Eliminating bandsaw drift

[Dengue]

Hello, I am trying to eliminate bandsaw drift by moving the blade back or forwards using the upper wheel adjustment on my Laguna 14/12 bandsaw, as recommended by Alex Snodgrass. But I don't put the gullet in the centre of the wheel, just centre the blade on the wheel as recommended by Laguna

Doing this, my bandsaw has a significant drift to the right i.e., if you cut a test piece along a straight line parallel to one edge of the piece, by the time you have cut 300mm the line and the test piece is angled to the right.

Does anyone know which is the correct upper blade movement to do for this? Ie., do I move the blade back or forward on the upper wheel? And why?

I've not had much luck with this moving in either direction. A very small change of the blade position makes a big difference.

Would be very glad of any assistance and suggestions

[mark david]

Hi Dengue, not exactly claiming to be a world authority but have tuned my own rather basic machine.
The groove the rubber tyre sits on is curved so basically adjusting the angle of the upper wheel so the blade moves forwards to the front of the wheel angles the blade towards the fence and angling the wheel so the blade moves towards the back of the wheel angles the blade away from the fence.
Like you say a small adjustment makes a big difference, do it a bit at a time until it is tracking straight.
You will need to alter the position of the thrust bearings aswell.

Hello, I am trying to eliminate bandsaw drift by moving the blade back or forwards using the upper wheel adjustment on my Laguna 14/12 bandsaw, as recommended by Alex Snodgrass. But I don't put the gullet in the centre of the wheel, just centre the blade on the wheel as recommended by Laguna

Doing this, my bandsaw has a significant drift to the right i.e., if you cut a test piece along a straight line parallel to one edge of the piece, by the time you have cut 300mm the line and the test piece is angled to the right.

Does anyone know which is the correct upper blade movement to do for this? Ie., do I move the blade back or forward on the upper wheel? And why?

I've not had much luck with this moving in either direction. A very small change of the blade position makes a big difference.

Would be very glad of any assistance and suggestions

[Master Splinter]

If you're doing the Snodgrass method, the gullet in the centre (or rather, at the peak of the tyre crown which is usually in the centre) is kinda the key concept.

Too far forward and the blade wants to pitch one way, too far back and it wants to pitch the other.

[RoyG]

Hello, I am trying to eliminate bandsaw drift by moving the blade back or forwards using the upper wheel adjustment on my Laguna 14/12 bandsaw, as recommended by Alex Snodgrass. But I don't put the gullet in the centre of the wheel, just centre the blade on the wheel as recommended by Laguna

Doing this, my bandsaw has a significant drift to the right i.e., if you cut a test piece along a straight line parallel to one edge of the piece, by the time you have cut 300mm the line and the test piece is angled to the right.

Does anyone know which is the correct upper blade movement to do for this? Ie., do I move the blade back or forward on the upper wheel? And why?

I've not had much luck with this moving in either direction. A very small change of the blade position makes a big difference.

Would be very glad of any assistance and suggestions

Dengue,

My Laguna LT18 has similar symptoms re drift and very sensitive blade tracking adjustment. I found that increasing the blade tension fixed the drift problem. The blade tracking adjustment is still very sensitive, but once set correctly, I've been able to use four different blade widths from widest to narrowest without re-adjusting the blade tracking. As per Laguna's instructions, I track the centre of the blade on the centre of the wheel rim.

I may be telling you something you already know, but ...... make sure that you completely back off all the blade guides before trying to adjust the tracking. Ignore the in-built tension gauge - it's reads all over the place on the LT18. In one of the factory promo videos for the 14SUV when they were first released, they demonstrate blade setup, and say that the tension gauge is a rough indicator only. They demonstrate measuring and setting blade tension using finger pressure on the flat of the blade, at the back of the machine about six inches above table level. When I do it that way on the LT18 I get the in-built tension gauge reading off scale high when I tension a 1" blade - but the saw cuts straight and I've not broken a blade (yet - touch wood). No drift and the cut is parallel to the mitre gauge slots which makes the fence adjustment easy.

Hope that info helps.

Roy

[Xanthorrhoeas]

I am very far from expert at this, so feel free to disregard. My first bandsaw was a H&F and the blade only ran true with the gullet at the edge of the tyre. I sold that and bought a MiniMax 500. Instructions for set-up were minimal (Italian English instead of Chinglish - not much of an improvement) so I tried the same set-up. Disaster, the blade moved forward on the tyre and cut into the guard. Now, I run the blade at the centre of the tyre and all is sweet.

[artme]

If you're doing the Snodgrass method, the gullet in the centre (or rather, at the peak of the tyre crown which is usually in the centre) is kinda the key concept.

Too far forward and the blade wants to pitch one way, too far back and it wants to pitch the other.

Plus One for |Snodgrass!!

Dengue pleas look up the You tube videos by Alex Snodgrass. Nothing else needs to be said.

[dai sensei]

You should always try to eliminate drift, as described in the Snodgrass video, I find it good for new blades. But with larger bandsaws with larger blades cutting larger logs, I sharpen a blade many times, and often the sharpness can affect the drift. ie If your blade is not sharpened to the same degree on both sides, or the teeth shorter or set differently on each side, you will still get drift. I guess you could play around with the blade position on the tyre to counter this, by using trial and error, but my bandsaw has drift adjustment so I use it.

[doug3030]

If you're doing the Snodgrass method, the gullet in the centre (or rather, at the peak of the tyre crown which is usually in the centre) is kinda the key concept.

Too far forward and the blade wants to pitch one way, too far back and it wants to pitch the other.

If you want to use the Snodgrass method you have to do it all. It does not work if you just use part of it.

I have been doing it Snodgrass's way ever since I first saw that video.

I had not used my 21 inch bandsaw for about a year. Last weekend I pulled it out for a job. I had taken the table off and the guides out after the last time I used it so it was basically a full setup I had to do. I put the giudes on and backed them right off then replaced the table, fitted the blade, checked the table for square then tracked the blade and adjusted the guides exactly as Snodgrass recommends.

It is cutting perfectly and it only took just under an hour to set the whole thing up. It would have been a lot quicker but I had a 10-year-old assistant.

I have been resawing through 10 inches with no drift.

If you want to use Snodgrass's system you have to use all of the system, not just some of it.

Cheers

Doug

[fubar]

On my Laguna 14/12 I just followed their instructions and I swap between a 6mm blade through to 17mm re saw without readjusting the tracking maybe I just got lucky but other than adjusting the guides for the different sizes it has been an absolute doddle to use

[Dengue]

This is very encouraging - thanks for this fubar

Back to square one and set up again with blade fair and square in the centre of the tyre, as per their recommendation

[Dengue]

Following up on AussieRoy's comments above, with a 12mm 10tpi and 1mm kerf blade yesterday I wound the tension off with the machine running until the blade started to flutter, then slowly increased tension. The blade stopped fluttering and ran true for a while, but as the tension increased the blade started to flutter again, like a standing wave on a violin or guitar string. So there is a happy medium between too little and too much tension for the best tension result. Incidentally, these two flutter points corresponded with the lower and the upper points on the blade tension indicator

[fubar]

Thanks for your last post dengue I just tightened my blade up and got the same vibe backed it off a touch and it's running quite smoothly. I'll blade upgrade next to a bimetal of same size and TPI see if it's better again.

[econ]

I've only just started using an 18" bandsaw and Dengue's question is the most important as far as bandsaw function is concerned. And yet reading the replies there are many ways to arrive at the solution . I haven't found one yet.

I experience two different types of drift: the saw cuts straight but the piece has be angled with respect to the blade.

The blade drifts left and right and sometimes goes straigh during a cut.

The things I have tried: New blades x2 from a reputable dealer often recommended on this site ( service is and quality of blades looks excellent to me)

New polyurethane tires and different positions of blade on these tires

Snodgrass method

Variations in blade tension

Variations in position of bearings

The biggest improvements occured when blade tension is high ( much greater than that suggested by the saw gauge) and positioning the side bearing guides so they just spin with no load but can be easily stopped with light pressure from a fingertip.

That said, i haven't been able cut veneers as beautifully demonstrated on many youtube videos.

[fubar]

I upgraded the blade to a cobolt but I got the tpi too aggressive so will have to get another one with more teeth. It cut fine on the straight but cutting a curve and it leaves too rough a finish, will be good for cutting turning blanks so not a total waste of money.
Anyhoo the changeover took less than 10 mins to get it on and tracking straight, allthough the blade sits well forward of centre. To test it I cut a thin veneer no real variation across the cut so quite happy with the result this is the 4th blade I've used on this bandsaw and except for moving the guides to match each blade plus tensioning it's been the easiest of all to use