can you change the alignment of a band saw blade, i.e. bend it to the left?

[Mike Kreinhop]

It did remind me too of the time I took my dad to the ER because he was having breathing problems and the wrote on the chart, patient is SOB. My dad said he was surprised, he didn't think they even knew him.

This gave me my first laugh of the day! (It's 00:09 AM in Germany now)

[Richard Coers]

What's to say the table slot is parallel to the blade with all the clearance around the mounting bolts to the trunnions? Adjust the fence for the drift is the easiest. Despite using that blade, how much stock have you sent through it?

[Lee Schierer]

I'm on the verge of buying a different band saw. I have a Delta 14" and don't do a lot with it but have some 2x6 black cherry that I want to cut into 1x6. So far I've destroyed 6 feet of it and have 166 feet to go.

I set the Kreg fence parallel to the miter grove and then attached 2 tall feather boards to the miter grove. The boards go fine for about 1½ inches and then start to cut to the left. I just want to set up something that will allow me to just push the boards through, I have not skill at following a line.

I put a steel rule in the blade and determined that it's twisted in relation to the miter slot. I found Carter has some $50 setup tools that you affix to the blade and then I guess you adjust your fence to that angle. Seems Mickey Mouse to me, plus expensive for a ruler with a magnet deal.

I wondered if there's a way to force the blade to be parallel to the miter slot.

I'm using a ½" Wood Slicer blade from Highland Woodworking.

I'm looking at a Grizzly G0513X2BF

I had the same issues with my Delta 14" saw, until I aligned my table to the blade. Here is an excellent video that shows how to align the table to the blade. Once I did the table alignment I can easily resaw to the max height capacity of my saw using the fence. It was like getting a brand new saw.

[Brice Rogers]

I attended a Zoom class with Alex Snodgrass, who is certainly an expert on bandsaw adjustments.

He loosened all of the bearings and blocks, changed the tracking, changed the tension, removed the initial blade and replaced it with another blade. That was to simulate a BS that needed major adjustments. Kind of a ground zero.

Then in perhaps 5 minutes he readjusted everything, while explaining what and why he was doing it. He set up the magnetic mount fence to be parallel with the blade (he used a metal strip with super magnets that snap on to the blade behind the gullet/set). He said that the table slot may or may not actually be perfectly aligned with the blade. He then checked for the blade being a 90 to the table by making a saw mark on a block of 2 x 4 and then rotating the 2 x 4 so that it was behind the blade. If you have a perfect 90, the slot should be exactly lined up with the back of the blade (cool and fast trick). Then he proceeded in resawing a 1 x 10. He mic'd it afterwards. It was perfect.

Another trick: he said that the teeth (back of gullet? I don't remember) should be aligned to be in the center of the crown and not equally spaced on the upper pulley.

Another trick: if your board has a slight curve, you'll want to put the convex side against the fence. If you do it the other way (concave curve to the fence) your resawn boards won't be uniform thickness.

I suspect that there are a lot of people who do things differently and are happy with the results. They might even challenge what I wrote. But seeing this buy in action and seeing his results convinced me that I was doing a bunch of things wrong.

I think that there are probably some Youtube videos of him in action.

[Jim Matthews]

It didn't occur to me to move the table.

It's *not* obvious.

It took multiple viewings of Michael Fortune videos for me to pick that up.

Getting the blade properly centered is only half the equation.

[glenn bradley]

Visual aids for crowned tires. View of the wheel, tire and blade from the top.

Blade Track 3.JPGBlade Track 2.JPGBlade Track 1.JPG

[John TenEyck]

By the way, I've found that the deeper the cut, the more the deviation. I'm always amazed at people who claim to cut veneers thinner than 1/8" when resawing wide boards. They obviously have a trick that the rest of us (well, me) don't understand. Besides the blade deviating to the side, the blade can bend when undergoing a lot of pressure (too fast a cut), so that your product is a triangle or worse.

Despite my relative lack of success (why are you listening to me), the things that seem to help are to use a wide blade with a low pitch, (variable pitch is good), moderate feed rate and forego the feather boards. One of my best feathering tools was to clamp a large, workbench brush to a support and use that to exert pressure on the work to keep it against a fence. The fence should be a vertical edge that keeps the board vertical, as tall as the work but is short horizontally( preferable just a corner and not used as a guide like a rip fence). Use a marking tool and draw a cutting guide on the edge of the work that are two lines, demarking the waste portion of the cut. A single line, unless it is as wide as the kerf, only gives you a chance to meander across it, resulting in a wavy cut. It's easier to center your blade between two marks. The brush as a feathering tool allows you to modify the feed angle as the blade inevitably wanders. Also, wear a mask and hearing protection as these procedures are dusty and noisy. Cut while watching the guide lines. Forget about automating the process with a set-once and push technique because that has never worked for me.

Mike and Rod just gave you nearly all you need to know above. I cut a lot of 7 - 10" wide veneer on my 14" Delta with riser block. 0.100" +- 0.010" worst case, usually better. 1/2" x 3 tpi blade, usually bi-metal, tall fence, feather board to hold the stock against the fence and, of course, a very well set up saw. Now I have a Grizzly G0636X and it's much easier to saw veneer because I can run a wider blade and much higher tension. Deviation now is less than 0.005" and the speed is 10X. But any bandsaw (Gotta be careful using BS. You've all had enough laughs today.) can slice more than acceptable veneer if you follow what Mike and Rod said. If you do everything they have outlined and are still unsuccessful then we need to talk about wheel alignment. Despite what Mr. Snodgrass says it is important. I'll leave you with this. My 14" Delta would not cut straight no matter what I did until I adjusted the wheels to be coplaner. The wheels on my Grizzly were perfect from the factory and has always cut straight. The manual for that saw has a very well written section on how to check and adjust the wheels to be coplaner if they are not. The principles are valid for any saw. See, I didn't say BS.

John

[John K Jordan]

...if your board has a slight curve, you'll want to put the convex side against the fence. If you do it the other way (concave curve to the fence) your resawn boards won't be uniform thickness.

Did you mean this to be the other way? If the convex side is towards the fence (curved outwards so only one point touches the fence), the piece can rotate horizontally during the cut. If I have a convex edge I either first flatten it a bit by hand or use a thin shim between the fence and the wood to keep the wood from rocking during the cut. I use other methods when I have a concave edge against the fence, depending on the length of the concavity.

[Rod Sheridan]

What's to say the table slot is parallel to the blade with all the clearance around the mounting bolts to the trunnions? Adjust the fence for the drift is the easiest. Despite using that blade, how much stock have you sent through it?

Adjusting the fence for drift is exactly what you don't want to do as it makes the mitre slot unusable........Rod.

[glenn bradley]

Adjusting the fence for drift is exactly what you don't want to do as it makes the mitre slot unusable........Rod.

"So shines a good deed in a weary world". Thank you for stating what a lot of folks forget.

[Steve Demuth]

Adjusting the fence for drift is exactly what you don't want to do as it makes the mitre slot unusable........Rod.

If you're adjusting your fence for drift, then either your basic saw setup is out of whack - see early instructions from Rod et al - or your blade is asymmetrically dull and should be replaced or sharpened. A properly sharp blade on a properly adjusted band saw cuts straight and parallel to the miter slots and fence.

The only thing I would add to the Rod's instructions, is that if you're working with a bandsaw that is new to you, and potentially not factory adjusted, or one that's been through major repairs or other hell, you should check the co-planarity of the top and bottom wheels. I won't even venture into the broader debate about coplanarity as reflected in rotations around the horizontal axes perpendicular to the blade run, but you definitely want the angle between the wheel faces with respect to the perpendicular axis running from wheel center to wheel center to be zero. If it's not, you're introducing twist into the blade between the top and bottom wheels, and that's going to cause trouble.

[Melvin Feng]

Once you have your bandsaw dialed in, what I have found helpful for long and tall resaws is the bow guidepro featherboard. I bought the featherboard, the anchor bar, and the extension. I like the anchor bar so that I can set it up to use in the miter slot, and not worry about using it with the cam, and the extension goes up to 10".

It is an expensive setup, but it has been very helpful for me on what would have been more difficult resaws, especially when I am milling my own lumber that I have chainsaw milled and flattened one side with a router sled (some I've had to cut to 16" width because that is the resaw capacity of my bandsaw).

I also use a 1.25" Laguna Resaw King on my bandsaw, which is a great pairing with the Bow featherboard on my saw (a Laguna 18 BX) for resawing, it is the blade I keep on my saw 99% of the time.

Here is a quick picture for a visual of what I'm talking about:

[Brice Rogers]

Did you mean this to be the other way? If the convex side is towards the fence (curved outwards so only one point touches the fence), the piece can rotate horizontally during the cut. If I have a convex edge I either first flatten it a bit by hand or use a thin shim between the fence and the wood to keep the wood from rocking during the cut. I use other methods when I have a concave edge against the fence, depending on the length of the concavity.

Yes, as Alex Snodgrass explained, if you put the concave side against the fence the thickness of the resawn board will vary from the ends to the middle. And yes, If you can plane the board first to eliminate the curve, that would be best.

You are right, if you put the convex side of the board against the fence, when resawing you'll have to deal with the piece rotating on the table during sawing. And you want to keep the point of contact between the board and the fence straight across from the cutting edge of the blade. By doing it this way, you will end up with a resawn board that is of uniform thickness...and with the same curve as it originally had. If you shim it so that it doesn't wobble, the thickness of the two resawn boards will vary from the ends to the middle.

One limitation on Alex's method is that while you end up with two uniform thickness boards, they will have the same bow as originally. So, if you can plane the board flat ahead of time, it is probably best. For a severely curved board that isn't planed flat, I think that your results are going to be poor in either case. But, if a person was resawing extremely thin, say 1/8", for a veneer, then the curve can be flattened when attaching to a flat substrate.

Perhaps one of Alex's videos can explain the rationale better than I can.

[John Lanciani]

Adjusting the fence for drift is exactly what you don't want to do as it makes the mitre slot unusable........Rod.

In 30 years of woodworking I’ve never, ever, used the miter slot on any of my bandsaws for anything other than to put the runner for my resaw fixture into. It seems like just one more place for new bandsaw users to end up off in the weeds to me.

[mark downing]

keep in mind that some saws do not have crowned tires and this changes the blade placement. MiniMax saws for example have flat tires. The blade positioning calls for the teeth to extend slightly over the edge of the upper tire rather than centered on the wheel.