hard to understand what you checked by the way you wrote it. Clear to me. He ensured pulley was not shifting on shaft.

[Matt Day]

Clear to me. He ensured pulley was not shifting on shaft.

But he was directing the reply to Lee, who mentioned ALIGNING the pulleys and tightening the BELTS. OP only said he tightened the pulley, which doesn't matter if it's not aligned with the other. And the OP didn't say he checked the belt tension.