Bad Bandsaw

[RICK BOWMAN]

We have an older vertical floor model bandsaw, believe mfg. in the '80s, Buffalo is the brand. Cannot find any information from google or ebay so the assumption is that the Buffalo name is just a decal on a knock off product.
It starts and runs ok, however the blade will not stay on. We have adjusted the wheels every way that we can see to adjust. The drive and idle wheels have a hard rubber, flat surface that the blade just seems to wander on. The blade just travels side to side on the inch or so width of the wheel until it falls off the wheel.
Shouldn't there be some sort of guide or limiter to keep the blade in plece?
Do we need a new blade? New wheels? Or, should it just be junked?

RIck

[glenn bradley]

The blade stays centered on a BS much the same as a belt stays centered on a belt sander. The wander could be one of a few different things or a combination. If there is no info on the saw can yo give a general description or post a pic?

My dad just recently put new tires on a 1950's BS that was running the originals which were horrible; blade stayed on. That being said your tires would have to be pretty bad to to be the problem I would think.

If the saw used to be fine and has developed the problem, I would look for normal (or abnormal) wear. Are the bearing nice and solid? Does the frame flex where it didn't before? Take the blade off and set it back side down on a table, is there obvious damage or does it lie flat?

[Andrew Williams]

Buffalo Forge was a classic American maker of old arn. You might want to see if it is a real Buffalo, made in the USA. owwm.com does not have any pics of Buffalo bandsaws.

[Lance Norris]

I had tracking problems with a new Ridgid bandsaw. New urathane tires(orange) from Hartville tools fixed this problem. I would say your problems are with the tires, no matter how good they look.

[Wilbur Pan]

The tracking problem you describe is classic for not having enough crown on your tires. Your comment about your wheels having a hard rubber flat surface suggests that this is the main problem.

There are two ways of establishing a crown. The first is to have a crown on the wheels themselves, and use a thin tire that follows the crown. If the wheels don't have a crown, the only way to establish one is to have the wheels machined.

A much easier way of dealing with this is to get new rubber tires, and establish a crown. You can see one method of doing this here (http://www.owwm.com/FAQ/Crowning/default.asp). There are many other ways of doing this.

A crown is important because physics dictates that the blade will naturally try to ride to the highest point on a bandsaw tire. The crown will help keep the bandsaw blade in line. I bet that if you put a straightedge across the tire surface, that it would actually be a bit of a shallow valley, and the reason your blade wants to go from edge to edge is that the edges are actually the high point on the wheel.

[Pete Bradley]

Definitely don't junk it. Most likely the only thing wrong is the tires. If they're dried and cracked, they need to be replaced. If they're not dried and cracked you may be able to put a new crown on the existing ones. Take a look at the FAQ at http://www.owwm.com for more on this.

Pete