4 Attachment(s)
Cannot remove drift on blade
Hello, I am trying to tune my new Laguna bandsaw following the principles outlined by Alex Snodgrass ( YouTube) and Michael Fortune (Fine Woodworking Nov/Dec 2004). Both insist that there should be no blade drift if the blade is tracking properly. Alex advises that the correct position of the blade on the tyres is with the bottom of the gullet being in the mid point of the tyre.
I set my 1/2" 3 tpi bimetal blade to this position, and tested by running a 400mm piece of flat timber ( 400 x 35 x 12) through the saw, following a straight line drawn on the test piece. I stopped when the piece reached the far side of the table, and measured the difference in the distances from the mitre slot running in the same direction, at both the infeed side and the outfeed side of the table. The result was the test piece at the far end was pushed to the left by 20mm, indicating the blade was set back too far.
I then did a series of tests by moving the blade forward a bit at a time, using the tracking know at the rear of the upper flywheel. The best result was 5 mm difference, still to the left. Trouble was, the blade was just about off the front of the upper flywheel, as seen in the attached pictures !! In fact, the rear of the blade was sitting in the middle of the tyre
Can anyone suggest where I might be going wrong?
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Upper flywheel
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Blade well to the front of the flywheel gives best results, but still with drift.
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View through the side window. The blue looking material is the tyre
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View of rough cuts of a test piece, ripping against the fence