Bandsaw blade drift

[Carl Beckett]

Working through this now, and have read a number of posts and videos on the subject.

The question I have is about how 'sharpening' may affect blade drift?

I did sharpen the blade using a dremel with a diamond disk. I only touched the front edge/undercut of the tooth.

This is a blade that came with the machine, but I believe is a pretty decent resaw (3/4") blade. Was just 'dull'

It cuts well after sharpening, but now has a severe drift.

I am going through all the usual motions again, but does anyone have experience with drift after hand sharpening and what details may play into it? (was wondering if I held the dremel at a slight 'angle', it may have put a sharper edge on one side of the offset than the other, thus cutting preferentially.... or something like that)

Have seen a video where a stone was held against one side while running to dull that side a bit and even out the cutting - which then caused drift in the opposite direction.

[Edward Weber]

Yes, a dull or unevenly sharpened blade will cause the blade to follow the path of least resistance and wander in the cut, drift.

[Richard Coers]

When you touch the face of the tooth, it also changes the set slightly. If your position had a slightly different angle when doing left and right set teeth, you probably have a different geometry on each side. I sharpen by hand to cut up turning blanks, but would never use that blade for accurate cutting. Original blades are notorious for low quality steel and hardness.

[James Jayko]

Stupid question...but why not try a new, sharp blade? You're talking ~$40 vs hours of troubleshooting.

Just saying...

[Doug Garson]

+1 on the new blade, save the sharpened blade for rough cuts, get a good resaw blade and use it for straight cuts, rips and resawing only.

[Carl Beckett]

It is on a Laguna LT18

158" x 1" blade.

They are not 'that' cheap (and yes am preserving my resaw king, also not cheap)

Recently got into some exotics which dulled every cutting tool I had in no time. Never did figure out what the wood was (a separate post on that a while ago), but others here have successfully sharpened and so I am giving it a try. It cuts great now, but drifting too much. Again I only touched the leading edge/undercut. But I am not confident it was exactly 90 degree/square to the blade thickness. (not sure the terminology, but would mean a side shearing action at the cutting edge)

Just wondered if anyone here who resharpens have had similar experience and could share the secret. Ultimately I will be resharpening the resaw king also, since it is an older one with ultra thin curf (sending it in last time was about $70 plus shipping)

Derek et al have a fixture they use on the saw itself, I may try that to square things up and see if it was grind angle related. Or as suggested perhaps tooth set needs tuned as well although I havent read of anyone doing that.

[Carl Beckett]

Did find a 3d printed piece to convert a chainsaw sharpener to work with bandsaw blades. The sawmill guys use these (and I have an un-used chainsaw sharpener it turns out). Do not believe it will work well for the carbide RK though.

[John TenEyck]

I use a modified chainsaw sharpener to sharpen by sawmill blades, but the wheel is pretty coarse and not suitable for blades on my shop bandsaws. The sharpener like Derek and I use for our shop bandsaws is far superior for that task. It uses a small diamond wheel on a Dremel. The version Derek uses touches the top of the tooth, the one I now use touches the front of the tooth.

If you are sure the blade is centered on the upper wheel, I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the blade now drifts. It does, so I'd resharpen it after making a fixture to guarantee the Dremel tool is square to the face of the teeth.

John

[Tom Trees]

A suggestion I've read before which might be worth checking is.. hand turning the wheels and seeing if the teeth might scuff more on one side,
through a piece of timber which was partially cut beforehand.

Be interested to see some recommendations on a setting tool for bandsaws.

Tom

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Carl,

No offense but you have answered your own question with your initial statement. If the blade was dull but didn't have drift before you sharpened it, and now after sharpening it, it does drift, that pretty much states and proves that there is a "set" difference between teeth that happened during the resharpening process. Absolutely, improper sharpening can cause drift.

[Jimmy Harris]

A couple of things might have happened. You might, as you suggested, held the Dremel at an angle, and unbalanced your blade. So now it cuts more on one side than the other, thus the drift. In which case, the fix it to sharpen it again. Or, since the Dremel rotates in only one direction, you might have put a burr on that side and now it cuts more off that side. If so, it might come back to straight over time, after you've cut a few boards or so. Enough to wear off the burr. Or you can try to "stone" the side it's pulling towards to smooth that burr off.

[Tom Trees]

Odd that there's never mention of setting teeth from the folks who sharpen their own (for the bandsaw, that is)
I guess there are hand setting tools which might do the job, for say 3TPI blades?
Something like this perhaps?
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[John TenEyck]

Odd that there's never mention of setting teeth from the folks who sharpen their own (for the bandsaw, that is)
I guess there are hand setting tools which might do the job, for say 3TPI blades?
Something like this perhaps?
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I watched several of those videos. Good stuff.

John

[Steve Demuth]

It annoys the hell out of me that I can't resharpen bandsaw blades, because I insist on having mine super sharp. You simply can't resaw reliably on a small saw with their limited tension, without very, and very uniformly, sharp blades.

But every solution I've seen in the youtube woodworker space has the same two limitations: no way to deal with blade set (as you point out), and not feasible on blades with variable tooth spacing.

[Richard Verwoest]

So why not mark a tooth, then stone one side of the teeth one full rotation. Then make a test cut. If there is still drift, repeat.

Richard

[Erik Loza]

Carl, I’m also in the “invest in some new blades” camp but, obviously, it’s 100% your decision. Since you mentioned cutting exotics, it does not surprise me that a regular skip-tooth blade may not get the results you want.

David Marks was a big a big fan of the 1/2” Lenox Die-Master II for the exotics he worked with. Very affordable and great finish quality on exotics. If your budget is higher, can’t go wrong with the Woodmastwr CT. Good luck in your search.

Erik

[Derek Cohen]

I use 1/2” 3 tpi bimetal blades for all except resawing. that is a 1” 1.3 tpi carbide Lenox Woodmaster CT. I sharpen both these types with a diamond disk in a Dremel.

In sharpening, the aim of my chosen method is to flatten the tip of the tooth. Just a smidgen …. just enough to remove the wear bevel. This way the geometry of the tooth is unaffected. It is not necessary to consider the set. There is too little removed to alter it in any way .. in fact, a touch less set may leave a finer surface.

https://i.postimg.cc/ysyLKx76/1.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Carl Beckett]

Indeed Derek, have read your posts on your setup as well as Johns.

Here is an interesting youtube link from the archives on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoaOkqi-xxs

This may be too much.... but in usual fashion, I am going down the rabbit hole on this and hope to figure out what works for me...

Right now the thing is buggered up enough it is cutting closer to 'arcs' than 'drift' even...

[Tom Trees]

Must have a look at those videos again John, as I remember the setup pretty fascinating and of a bygone time.

Carl, you're a man after me own heart :)
I must say, Lou's method looks pretty good for those who don't wish to use the missus Dremmel.
Thanks for bringing this back up again.
Regarding the set, as Derek mentioned, nice to know it's not something which needs constant attention,
but Carl's blades sound like they need setting

Right now the thing is buggered up enough it is cutting closer to 'arcs' than 'drift' even...
and I've got a box full of ones which are in the same state as this.

As a primer for gluttony, might as well post some screenshots of Lou's tool for the job.
Looks like some sorta cloth or leather backed abrasive, be nice to know more about it,
no explanation in the comments, only folks seeking answers.
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Bit tight for space in my damp shed (not keen on making too many jigs from tropical stuff)
hence the appeal of having two hand tools which can be put away easily...
oh, and the other lump of timber, which would likely amount to no space gained really! :rolleyes:
Might change my preference if I sharpened a 3TPI blade, haha!

Either way, at the end of the day, a non carbide tipped blade will need setting, if even for the last possible sharpening,
should one be a scrimper and keep a hold of their old ones,
so it would be lovely if someone out there could suggest something, if even from the old days
as I would prefer not having to build something proper, like what's seen on the utoob sawmill channels...well for at least the time being anyway.

The only hint in anything of the likes what I've seen, was someone doing quite the opposite, for a "look" ...
but hey, it's good to look at things at their most basic level, to see how much force needed, blade deflection and whatnot.
Judging from Bradshaw joinery's video, doesn't look like it might be easy to sort anything more than one or two teeth without some kind of jiggery,

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Tom

[Carl Beckett]

Looks like some sorta cloth or leather backed abrasive, be nice to know more about it,
no explanation in the comments, only folks seeking answers.
Tom

Wondered myself - and wondered if it could be as simple as abrasive glued onto a stick. I also noted that there is no abrasive on the 'radius' - suggesting it is not impacting the gullet.

He is filing those set teeth at a compound angle - I think creating a skew or shear cutting angle. Derek and John isnt needing this with the dremel setup.

My blade is the same - alternating set with a third tooth straight on. I dont know if I am up to making a way to reset all the teeth - but I might throw an indicator on it to see if one side is more than the other.

For sure sharpening it dramatically improved the ability to cut. It is just now severe drift. So ... as was pointed out early in the thread - I did 'something' to cause that. (my usual progression... a step forward, combined with a step sideways...)

Another interesting article here: https://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/chatter.html

[Doug Garson]

I looked thru the comments on Lou's video and the question was asked several times but never answered. I think itis something like this:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61DZMI8OTnL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
https://www.amazon.ca/SHARPAL-121N-Dual-Grit-Sharpening-Sharpener/dp/B07WJJLFMX/ref=asc_df_B07WJJLFMX/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=560447835114&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14219799416327853276&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001562&hvtargid=pla-833054782540&th=1

[Carl Beckett]

Well, I gave the Lou method a try.

Had a 200 grit diamond stone to work with.

508510508511

And.... it cuts straight!

Was a little bit skeptical considering how severe it was before. But it now tracks straight as ever.

I havent tried a true resaw test yet on a wide piece, but the test is as good as the blade has ever tracked.

Amazing.

Filing by hand isnt that bad, and I did it while on the saw same as the video. I do like the idea of some cheap disposable power driven abrasive disk - but it needs to maneuver easy and a good old fashioned hand stroke may be hard to beat (it reminds me of sharpening chain saw blade by hand...). The diamond file is worn along the edge now - not sure how many I would get from that but it came in a set of several that didnt break the bank. I did nothing to the set.

There is something here, now wondering how it might wear...

[Tom Trees]

Thanks Doug, that does look quite similar to me, (I was trying to take a screenshot of the handle with the illegible logo, but no clear shot of it)
Kinda odd looking, since it does appear to be made from wood on the other end.

One could guess, the diamonds could have got wiped out, and a this was made from the resulting chunk of metal.
Carl's experience suggests it might tally with that.

Good to know it fixed the issue Carl, you certainly didn't hang about!
Hopefully you could report back regarding the longevity of things,
and/or if you indeed, end up going with something along the lines of Lou's sharpener tool.

Cheers
Tom

[Carl Beckett]

Quick update: Resawed some cherry yesterday. 8" wide. Blade cut great.

I will be sharpening in this fashion from now on. A win. Can do it in the time it would take to remove the blade and package for shipment.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s (http://Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s)

[Robert Hayward]

Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s (http://Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s)

The link does not work for me.

[mike stenson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s

[Alan Lightstone]

Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s (http://Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s)
If we click on that link, are we going to be deluged with laxative ads? :D

[John Lanciani]

Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s (http://Bandsaw Tuning For The Anally Retentive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzbJYIPPNE&t=638s)

Cutting a 3/4" board with the upper guides 6" off the table... just another youtube "expert".:confused: