Thread: Cannot remove drift on blade

It is perfectly possible to adjust for zero drift by using the tracking control on the bandsaw, i.e. changing the position of the blade on the crown of the wheel. This is what Michael Fortune advocates (rather than adjusting the fence for drift). I can do this quickly and easily on my shonky Basato 4 for any size of blade, and have also used this method on a JET bandsaw with no problems. With the benefit of experience I now know a rough starting point on the wheel for each of the blade sizes I use (3/4", 1/2", and 1/4"), and from there I can tune out the small residual drift using no more than 2 or 3 test cuts. I should add that the wheels on my Basato 4 are nowhere near coplanar - that's the price you pay for "German Engineering".....corrupted by "Chinese Manufacturing".

Twisted blades are fairly common, so not surprised that several people seem to have had this issue. I just use a supplier that does this less often than others (Henry Bros).

I also had a bit of a BFO this morning while thinking about all this (Blinding Flash of the Obvious). We tend to set up for drift using relatively thin offcuts, etc., for which a sharp blade on a substantial bandsaw won't deflect backwards much if at all. The blade probably won't go anywhere near the rear bearing (or ceramic doodad on the Laguna). As we all know, when cutting much wider boards, even with a slow feed, the blade is certainly deflected backwards more under load (or hard up against the back guide on my weedy Scheppach). That means the blade has changed position on the wheel, so your previous perfect drift adjustment is unfortunately null and void. It only takes a tiny amount of blade movement across the crown of the wheel to radically change the drift.

Originally Posted by nosnow

Hi John
Could you let me know who you got the blades of
Cheers Rod

Rod,

If you mean the bi-metal blades, I got them from Superior Saws at Frederick St Northgate. Tell Chris John McConnell sent you. He seems a nice enough bloke ... made up my blades whilst I waited.

Cheerio!

John

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

I also had a bit of a BFO this morning while thinking about all this (Blinding Flash of the Obvious). We tend to set up for drift using relatively thin offcuts, etc., for which a sharp blade on a substantial bandsaw won't deflect backwards much if at all. The blade probably won't go anywhere near the rear bearing (or ceramic doodad on the Laguna). As we all know, when cutting much wider boards, even with a slow feed, the blade is certainly deflected backwards more under load (or hard up against the back guide on my weedy Scheppach). That means the blade has changed position on the wheel, so your previous perfect drift adjustment is unfortunately null and void. It only takes a tiny amount of blade movement across the crown of the wheel to radically change the drift.

Exactly!

My crook blade looked OK when checking for drift with a thin board, but as the board depth increased, so too did the drift.

No blade is perfect, so this kind of behaviour is not uncommon.

The good news is that the bi-metal blade I put on this morning changes drift by such a tiny amount, that (so far) the back of the blade does not touch wood and no adjustment has been necessary (again ... so far).

Glad to hear it was just the blade.

Mind you, just because a blade is 'crook' doesn't mean I'll throw it out; I have a problem with short arms & deep pockets and when it comes to 'non-critical' cuts - eg. resawing old studs or trimming down log rounds (I'm primarily a turner) - or cutting timbers that may have embedded bodies (eg. nails, stones) well...

...that 'bad' blade gets to make the first cuts.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Glad to hear it was just the blade.

Mind you, just because a blade is 'crook' doesn't mean I'll throw it out; I have a problem with short arms & deep pockets and when it comes to 'non-critical' cuts - eg. resawing old studs or trimming down log rounds (I'm primarily a turner) - or cutting timbers that may have embedded bodies (eg. nails, stones) well...

...that 'bad' blade gets to make the first cuts.

Exactly,

One of the first lessons I learned as an appy was to keep a "roughie" handsaw and hacksaw, as well as a "roughie" blade for the power saw. They even taught us to keep a separate power saw blade for cutting fibro.

Swapped the crook blade for a new Laguna CT blade yesterday.

Put it on ... same problem.

Put the bi-metal blade back on and cut a lovely 2 mm veneer from a 260 mm deep board. It has teeth marks that are significantly deeper than the Laguna blade, and a wider kerf, but the difference between the biggest and smallest measurement for thickness of veneer was 0.25mm.

When I was a youngster and old hand told me that if you could afford a great saw and a great blade, do it. If you could not, get an average saw and a great blade ... never, he said, put an average blade on a great saw. Until the past few days I did not fully appreciate just how wise his remarks were.

The Laguna SUV is a good saw. I like it a lot. Truly it is a shame that they seem to keep getting the odd crook batch of blades.

The supplier is going to test my old blade, and I have asked him to test a new one to make sure it is OK before delivering it to me.

Like Mr Brush I also have a Basato 4 and once I took the time to make the wheels co planer....bingo it all fell into place and it was a cinch to track the blades parallel to the fence and mitre slot. I couldn't believe it that I had no drift at all to worry about.....and from a Chinese made saw......took repeated cuts to convince myself.
Of course you still have to do all the other adjustments with the guides and table.....

I'm now convinced that ensuring that the wheels are co planer is the foundation step....

cheers

John - if you can't get a decent Resaw King blade, Henry Bros can make up TCT blades (3/4" or 1") in any length. Just measure the length required by the "rolling along the floor" method, give them a call for pricing, and they'll send it to you in the mail.

Wouldn't be surprised if they are cheaper too...

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

John - if you can't get a decent Resaw King blade, Henry Bros can make up TCT blades (3/4" or 1") in any length. Just measure the length required by the "rolling along the floor" method, give them a call for pricing, and they'll send it to you in the mail.

Wouldn't be surprised if they are cheaper too...

That thought had crossed my mind.

All will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Cheerio!

John

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Glad to hear it was just the blade.

Mind you, just because a blade is 'crook' doesn't mean I'll throw it out; I have a problem with short arms & deep pockets and when it comes to 'non-critical' cuts - eg. resawing old studs or trimming down log rounds (I'm primarily a turner) - or cutting timbers that may have embedded bodies (eg. nails, stones) well...

...that 'bad' blade gets to make the first cuts.

Agree completely Skew, trouble is I end up saving too many blades that are too good to chuck but not cutting good enough, the ones I don't sharpen at least.

Originally Posted by John Samuel

Swapped the crook blade for a new Laguna CT blade yesterday.

Put it on ... same problem.

Put the bi-metal blade back on and cut a lovely 2 mm veneer from a 260 mm deep board. It has teeth marks that are significantly deeper than the Laguna blade, and a wider kerf, but the difference between the biggest and smallest measurement for thickness of veneer was 0.25mm.

When I was a youngster and old hand told me that if you could afford a great saw and a great blade, do it. If you could not, get an average saw and a great blade ... never, he said, put an average blade on a great saw. Until the past few days I did not fully appreciate just how wise his remarks were.

The Laguna SUV is a good saw. I like it a lot. Truly it is a shame that they seem to keep getting the odd crook batch of blades.

The supplier is going to test my old blade, and I have asked him to test a new one to make sure it is OK before delivering it to me.

That sort of result doesn't make the challenge of setting up the BS any easier, but is does seem to point towards something being wrong with the King blade. Combined Saw and Knife are at Deception Bay, they seemed to be a reasonable operation when I was last in there, some time ago now tho, might be worth a look at least.


Pete

Hi Dengy

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble with your new bandsaw.

I have a Hammer 4400. The only time I have a problem with drift is when the blade is dull. What happens then is that I will automatically compensate by pushing harder, and this is what causes the blade to drift.

Over the past weekend I noticed that the blade was dull, and I needed it to cut through 5" of hard Jarrah. It was difficult to keep it tracking where I wanted. I only use 1/2" 3 tpi bi-metal blades from Henry Bros.

It was too late to get another blade so I decided to try my hand at sharpening it myself. This took about 30 minutes, but what a difference! It was now running through the wood like a hot knife through butter.

I decided to try something - what effect the speed of pushing had on drift and accuracy of cut. I used a 4" thick board, pushed it slowly for half its length, then quickly for the remainder. The effect was very clearly noticeable: slow cutting left a clean, smooth and flat finish. Fast cutting caused ripples, hills and valleys and anything but a flat surface.

OK, so this is the point - it is important to have a sharp blade. However it is also equally important how you push the work piece through the blade. Thin boards will not test drift - they are too easy to saw. Thick boards, on the other hand, respond to sharp blades and, equally, are sensitive to the speed of the cut. On thick material a sharp blade with too many teeth (e.g. 6 tpi) pushed slowly can act like a 3 tpi that is being pushed fast. A 3 tpi pushed fast will drift.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks for this advice, Derek, much appreciated.

The 3/4" bimetal blade recommended to me by Henry Bros for cutting jarrah has 1.2 tpi, so I purchased it and installed it. Still having lots of problems resawing 70x35 pine studs - pretty rough cut compared to what my son gets on his Elektra Beckum bandsaw with a 1/2" 3tpi blade from Henry Bros.

The problem I have is that this blade, and my older near new 1/2" 3tpi blade, have a twist in them when running, as shown by the peg test, so instead of a nice neat vertical line, the blade is a blurry line. When I apply the ceramic guides the blurr is reduce a bit, but the twist is still obvious using the peg again.

The tyre on the upper wheel is not sitting evenly on the upper wheel, the blade hits the plastic blanking plate under the table. The worst of it is I cannot adjust the upper wheel for zero drift, despite starting from a coplanar position. Impossible to get the blade, mitre slot and fence parallel.

Advice from the supplier is " she'll be right, just keep working and using it and fiddle around with the table mounting bolts". I got no response whatever from Laguna!

Will experiment with the speed as you suggest to see if there is any improvement.

When I replaced the re-saw blade on my saw with a spare (carbon steel) blade to see it that made a difference, I noted that when I spun the wheel by hand the carbon steel blade had a twist/kink in it, so I took it off and threw it away because I was concerned that the twist in the blade would destroy the ceramic guides.

Is this in fact the right thing to do; or have I thrown away a blade needlessly?

Cheerio!

John

Originally Posted by Dengue

The problem I have is that this blade, and my older near new 1/2" 3tpi blade, have a twist in them when running, as shown by the peg test, so instead of a nice neat vertical line, the blade is a blurry line. When I apply the ceramic guides the blurr is reduce a bit, but the twist is still obvious using the peg again.

The tyre on the upper wheel is not sitting evenly on the upper wheel, the blade hits the plastic blanking plate under the table.

Dengy, I would replace the blade ... again. I never use a blade with a twist in it, but maybe I am over zealous (see previous post).

Originally Posted by Dengue

The worst of it is I cannot adjust the upper wheel for zero drift, despite starting from a coplanar position. Impossible to get the blade, mitre slot and fence parallel.

Is this unusual?

I tension the blade, get it running where I want it on the wheel and then adjust the table to get it at right angles to the blade. Then, if necessary, I adjust/shim the fence so it is perfectly parallel with the blade.

So far, pretty simple.

Then, after setting the guides, I adjust for drift. With re-saw blades I can't move the blade forward and back on the wheel to adjust for drift the way some do, because my wide blade fills the wheel. That means I adjust the fence to allow for drift. In turn this means the fence and the mitre slots are not parallel. With wide blades, the fence and mitre slots have never been parallel on my saw ... I thought this was normal. Am I missing something?

Cheerio!

John