Thread: What causes bandsaw blade to wobble left to right?

Sam,
Good to see your reply, thanks. Given the Felder rep has checked the machine out and says it is OK, it also seems very puzzling as the obvious causess of your problem in an ordinary bandsaw would be that a wheel was not truly round or not accurately centred, and/or the tyres had bumps or variations in thickness. I look forward to the results from the new bandsaw blades.
I'm in Auckland NZ so it would cost me about NZ$600 in air fares to get the Felder Rep to visit <wry grin> to check out a Hammer bandsaw for warranty problems.
Regards
Paul.

Hi Everyone

I am back again. Late last week, I have received two 1/4in bimetal blades from Henry Bros. Over the weekend, I have tested both blades and to my surprise there was not any wobble. It was straight and true during the running of the machine. This could be due to two reasons. One, there is still a wobble, but since the blade is rather thin, it is not visible. I would appreaciate if anyone out there has run a Hammer N4440 with 1/4in blade would comment on this. Second, it is the blade and there is nothing wrong with the bandsaw. Than I need to let Henry Bros know the situation. Regardless I will wait for Felder to get back to me on their testing. In the mean time I'll ring TimberNut to let him know that I accept his invitation. Perhaps we can test these blades on his machine as well. Will update you with the progress soon!!!

Cheers
Sam

Originally Posted by sam63

G'Day Folks

I am back again to update the progress. Yesterday someone from Felder turned up and spent more than 2 hrs and he could not fix the problem. We ended up using 4 different same type and size blades from Henry Bros and they all do the same thing.
Cheers
Sam

Just to add my own experience on this very issue I wasted DAYS trying to track down the cause of blade wobble on my SIPA 24 inch Bandsaw. I cannot convey how frustrating it was. If anyone is interested I will post a video!

We always suspect our machines but we overlook the obvious very real issue of WARPED bandsaw blades. Mine were the expensive Bi Metal variety and apparently made in Sweden. In my case the cause was definitely (2) faulty bandsaw blades. Guess where I bought them from?

In all fairness to Henry Brothers they were very professional and did exchange the blades without hesitation but because of postage delays I bought some new blades from McDiven's in Williamstown to get the Sipa going. Result: perfect tracking and no wobble! I would recommend McDiven's for quality , service and price.

The new blades from Henry Brothers are yet to be tried - I'll let you know if they are free of wobble.

Hi Sam 63,

You don't say if the band saw is new or has some miles on it. 2mm deviation is an enormous amount in a machine without severe wear or it's a dud if new.

I recently re- conditioned an 18" Woodfast band saw machine for a school where I worked part time as a wood turning instructor. The wheel rubbers on this machine were quite worn out and causing severe deviation similar to that you describe.It was and now is again a top quality machine with cast iron machined and balanced wheels etc . They were 4 spoke wheels which made it a bugger to get them off the shafts but that's another story.

The process I there followed may help

Get the wheels off and down to your friendly machine shop. Machine off the old rubber and machine the wheels true to diameter again removing the absolute minimum of metal possible.

Bond on the new rubber remembering that you will need to return the original wheel plus rubber back to the diameter you started with. When the rubber to wheel bond has cured put the wheel back in the lathe and grind the rubber back to the original diameter using a tool post grinder. If you feel you have to then re- balance the wheels. I didn't as they were not miles away from being well balanced. Re-mount the wheels in the band saw obviously using new bearings and carefully re-align them to the original position on the shafts to your scribe marks.

That's how you do a first class job on getting the wheels right. There may be other ways that give a satisfactory result but this way will work every time and make your machine " good as new" perhaps better than new in your case.

Good Luck Old Pete

Warmtone thx for the reply!! I am very intersted to see the video. I'll try ordering few blades from the McDivens just out of curiosity.

Old Pete, the bandsaw and all the baldes are brand new, and never been used. If I do what you are recommending, the warranty on the machine will void. I prefer to get Felder to fix the machine rather than me doing this.

Cheers
Sam

Originally Posted by sam63

Warmtone thx for the reply!! I am very intersted to see the video. I'll try ordering few blades from the McDivens just out of curiosity.

Old Pete, the bandsaw and all the baldes are brand new, and never been used. If I do what you are recommending, the warranty on the machine will void. I prefer to get Felder to fix the machine rather than me doing this.

Cheers
Sam

Hi Sam if you're interested here's my post from Sawmill Creek it will explain the pain I went through trying to find the cause of blade wobble.

"http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1249162#poststop"

Because I had bought the machine used I suspected wheel runout/worn tyres and spent several days looking for errors.

I even crowned and trued the wheels (tyres) to within about 0.005" It didn't make the slightest difference.

The opinion from the above site was not a machine issue but faulty blades so I looked for someone local to provide alternative blades. I wasn't expecting TWO faulty blades!

Bruce McDiven was contacted for new blades and also kindly offered to check the two HB 1/2 Bi Metal blades to provide an expert and independent opinion:

I wanted to be absolutely sure before I returned them they were the culprit. He indicated that one blade was seriously warped the second was worse! You can check a blade out of the machine by holding it against a flat floor and slowly rolling the blade forward as it rolls you can see a warped blade twist.

It seems occasionally there is a "bad batch of bandsaw blades" I guess that's lfe!

I'm trying to figure out how to post a video on what bad blade wobble looks like so bear with me

Rgds,
Brian

Hi Sam

Re promised Bandsaw Blade wobble video: Looks like I cannot upload my .MOV file........

I'll need to convert to say .WMV.

This may take some time!

Rgds,
Brian

Originally Posted by warmtone

Hi Sam

Re promised Bandsaw Blade wobble video: Looks like I cannot upload my .MOV file........

I'll need to convert to say .WMV.

This may take some time!

Rgds,
Brian

Hi sam,
Promised Blade Wobble Video in .wmv format


The video shows a 1/2 inch bi metql blade properly tensioned that has a defect. The blade is warped due to a manufacturing problem. No amount of tensioning will true this blade and it is not possible to accurately adjust the guides with the correct clearance ie the blade is essentially useless for anything other than cutting firewood.

The Sipa 24 inch bandsaw is 3 phase and has been "slowed down" using a phase controller to about 1/10th operating speed - to make the wobble issue easier to see and to illustrate the wobble pattern is a predictable cycle and corresponds to each revolution of the blade. So if you suddenly have a "wobble issue" it may be the blade and NOT the saw.

A good blade in this saw runs true!

Rgds,
Brian

Warmtone

Thx for the clip!! I do have the same problem, not as bad as yours though. I have tried four different blades and the amount of wobble changes from blade to blade. I have not heard from the Felder guys yet, however I did have a chat with Henry Bros, they accepted on the phone that it is a blade problem. I returned those four and asked them to send another two. Let's hope that they will be fine. I do appreaciate the fact that all forum members think very highly of them and their blades, however having worked in manufacturing industry more than 25 years, this type of quality problem is out of my comprehension!!!

Cheers
Sam

HI Everyone

This will hopefully be the last email in this topic. I finally got to the bottom of this problem. I just talked to Peter from Felder. They tested the same blade on their new machine, and it is as bad as on my machine. The final verdict "IT IS THE BLADE PROBLEM". As I said before, I have already tested mine with a 1/6in blade and it is fine as well. I have just returned the faulty blades to Henry Bros, and they promised to send two new ones. As for those folks, including Peter from New Zealand, who are interested in Hammer N4400, it is a fantastic piece of machine, just go for it. During the process, I have learnt a lot about bandsaws, and I'd like to thank Felder for the promopt and the professional service they have provided in order to resolve this problem.

Cheers
Sam

Warmtone - thanks for posting that video

I've been following this thread, and I assumed you were talking about minor blade wobble. Having seen the video, that is NOT the case; the saw is completely unusable with blade wobble like that. I can see why everyone was stumped, as I can't imagine anything on the saw itself having such a huge effect.

I've just ordered a couple of blades from Henry Bros for my new Basato 4, so we'll see how they run.