What's my drift?

[Douglas Brummett]

Did my first real cutting on the new bandsaw this weekend. I needed to thin down some 6/4 hard maple for my table aprons. I still don't have a fence, so I just marked the resaw line and tried to stick to it. First thing I noticed was that the stock blade has a major drift angle (probably 20 degrees). I thightened up the tension a bit and adjusted the guide blocks to try to minimize this, but this only marginally improved matters.

What is typical drift on your blades? I can't recall seeing a fence setup more than a couple of degrees out of square with the table. Granted it has been about 15 years since I had any up close time with a bandsaw so my memory may be skewed.

The stock blade is on the way out, I have some Olson blades on order. Other than being a very drifty blade it also leaves very coarse cuts behind. Top that with an off and on squeal while cutting. To it's credit it did resaw the 3" thick wood without any real issue or signs of strain.

[alex grams]

That seems a very extreme drift.

What bandsaw model/make is it? Is it brand new, or just new-to-you?

I never had a drift more than 1-2 degrees when I changed blades and realigned. It sounds like maybe the wheels on top and bottom are out of alignment with one another. Was the blade riding center on both of the wheels?

Course cuts could be a function of the stock blade with the wood you are cutting and maybe a fast feed rate.

Hard to say on the squeal. guide bearing chattering/dragging? The wheels' bearings?

[Lee Schierer]

You didn't mention what width blade you were using. I find I get substantially more drift using narrow blades like 3/16 and 1/4" than I do with my half inch blade.

[Douglas Brummett]

Bandsaw is a Rigid, new, setup coplanar wheels with the blade running on the center of the rubber. I could shim the upper wheel out a little as the blade is slightly tilted front-back, but it isn't much and doesn't effect cut. Guide blocks are in fairly snug, but not dragging. I guess that the one opposing the drift is dragging during cut and could cause the noise.

Blade is the stock one. It is over 1/4", but I don't know if it is 5/16 or 3/8.

My replacement blades are 1/4 general duty and 1/2 for resaw.

From the response I take it that my extreme drift is just that So my recollection is still working wrt fence setups that I have seen. I was just thinking while cutting that my fence would look really silly cocked 15-20 degrees. Fortunately I don't have any other cuts required before the nicer blades get here. Then I can pull this blade. I would toss it, but it could come in handy for dirty work where I don't want to trash nicer blades

[Pete Bradley]

20 degrees would be extreme. The stock blade wasn't worth much to begin with, and a worn one would be worse. First order of business is to replace it and see if you still have an issue.

Pete

[Lee Schierer]

I was just thinking while cutting that my fence would look really silly cocked 15-20 degrees.

Make a resaw adapter for your fence. Most consist of a curved piece that either clamps to your existing fence or replaces the fence, allowing you to angle the wood as required to stay on line.

or

[Douglas Brummett]

20 degrees would be extreme. The stock blade wasn't worth much to begin with, and a worn one would be worse. First order of business is to replace it and see if you still have an issue.

Pete

Working on replacements. Ordered on Friday, should get them this week. I agree, first order for sure.

Lee, since you recommended the resaw adapter maybe you can give me your thoughts on them. Specifically why one would go that route versus adjusting the fence to compensate for the drift. You get a more consistently flat surface using a straight fence. Am I missing something here?

[Jeff Miller]

or

Every time I see that picture I think that guys finger is tooooooo close to the blade but then again maybe it's just a bad camera angle




JEFF

[Lee Schierer]

Every time I see that picture I think that guys finger is tooooooo close to the blade but then again maybe it's just a bad camera angle




JEFF

I'm not as worried about his fingers as it is a band saw doing the cutting and it will take a bit to get through the 1/2" of wood before it gets to his fingers, but why is the upper blade guide so high other than picture clarity?

[Homer Faucett]

Working on replacements. Ordered on Friday, should get them this week. I agree, first order for sure.

Lee, since you recommended the resaw adapter maybe you can give me your thoughts on them. Specifically why one would go that route versus adjusting the fence to compensate for the drift. You get a more consistently flat surface using a straight fence. Am I missing something here?

Doug, I had the same problem with the stock blade on my Powermatic 14" bandsaw. It just would not cut straight when resawing, no matter how hard I tried to adjust for drift, adjust feed rate, etc. When I fed the wood, the blade would dive HARD, and there was no trying to keep it in a straight line.

When I got a new Timberwolf blade put on, that problem went away. I use a flat fence rather than one of those resawing points. I never thought those looked like much fun to use. When the T-wolf/Olson/whatever blade gets dull, be prepared to have a replay of the blade diving on you when you feed it. Good luck!

[Pete Bradley]

I'm not as worried about his fingers as...it will take a bit to get through the 1/2" of wood before it gets to his fingers...

I know what you're saying, but one should never make assumptions like that. One day you get on a different machine, or different band, or the band goes some way you weren't expecting, and you're wondering how the tips of your fingers were gone before you even knew it.

Pete

[Douglas Brummett]

Fair enough Pete. I know I feel a whole lot safer with the bandsaw than my tablesaw and router, but you can rest assured that my fingers won't be anywhere near harms way. I kind of like the little buggers and would like to keep them around.

At this point I am overly cautious on all my machines. I use push sticks and as much safety equipment as possible. My spider sense is always nagging me to keep out of the way of sharp/fast-moving machinery. I even cringe watching a lot of the videos where you see a woodworker passing hands too close and not using push sticks. Does this self preservation sense of mine just fade over time with familiarity with these power tools? Hope not.