Reply To: 14 or 16 inch bandsaw recommendation available in th states

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Larry Geib
6 April 2023 at 7:06 pm #797344

Hi.
Two things to look into before you Spring for a new machine. The Carter guides are very nice, but they will do nothing to correct for drift. Even they tell you to align the blade without the guides engaged.

1) the riser Block addition raises red flags. It may be that the upper and lower wheels are no longer properly aligned. If your alignment problems started when you installed the riser, you may have your culprit.
There are several tutorials on the Interwebs on aligning the wheels and tires. Two places to look are from Carter YouTube offerings and Michael Fortune, also on YouTube. One often overlooked adjustment is aligning the lower wheel assembly with the upper one with shims. Soda cans make good shim stock.

2) drift is often just a misaligned table. Most are held on to the saw with four bolts trough oversized bolt holes. Back off the bolts a turn or so and bump the table in the corrective direction, tighten the bolts back up and try again.
Michael Fortune, who has 11 bandsaws in his shop at last count, has a video specifically about drift. Give it a try before you give up on your saw .

Ok, three things.

Put a new high quality blade on your saw. It’s very easy in a moment of carelessness to degrade the tooth line on one side of the blade. You can try stoning the other side by placing a stone ( I use an old diamond plate ) on the side of the blade and turning the wheel backwards a couple turns by hand to reduce the set a little, but if that doesn’t work, put a new blade on. It’s a mistake to use a blade too long. They are cheap and disposable unless you are a masochist.

Drift is not a reason to replace a band saw. I’ve never seen a saw that couldn’t be corrected. My current saw is pushing 95 years old without losing alignment with one bearing replacement in that span.