Band saw tracking

[Jacob Haiduk]

So I recently purchased A Laguna 24x24 bandsaw and have found it to be a little finicky when switching bands. I admit i am no authority but owned a Laguna 18 Se for 15 yrs with no problems or concerns . The issue I am having is on smaller bands 1/4" it will not stay on the wheels once the saw hits full speed . Even with wider bands there is a sweet spot that if it was not seated there from the beginning the blade surges while running. My initial thought is a crowned wheel . The saw has plenty of power and resaws like a dream . The resaw king blade cuts well but I will not be replacing it when it has run out of life. Any thought would be greatly appreciated.

A follow up to a previous post: the trunnion on the saw had a tremendous amount of play in it out of the box. Based on the cantilever of cast table there was alot of play. Laguna was great with customer service and replaced the trunnion with a traditional bolting configuration vs the new rack and pinion design that had the excessive play at no cost to me . All in all very satisfied providing I can get a 1/4" band to run .

[John TenEyck]

I would call Laguna and ask their opinion/recommendations. Blades shouldn't "surge", and they definitely shouldn't run off the wheels if it tracks OK by hand. Are you sure you have tension on the blade? I forgot to tension mine once. The blade didn't run off the wheels, fortunately.

John

[Jacob Haiduk]

Thanks John for your thoughts, the blade was tensioned . In talking with tech from Laguna he questioned tension as well and suggested more tension than it had been set at. Can someone describe what an appropriate crown on the wheel should be , currently mine seems high and abrupt vs sweeping .

[Jacob Haiduk]

So how much fine tuning is needed when switching bands not talking about guides just pitching of wheels ? Does your bandsaw require any tweaking when changing a 1 1/4" blade to a 1/4" ... with my previous saw it was minimal if any ,but currently there seems to be a drastic difference any thoughts why?

[Tom Trees]

Can someone describe what an appropriate crown on the wheel should be .

I had some trouble getting my saw to track with wider blades as there was a huge crown on the bottom wheel ...
Infact it actually started off as a reverse crown from the blade eating the tires and the edge of the tire was really chewed up in spots
and needed to be trued... but Ive still ended up with a significant crown .
On a fine 1/2" blade it was no problems there, but with 3/4" 3TPI blade and 1" similar blades my blade moves towards and away from the thrust
bearing .
I can't say if having an ever so slight camber would make it possible to run narrow blades because I'm nearly down to the metal on the lower wheel .
I will say this ...that I experienced unforeseen blade twisting and refusal to cut, during my tire fettling and was at a loss to figure out what was the problem !
I could not identify what was wrong ...maybe it would be obvious now with sawdust blade pattern being on the tires now.
That's the problem with too many variables ... what a nightmare
tire flattening the lower wheel,adjustments to the jacking bolts ,try again ,adjust top wheel ,adjustments adjustments adjustments .
and doing something foolish in despair, at the time when you've tried everything else .

If I was to do it again id get a 1/2" blade and get it running as best I could without doing something that could not be undone .
For me this was learning that if you can get a narrow blade to track ...a wider blade will track with that adjustment the same
( This is in relation to the bottom wheel adjustment bolts )
So at least I found out that the shaft was true
Now to figure out how wide a blade I can handle with the remaining rubber that's left ..can i get it less cambered and use that 1" blade i have ...

Basically There's a lot that can go wrong and I would not camber those tires
But I might try adjusting the lower wheel if I were you
Obviously hand cranking the wheel ,and running your small blade under just enough tension as to not warp the blade .
Because you would never be sure if your blade was twisted and chase your tail .
You can never be sure anyway as blade welding mishaps happen all the time
Good luck
Tom

[John TenEyck]

If you are concerned about the crown being too much why not take a picture of it or make a template of it and send it to Laguna and find out their opinion. I have no clue how much crown their should be on your saw, but on both my saws (Delta 14" and 17" Grizzly 0636X) the crown is gently with no abrupt changes.

I've only ever run a 3/4" and 1" blade on the 17" saw; I only needed to tweak the upper wheel to get the 1" to track in the center of the wheels when I changed from the stock 3/4" blade it came with. On the Delta I go from 1/4" to 1/2" w/o major adjustment, but some is required. I'm just guessing, but maybe your frame is flexing a lot when you run the 1-1/4" blade on it if you are using a lot of tension. If so, when you switch to the 1/4" blade, which requires a lot less force for the same tension, the frame would be in a very different position which could require a lot of adjustment of the top wheel. Do your side blade guides stay in alignment as you raise/lower them when you switch from one blade to the other or do you have to readjust them to some new normal? If you are having to adjust them, my guess of frame flexing would have merit.

John