Bad blade weld?

[Matt Black]

Sort of a newbie, so bear with me. I just received a 1" Timberwolf blade for my bandsaw. When I get it on and tracked it creeps toward then away from the thrust bearing. The creep seems centered on the weld, leading me to believe it's the weld. Being new, though, I lack the confidence to say for sure so I don't want to send it back prematurely. It wobbles about 3/32".

I purchased and read the Bandsaw Handbook by Duginske, but couldn't find this in the troubleshooting section. With other blades I have no problems, so I don't think the machine is too out of wack.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

[Paul Downes]

Matt, I would give them a call and ask. I have also had a blade from them that had that problem, but that was my fault. I bent it up pretty good on some tensioned green wood.

[glenn bradley]

The blade shouldn't do that. Give them a call. They've always been super helpful to me. Just out of curiosity, what size saw is this for?

[Matt Black]

Thanks for the responses. It's for an old Parks 18" saw.

[Eddie Darby]

Give them a call first, then they might be able to help you in ways that have never occurred to you. They also might just send you a new blade and say keep the old one, if they know a good customer when they see one.

[Gary Click]

I weld my own blades using a DoAll Flashbutt welder. This is a problem that sometimes occurs if the ends of the blade are not aligned in the two Copper Blade Clamps. This usually happens if the ends are not cut completely square when the blade is clamped up and the gap set.

When I do this I cut the weld out and reflash.

gary

[Barry Vabeach]

Matt, you mgiht try this - put a chalk mark on the upper wheel and then rotate ( power off, by hand from the lower wheel) If the creeping toward the thrust bearing is related to the wheels you will notice that pretty quick. If the creeping is related to the blade, the fluctuations won't correlate with the position of the wheel. I used a dial indicator at the back of the blade with the thrust bearings set way back to record the measurement and recorderd the values at each spoke of the upper wheel. If all the measurements are the same except at the weld, it may be that the back of the weld needs to be ground down. If the measurements show more variation the weld can be at an algle or there is a bend or crink in the blade.