Grizzly Saw Headaches: Part 2

[Rick Hubbard]

Rather than repeat all the details of this nightmare, you can see what has been going on here:
Grizzly Bandsaw Headache (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=49382)

Grizzly shipped me all the parts to replace the damaged items, just as I figured they would.

I installed all the new pieces and set up the saw (blade tension, guide bearings, thrust bearings, checked tracking, checked that wheel were co-planar, plus adjusted the fence to make sure it was properly aligned with blade).

Bad News! I’m STILL having essentially the same problem. When I attempt to rip a piece of stock, about 4 inches into the cut, the stock begins to move away from the fence, If I just continue to feed the wood into the blade, after 18 inches the blade is cutting almost to the inside edge of the piece (the edge that would be against the fence).

I also discovered that, if I try to cut a 2 inch piece of stock by guiding the blade down a line drawn on the wood, the blade cuts along the line on the top of the stock but on the bottom the kerf shows the blade is veering toward the inside edge!

The blade I am using is a ½ X 4TPI Woodslicer from Highland. Could it be that the blade is damaged or defective?

Thanks for the help.

Rick

[Chuck Wintle]

Have you tried another blade? I would suspect the blade from what you describe.

[Mike Goetzke]

I've only re-sawn a few times so I'm no expert but I originally had success with a 3/8" Timberwolf blade for some 4" stock. I had a need to resaw some 6" stock so I pulled out my new 3/4" TW blade. I had nothing but problems - similar to yours. I tried everything. Then I watched the band from the side with the saw on and could see it was moving forward and backward. I took off the 3/4" band and applied the 3/8" and the cuts were fine. I called up TW and they sent me a new 3/4" band. I tried it out and the cuts were flawless.

So, even though you have a high quality band it still could be your problem.

Mike

[glenn bradley]

Limited re-saw experience here but I did take pointers from the Creek and do not use a flat fence. I made a quick pivot-point fence so I can track the line easier. This will not solve your problem of wandering from the entrance-to-exit point on the cut. I'd swap blades long enough to eliminate or identify that as the problem. Obviously something is going on here as my POS Craftsman tracks better than you describe (although not great).

[Mike Cutler]

Rick.

On the surface it sounds like too much heat is being generated. I won't limit it to that though.

1. Is there a riser kit installed? If so is the riser kit guide bearing column twisting on you as it goes up and down? My Jet riser kit did.

2. Look at the point of contact where the tension rod meets the frame. The OEM rod on my Jet was boring a hole through the casting, giving me a different tension each time I retensioned it.

3. How fast are you feeding the material? Too fast and the blade will deflect, and generate more heat.

4. Your saw is a two piece unit. The top frame is bolted to the bottom frame. On my Jet these surface were not exactly perfectly perpindicular to the horizontal, and I had to shim the upper frame.

5. The material is pulling away from the fence because the blade is leading into the wood. Setting the drift is not always a one time thing. If the blade rides on a different point on the crown of the tire the blade will track and lead differently. I never had any success using a fence for resawing on my Jet 14" bandsaw. I freehanded it, or used a single point fence.

6. For future consideration you may want to consider a 3tpi blade. You may be generating too much heat.

[Curt Harms]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3].......The blade I am using is a ½ X 4TPI Woodslicer from Highland. Could it be that the blade is damaged or defective?
Hi Rick

A damaged blade would be my guess. I had a Timberwolf do exactly the same thing, about drove me to distraction. The problem blade felt & looked fine to me but when I switched it out for a new one, all my problems went away.

Curt

[Rick Hubbard]

Thanks for the heads-up, Curt.

I think you are correct. I stopped at HD this AM, before work, and bought a new blade. On the way home after a short work-day, I stopped by a local saw-shop and told them what had happened. They looked at the Woodslicer and declared it "junk." All the set was gone from the teeth and it was unbelievably dull. When I came home, I installed the new HD/Ridgid blade- it cuts fairly straight but the quality of the cut is essentially what I could achieve with a chainsaw.

I wonder if the folks at Highland Woodworking where I bought the blade will be sympathetic (maybe it WAS a defective blade?) or if I should just write this off as a $40.00 mistake and order another one?

Rick

[Burt Alcantara]

Rick,
I also have the G0555. At the time I bought it I was a member of Knots. There was a lot of discussion about blades and the very wide discrepancy between manufactures. These posts referred to an article written by Michael Fortune that described blades and tensioning.

He recommended BC Saw blades (bcsaw.com). I purchased 5 of these blades. I think they were .75" with 3 or 4 tpi. This was 2 years ago. I'm still using the same blade. I"ll admit that I should pay more attention to tool maintenance but the BS is like the Energizer Bunny.

Much to my delight I had no apparent drift. I was able to resaw slices I could see through. I used the stock fence. Most of these slices were done on boards usually no wider then 6".

I'd suggest you buy any of the top professionally blades. I guessing this will eliminate these problems.

BTW, I installed the riser when I received the saw. Never took it off.

YMMV,
Burt

[Jim Becker]

all the set was gone from the teeth and it was unbelievably dull.
This bothers me. Something caused it to happen...and apparently quickly. Be sure you hand-turn the saw with the blade installed and under tension (unplugged... ;) ) so you can absolutely insure things are tracking correctly and the business area of the blade is not touching anything metal, including the guide assemblies and any other part of the saw outside of the tires. (I nearly ruined my TriMaster recently due to, umm...being lazy...and not checking things fully before powering things up) I just don't buy the local fellow's comments about the Woodslicer...perhaps you could get a bad one, but in general, they are highly regarded blades from a reputable source.

[Kristian Wild]

Along the lines of what Jim said, could your new wood slicer blade have been set too far back between the guide blocks? If your saw has steel guides that would take the set off of the teeth pretty quick although you probably would have seen some sparks! I've done that accidentally before when switching to a narrower blade and forgetting to advance the thrust bearing accordingly. Otherwise I'd suspect the blade was made on the Friday afternoon of a long weekend.:rolleyes: Top quality blades are money well spent.

[Dick Rowe]

I recently had the same issue with my Grizzly G0555 and a 1/2" Olson blade. It would pull the piece away from the fence a few inches into the cut, but I had used that blade many times in the recent past with no problems. The saw hadn't been bumped or re-adjusted, and it was the same blade still installed from the last time I did some resawing.

I might add that I have the riser block and use a home-made high fence which I clamp to the stock fence. I have never had drift problems with this saw or any blade on it in the past, and I have cut a bunch of thin veneers recently.

After investigating I noticed that the inside of my blade guard had been cut, as if the front of the blade had touched it. Not sure how the guard moved (operator error!), and the blade didn't seem damaged, but I ordered a Woodslicer 1/2" blade based on discussion here at SMC, installed it, moved the blade guard so it wan't touching the teeth!!, and it worked great. No drift, no pulling from the fence, perfect 6" QSWO 1/8" veneers

Not sure if the blade touching the guard might be your problem, but my experience with the Woodslicer blade was extremely positive.

By the way, the Woodslicer is advertised as a limited set blade IIRC.

[Rick Hubbard]

Thanks for all the advice and comments.

One thing thing I should clarify is that the guy at the local saw shop was not commenting on the general quality of Woodslicer blades, he was only observing that mine was completely pooched.

Still, I remain completely mystified as to how this could have happened. My best guess is that the guide bearing were too tight AND that they were riding over the teeth BUT it seems to me that this would have made such an awful racket that I would have been alerted. I simply can't recall such a thing happening.

Now that I have determined that my most recent problem seems to have been a bad blade, I think I'll order another Woodslicer- I was amazed at the quality of cut I achieved with that balde while it was working. I'm sure my better half won't be enthusiatic about me shelling out another $46.00 for the balde, but then again I think she might apreciate hearing me talk about something other than that @%!%@# Band Saw.

Meanwhile (until the new blade arrives) I'll have to live with the piece of tin I bought from HD. Yeeesh, what a joke!

Thanks again, everyone.

Rick

[glenn bradley]

All the set was gone from the teeth and it was unbelievably dull.

You will want to find out what caused that before proceeding. Turn the wheels slowly with a blade in place and see that nothing is contacting the tooth-set area. there may have been a quick incident that tanked the blade initially and you've been fighting a losing battle ever since.

Good work on having the blade checked out. As others have stated, better quality blades really make a difference. They made my old 'beater' BS actually usable.