I have a nearly new Rikon 18" bandsaw that I've used for general cuts here and there, but I now want to tune it for optimal cutting, primarily for resawing. I watched a video and I've read online but I'm not sure what I'm seeing is the same.
I installed a 1/4" blade and found that it wanted to ride the tires in a different spot on the top vs bottom wheel. If I put a square on the side of the blade, it is square, but if I put it behind, it was clearly tilted. Adjusting the tracking knob would move its position on the top tire but wouldn't get it completely vertical. Is this normal? I need to cut a piece of wood with a notch so I can check square of the two wheels relative to each other, the cabinet prevents a simple straightedge from contacting both wheels. But if it's off, it's not clear how I would adjust it. The bottom wheel appears to have 3 bolts pressing in on the shaft from different directions.
Although I set the tension using the saw's gauge, the blade seemed to be under very little tension. It cut fairly well though. I was trying to do what I saw in the video where they drew a line down a piece of wood and then cut on the line. They stopped part way through the piece and stopped the saw. The angle the wood was at is the angle that gets you a straight cut. In the video, they were able to adjust their fence to this angle and cut straight cuts. While the fence is adjustable, I wasn't able to adjust it that far. I was trying repeatedly when I tried to back up within a cut and apparently pulled the blade off the wheel and/or caused the blade to contact the table edge. All I know is the blade ended up off the wheels with a series of zigzag bends in it. It wasn't broken, and I was able to smooth it out and put it back on, but not surprisingly, it doesn't cut as well as it used to. Before I invest in a new blade, I'm wondering if someone can tell me what happened. Was the blade under too little tension? Was it not tracking in the right place? I think I had it front of center on the tire as I thought that's what the video had instructed, though I need to re-watch and take notes this time.
Also, while reading tonight, I found this page:
http://www.suffolkmachinery.com/six-...of-sawing.html
It gives a tensioning process. Is that valid for any blade? It looks like I may need to change the saw speed to the faster setting for tensioning, but I assume not for cutting (wood)? The manual that came with the machine is surprisingly sparse. Here's how to change speed, but no info on when you would want to. Very little on installing new blades.
That page also suggests lubricating blades even while cutting wood. Is this a common practice?