Bandsaw Blade Tracking

I have a delta 14" bandsaw with riser blocks. For the last couple of months I couldnt cut a straight line to save my life. Read all the post and couldnt come up with an answer. But I am proud to say I am cutting straight and true now. I did three things. the first was to check the coplane on the wheels. I got these line up like they show. I set the tension on the blade to 11000 lbs its a 1/4 inch. I used the inturra design gage which works very well. I also replaced the runner on the wheels. after that I cut a board and guess what it was as crocked as a dogs hind leg. what was needed to make this work right. I pulled out an old bandsaw book I had and started reading. Bam at one oclock in the morning I saw what I was doing wrong. Even though I did the coplaning as directed I had never been told to check it after you put the tension on the blade. I went down to the workshop and check it under tension and sure enough it was out aout 1/4 inch after the tension was put on the blade. I did the adjustment to bring the wheel back to coplane and it now cuts straight as an arrow. Hope this helps someone else.

Reply to
sdppm
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If you use a wider blade with more tension will you have to adjust again? Or is the biggest difference when the wheels are loaded vs. unloaded?

Reply to
Leon

Did you happen to notice if the blade was tracking in the center of the wheel under tension? That is usually a dead give-away.

Reply to
Swingman

Dead give away for what?

Reply to
arw01

yes you will, once you start checking and use the tension gage its less than a minute to set up. And your running true again

Reply to
sdppm

The blade is now tracking in the center

Reply to
sdppm

Oh, Ok, I was under the impression that you were having to adjust the bottom wheel.

Reply to
Leon

See subject line ...

Reply to
Swingman

Thank you Thank you. I have struggled with the same. I just went and checked mine because I set it without tension and sure enough with a blade and tension it was about 1/4" off. Luckily I only had to pull two roll pins and re-drill some holes to fix the problem. I now have an extra set of holes but it's worth it to have it cut straight.I still have to use a little bit of lead to cut a straight line, but maybe a new set of tires will fix that. Thanks again. It sure makes sense to check it while under tension, but none of the books I read ever said that. Happy Sawdust bc PS I found that once I got it to tension, increasing the tension, as you would with a wider blade, made some minor changes in wheel tilt, but were easily corrected with the adjustment knob.

Reply to
bc

You said you drilled some holes, where and for what????

Reply to
sdppm

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