True coplaner bandsaw wheel adjustment?

[John Lanciani]

Many folks seem to believe that a bandsaw is an inherently imprecise machine compared to a tablesaw, for example. While it's true you can't take off a few thousandths like you can with a TS, a bandsaw can be tuned to cut very accurately, whether it comes from the factory that way or not.

IMHO you are wise to question what you read here or anywhere else, including this. Do your own testing. Draw your own conclusions. Then you'll know what's correct.

John

Amen. Nothing beats personal experience.

[Randy Heinemann]

Originally Posted by John TenEyck
IMHO you are wise to question what you read here or anywhere else, including this. Do your own testing. Draw your own conclusions. Then you'll know what's correct.

That should be on a banner at the top of every page on every forum on the internet!

Not only that, but read the Owners Manual. If it doesn't provide direction on wheel alignment, my guess would be that it isn't something that is needed and maybe shouldn't be messed with.

[Ted Phillips]

I've never seen a saw that cannot track and cut properly when properly setup. The saw comes from the factory with some offset, as the saw works 100% in that condition, I've never had to correct that "deficiency". I assume that since the saws have some factory calibrated offset, they're designed to work that way.

I'm with you on this, Rod!

[John TenEyck]

Following on from my mention of moving the table I made above it actually makes more sense when you think about it. Set the blades the same each time and if the table is aligned to the blades then the fence will line up with minimal need to adjust tracking. if you follow the Snodgrass method the table gets removed for each blade change so setting the table in one position would not be possible.

I can't believe anyone would recommend removing the table every time you change a blade. That makes no sense at all.

John

[Tom M King]

Northfield uses fishing line, and plumb bobs. I remember seeing a picture somewhere, but couldn't find it.

http://www.northfieldwoodworking.com...llAssembly.pdf

[John TenEyck]

Northfield uses fishing line, and plumb bobs. I remember seeing a picture somewhere, but couldn't find it.

http://www.northfieldwoodworking.com...llAssembly.pdf

They show the objective is to end up with the wheels coplaner.

Can someone show an owner's manual, manufacturer's drawing, tech. manual, etc., where a machine is intended to be set up with the wheels out of plane?

John

[Steve Demuth]

It is absolutely true the alignment of the wheels is important, just not to the user when doing setup. If normal setup doesn't produce the result desired contacting the manufacturer is the best course of action. It is not likely that the user could determine how the wheels should be aligned for any individual manufacturer except by accident. Generally trying to align to some particular alignment only creates more problems unless the user has randomly somehow got it just right. I haven't yet been able to adjust the wheels to remedy a problem that existed. I've only made it worse.

I would say that depends on your situation. A saw should, and most certainly do, come properly adjusted from the factory. But a used saw may or may not have had abuse, and even a new saw will on occasion not make the grade. My last one came out of the box with a slight wobble in the blade - about 10 thousands or so. I sure as heck wasn't going to ship the saw back for that if it wasn't an actual structural issue, so I adjusted the lower wheel to make it fully co-planar with the the top tracking adjusted to a central adjustment location. Problem solved. The physics of the blade isn't that hard - if the wheel planes have twist in them, the blade is going to wobble. If the wheels are not aligned properly top to bottom, the blade won't track, or won't be square to the table in the plane of the cut. Took me a bit over an hour to get the saw in trim. It would have take far longer just to get a factory rep on the phone.