band saw problem

[Doug]

I have a new Grizzly 14 in. bandsaw. It's worked pretty flawlessly until today. I have the stock 3/8 blade on it which again, tracked and cut beautifully despite people's claims to the contrary. Today I was ripping a 3ft. long 4 in. thick piece of oak, and the cut was going perfectly until the last 3 inches of the cut, when all of a sudden, the blad took off the to right. The blade bowed so hard that the cut wandered off about 3/4 of an inch. I reset the guides, checked everything I could think of, but the blade continues to dive to the right as soon as I begin a cut. Any suggestions. Again, this happened very suddenly. Could the blade have warped? Or just become ruined so suddenly? It doesn't seem as the though the blade was stressed/ overheated during the cut.

[Nova]

Is it possible that you hit a nail or other metal object? It sounds like something dulled one side of the blade.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[GerryG]

A nail's a good guess. If not, and as you say everything else checks out, take a good, slow, close look at the blade. Both the teeth, and especially around the weld.

(Did see that happen once, and found the blade on the side of the thrust bearing:-)

GerryG

[bridger]

take a look at the wood where the wander started. sometimes trees trap rocks and nails and such...