Ridgid Band Saw

[Justin Edmonds]

Broke down and bought a new Ridgid band saw after not being able to find one online, at least, that they'd reply to me before they sold it. Anyway, it's vibrating pretty bad even without the wheels on it . What are some of potential causes. It could be the mount, since it's a swing mount on the motor with a bolt to add tension. I'm thinking of replacing the pin with a bolt so that I can tighten it down.

Any other ideas to take the vibration out?

[Dan Hahr]

There are a bunch of things that could be causing vibration. I'd check the pulley alignment first, then belt tension. I bought one used once with a lot of tools. It was much lower quality than I thought possible. I sold it for $75 bucks and kinda felt guilty. It was in like new condition.

Dan

[Andy Fox]

After checking pulley alignment, pulley set/locked on the shaft, and belt tension, another possibility is that the belt has developed some set where it formed into the shape it has been in for the months or years since it left the factory. Try to give it plenty of use, and make sure it gets rotated at least once a day for the next few weks. If it doesn't seem to be going away after a decent amount of use, get a new belt. If that doesn't work, check pulley runout.

[Rich Enders]

I have the Ridgid 14" BS, and it has been trouble free. Nothing like Dan's experience. I do recall some vibration out of the box, but it went away. Easy to set-up, easy to maintain the settings, and with a Wood Slicer blade it re-saws well. The vibration should go away using the Andy method noted above. If it does not go away, trouble shooting will be fairly simple by evaluating seperately the motor, the bottom wheel, and then the top wheel.

[John Donhowe]

I have the older Ridgid, which allegedly had vibration problems, and there were several issues/fixes I came across, which may or may not apply to the newer model:

1. motor vibration- motor is mounted on the sheet metal surface- fix is to stiffen surface with a plywood plate. New model looks as though motor is in enclosed cabinet below, so may not be a source of vibration.

2. Out of round wheels- check roundness by looking for lateral blade wobble when turning wheel by hand, or by checking for consistent distance of rim from a fixed point- wheel brush, for example. Mine were okay.

2 Out of balance wheels- remove blade and belt so both wheels can free-wheel with minimal resistance. You may need to back off on the bearing nuts if they're stiff. I balanced on the saw by spinning several times, and making pencil marks on the wheel at 12 o'clock position when the wheel stopped. If the wheel is balanced, marks will be randomly spaced. If out of balance, marks will concentrate at one position- the light side. Some say to drill divots from the heavy side of the rim, which I was reluctant to do, since I felt it was destructive and irreversible. Rather, I looped a few inches of copper electrical wire around the nearest spoke on the light side, and repeated the balancing test spins. I adjusted the wire- snipping off bits or adding, as needed, and then added just a dab of epoxy to keep the wire in place once I got a good balance. If the light spot is between two spokes, ou might need to add a bit of wire to each spoke. It's a tedious process, waiting for the wheel to stop spinning on its own. It took me a few hours, but with music on in the shop, it's relaxing. Others have suggested lead tape as weights- more elegant- I just had the wire on hand.

3. A link belt might help vibration, though I haven't done it, and haven't had any vibration problems.

You can check out the Ridgid forum for other fixes, which might be applicable.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

This guy's mods work. I did it and got my saw to stop vibrating. I also had to drill a lot of metal out of my wheels to balance them. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k0NR2jfsJlw

Another thing is get better tires. The rubber on the wheels will get flat-spotted if left tensioned for a while.

[Justin Edmonds]

Ok, so, new tires and belt. What about the belt Rockler is selling? I think the top wheel is a little off but need to figure out how to check the bottom. I was thinking of some improvements to the hinge on the motor mount. If it wasn't too hard to do, I would add some Brazilian ebony to the bottom side of the stand to reinforce it.

[John Schweikert]

If you are having issues like that with a new bandsaw that came from Home Depot, just return it. It's not your responsibility to repair and improve a new tool. There are far better 14" bandsaws (Grizzly for one) that aren't much more expensive.

[David Delo]

If you are having issues like that with a new bandsaw that came from Home Depot, just return it. It's not your responsibility to repair and improve a new tool. There are far better 14" bandsaws (Grizzly for one) that aren't much more expensive.

Totally agree. I had the older version that I fixed up like others have stated. Only thing was I bought it for $170.00 bucks when HD cleared out that saw a few years ago. so with upgrades had 200 bucks invested. It was a very serviceable saw (for a 14" model) after upgrading it but I did sell it after finding a rarely used griz 0555.

[Justin Edmonds]

I don't know. I got the thing put together without anyone helping me. Couldn't get anyone to even help me get it off the truck, much less set it on the stand. So, I'm kinda determined to see this through.

[Jon Shank]

Mine worked ok out of the box but did have a fair amount of vibration and noise. I put new tires and a link belt on it and that solved it for me, probably 30 bucks and maybe a half hour of time to do. Runs good and is vibration free and quiet for me now. Didn't need to balance the wheels, they were fine. If your using the blade that came with it, that was crap, but I think we all know the blades that come with even much pricier saws are often lousy so I hope that isn't whats causing you problems. I've had really good service from mine so far, hope yours tunes up as well.

Jon

[Buck Williams]

I had the Ridgid saw at one time, I think that the base itself is rather flimsy, when I made a mobile base out of 2 x 4's and fastened the base of the saw to the wooden base. it made a huge difference. That and a link belt made a big difference.