Band saw issues.

[EwokArcher]

Hey guys How's it going, I've had my rigid 1hp 14 inch bandsaw for about 10 years, got it at a garage sale from a taxidermist for 100$. It cleaned up well and has served me great through a ton of abuse and poor maintainance in my time with self bows. Now that I'm doing fg bows the sloppy cuts aren't passable.
I've replaced tires, all my missing bolet's,the control arms, the screw tensioner thing.
I built a fence for it so I could try resawing maple lams and have had 0 success . I can get no more than an inch into a cut before it starts veering off to the outside. This is using a newer 8tpi .5 inch blade.
I am looking for tips on tuning and also blade recommendation. I have a hardware shop that can do custom blades and they said they can make me a 93.5 x.75 x3tpi blade for 25$.
What do you think? I appreciate your input.
Ty

[Robertfishes]

There should be good videos on YouTube. What are you using for guides?

[EwokArcher]

I am using those cool guide blocks, they were originally steel very worn out over the years

[kennym]

On down the page under grizzly bandsaws (I think) macbow posted a link on tuning.

[fujimo]

is your blade tension tight enough?

there are two way to track your saw so that it runs parallel to your fence.
1. set you blade up so it is running like you want- then take a scrap of plywood say 8' square- draw a pencil line parallel to one good edge. start cutting the ply on the line- when about half way - with a nice straight cut- hold the wood in position- i uded to clamp it in position- then adjust the fence to match the good side of the ply.
2.keep adjusting your tracking until it is cutting // to the fence- sometimes the blade may have to be a bit off center on the top tire to achieve this.

the way guides should be set up- this is how we do it on bigger commercial type band resaws- top guides can be bearings- bottom guides blocks- reason being that if sawdust drops down between the bearings and the blade- it can start to damage things. your inside guide( throat side) should be set to be just touching the blade- now on a lot of commercial saws- these are cooled- heat being the no.1 enemy of bandsaw blades. i dont use coolant- so i have the guide just touching ever so slightly- kind of like a "cow catcher" this does 2 things- it scrapes the blade clean- and in turn keeps the tires clean of any pitchy oily material you might be cutting- but also prevents blade deviation- outside guides can be say, a business card thickness clearance.

on big re -saws they allow only 3/16 deflection between guides, on the blade- pushing it with your finger from the outside towards the throat.

if it is always veering, is the set on the teeth equal- has the blade on the one side run up against any metal etc- like the throat on the table- that will reduce set on one side- and cause the blade to veer in that direction.- or the teeth could be contacting with the steel part of the wheel( either wheel) changing the set- some  wheels can have a little metal lip on either side- to keep the tire from running off.

best thing we ever did with a fabric cutting bandsaw we used, was took the silly rubber tyres off- sent the wheels in, had them vulcanize the rubber on, and crown it accordingly.- ran that saw for 20 years in a factory never a days problem- 10 years later the new owners are still running it daily- no problems.

hope that helps some!

[scrub-buster]

Those Rigid band saws are known for the blade tensioning unit to break.  They are made out of low quality pot metal.  Check it out very closely.  

That price seems high for a blade.  I buy Olson blades for my 14" saw on the big auction site for $12-14 each.

[macbow]

Agree on the blade price. Even the Kerfmasters are,less.

fujimo has some good advice there... I like using a 3/4" blade for milling and making straight cuts... Make sure you have enough blade tension...
    I have the same saw... It used to vibrate a lot...  If you want her to run super smooth balance your wheels... I used some 6 gauge copper wire and wrapped it around one of the spokes...  Put a piece of 3/4" plywood between the saw and stand to have a solid and less flimsy base... Install urethane wheels... Its a must... And use a link belt instead of a V-belt...  If you do all those things she'll run like a sewing machine...

[EwokArcher]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I'll do some work on it this weekend.

[Pago]

I have been using the method displayed in the video below with great success.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I had a rigid about the same year, It wouldn't cut straight and I am very experienced with saws.

The wheels were out of alignment so it wouldn't track. I had it to warranty repair twice, they couldn't fix it. The casting for the saw was way off and cast out of alignment.

Rigid sent me another saw that was missing 1/3 of the parts. I gave it to my brother in the box not knowing about the missing parts. Rigid would send him parts but they may or may not be what he requested.

I bought a Griz and gave up on Rigid saws.

LOL...   Eric... I bet you just love that company...   That crap sucks...  Us craftsmen should form an organization like the NRA so we may have some say or power over the crap we have to deal with...

[EwokArcher]

I ordered a new 3 tpi x .5 olson blade and I am getting a ton of great info from that video. I'll update yall on my progress when I get to try it all out. I did just see a grizzly 14 inch on Craigslist for 500$. Getting a drum sander comes first though.

[Wagstaff]

Originally posted by Pago:
I have been using the method displayed in the video below with great success.

   

Watch this video.. Bookmark it and watch it whenever you change blades, and set up your fence for blade tracking..

I was frustrated with my veneer cuts until I finally set up my fence correctly..  Now its a breeze.

[macbow]

That is the video I use. Everyone with a band saw should watch it.

[Roy from Pa]

I've watched that video and set my saw up according to it. My saw has never cut so straight since doing that.

Here are some cool tips that I just came across...