Thread: Need some help

My first thought is that the tracking on the top wheel is not quite right ,allowing the back of the blade to rub on the raised ridge on the wheel,when running it probably tracks differently so stops grating , hard to tell ,unless you can override the safety switch on the door so you can run it with the door open to see exactly what is happening ,not familiar with the ryobi but this was a problem with one of my baby bandsaws ggod luck with it ,cheers ~ John

The wheels must be co planer to each other. So, the blade must sit in the center of each wheel. Back right off the top and bottom guides, then with the machine unplugged, manually turn the wheels around to see just where the blade is sitting on the tyre of the wheels. The blade MUST be running in the middle of each wheel. Make sure the blade is tight. When the blade tracks central to both wheels, adjust your guides so that a business card thickness is the gap between the blade and the guides, and ensure that the guides are behind the kerf (teeth) of the blade. The guides must not touch the teeth!!, the guides should only ever touch the flat of the blade. Tighten the belt so that when pushed with one finger there is a half inch deflection. This is the 'standard' in bandsaw adjustment. Bandsaw blade drift is another subject which really does not concern pen making. Hope this helps Greg. I've been using bandsaws for over 45 years now, and this is the starting point to eliminate most problems.

I've done all that. It only started happening this afternoon and was perfect before. I rans the machine with the door open (not a smart move - but I had to see what was happening). Fortunately I didn't lose a finger. The blade is centered on the tyre and the adjusters are against the blade but not on the teeth. I will check the drive belt again as it seems a bit loose.

Greg

Problem solved. Thanks for the advice. I ended up checking the drive belt and it was very loose and was slipping on start up causing the loud noise. The lock nut on the engine adjustment had come loose. All sorted now.

Good for you! Why didn’t you check the drive belt before?

Not used to the machine as it is only new. Anyway why do it the simple way when there is a hard way to do it

It's always the last thing you check that's the problem.

Jeff
vk4

Originally Posted by plantagenon

I cut some blanks today with my new Ryobi bandsaw. Everything went well for a while. Then when I turn it on each time it has a loud grating sound for a second and then runs normally. I gather that I have not tuned it properly but a bandsaw is a bugger to get right. I also noticed that the drive belt is a bit loose when the machine is stopped. Any ideas?

I am sure this will help you on your way it did for me
Band Saw Clinic with Alex Snodgrass - YouTube and I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed
Colbra

This is a really good video of Alex Snodgrass. I’ve seen this on most of the forum sites I visit. This gave a lot of help to all!

That was a good video. Easy to watch. Now I'm off to the shed to reset my bandsaw the correct way.

I have just watched Alex Snodgrasses 1 hour DVD on setting up a bandsaw.

Interestingly he indicates that it is not essential for the wheels to be totally coplanar. As long as the bottom of the gullet tracks along the centre line of the top wheel and close to the centre of the bottom it should still work OK.

Anyway I then set up mine exactly the same way as he recommends and it's working better than ever.

Originally Posted by BobL

I have just watched Alex Snodgrasses 1 hour DVD on setting up a bandsaw.

Interestingly he indicates that it is not essential for the wheels to be totally coplanar. As long as the bottom of the gullet tracks along the centre line of the top wheel and close to the centre of the bottom it should still work OK.

Anyway I then set up mine exactly the same way as he recommends and it's working better than ever.

Another happy customer.

This was quite a point of discussion a few weeks ago, ( https://www.woodworkforums.com/f27/so...-wheel-153971/ ), and not one person who tried this method had bad results, myself included.

I set mine up as per Snodgrass' recommendation and have had no problems whatsoever since then. In particular, no drift - the blade exactly follows the split in the table, dead parallel to the fence.
On top of that, the cuts are cleaner than they've ever been.

I'm another convert.

Originally Posted by plantagenon

That was a good video. Easy to watch. Now I'm off to the shed to reset my bandsaw the correct way.

You must let us know the results.

Alex Snodgrasses’ video is surely a good source for learning how to setup a bandsaw.
I found this at finewoodworking: How to Set Up a Bandsaw - Fine Woodworking Article

How about some feedbacks about the video?