EthAnswers Blade Drift myths, Why Bandsaws Should Never Drift!

hey guys I'm Ethan from stockroom supply I got an email from Jim saying how do you adjust for blade drift on the little Ripper a very good question very big answer to that question um short answer is there is no such thing as please drift on the Little River I'm gonna tell you what a lot of guys think right off the bat when they buy a bandsaw blade that blade comes inherently with drift that's not actually the case when you think about the vast majority guys when they're cutting on a bandsaw they're using offence something looks like this right here maybe that was a resaw thing more often than not with them a resaw pen I'm going to take that off so it's a better representation okay so we got our fence when I'm cutting a piece of wood like this this is a little piece of oak here and I want to cut maybe a quarter inch or I want to cut that piece of oak in half I'm going to use my pen just like this now I'm gonna put this into a river and I want you guys to watch something now one thing I will know about this video I'm making right now it's gonna be a little bit controversial because I'm going to be talking about some things that I consider that most would consider common knowledge but I consider a total farce now I am gonna do this video without any editing just so you guys from see I'm not doing any smoking mirrors no nothing I'm not do making this pass I'd do anything it should by faking something so first thing I'm gonna do I'm gonna cut this piece of oak I'm gonna cut a slice off the outside just to true it up then I'm gonna cut a little bit here for them okay my bass I was little underpowered sometimes I gotta give her a couple tries [Music] there [Music] we get this point I want you guys to know this something this is a pretty simple wood but you see how that was opened up here a little bit every piece of wood you to do that to some extent some more than others but that's a very important thing that's a very important piece drift [Music] yeah you guys saw how that would open up there how it's stress when that would stresses when I'm using a fence you can imagine what's going to happen it's gonna push itself into the fence now that piece of wood it's not going to push the fence away imagine more rounding a half inch lace or a creeper twist it's not going to push the fence away it's gonna push itself away from the fence when it pushes itself away from the fence it's going to put side pressure on that bandsaw okay let's call it by negatively when you bind the blade on a table saw you get kickback that's my table saws on the behind the blade here they have a splitter a bandsaw there is no splitter advanced I'm gonna bind the blade I don't get kickback I do something totally different I bend it that's a problem the way a bandsaw blade is designed on the front of the teeth their pen till you have kerf on the front when I put pressure on one side of the blade when I bind the blade on this side I make this side of the blade less sharp that blade it's gonna cut better to the sharp Ridge it's gonna cut better away from the fence now if you pay any attention you'll notice every single time when you're cutting with attention your blade begins to drift you never cuts into the fence it always cuts away from the fence cuz you're making that side dollar okay that's the issue with the fence now here's the other thing that people will say basically what I just said is the exact opposite of whatever maybe seamlessly I just said as long as I put pressure on the front of the teeth as long as I don't bind the plate it doesn't matter what song using what guys I have what blade I have what tension on the blade out how I have a son of the wheels the only thing that matters is I don't bind the blade okay so I'm gonna do some things that are very bad I'm not telling you guys to do them but I want to show you some stuff first things first I want you to look at these guys I've got them set up properly about a business card away from the blade I'm gonna take these right off okay so now I have no guides okay the other thing I notice I have fairly low tension right now just to make it a little bit more interesting I got my tension knob up here I'm gonna lower the tension on my blade now again I'm not telling you to do this I'm just proving a point here now you give a see they're gonna hear you're a little thunk okay the other thing that guys get very excited about is where do i position the bleed on my top wheel here you see I got it in the appropriate spot a lot of guys will tell you to put the body of the blade in the middle a lot of guys will tell you to put the gullet of the teeth in the middle everybody has a different story but everybody agrees with this I agree with this on band so that that wheel is crowned where it's a little round on top if I change the position of that blade on that wheel because it's crowned I actually change the angle of my blade okay here's what they say though if I change the angle of my blade I change the angle on my cut that's not the case on the bandsaw a bandsaw you got to remember the blade is twice as wide on the front approximately than the back table saw seam what from the front in the back if I'm not perfectly parallel or very close to parallel if my table saw blade I'm gonna hit the back I'm gonna burn I'm gonna get a kickback on a bandsaw blade I got a little bit of wiggle room so it really doesn't make a difference so here's what we're going to do I'm gonna turn this big ol knob in the back and then I want you to see where it put that blade there would be absolutely no one that would recommend you put your blade right there I'm hanging right over the back of the wheel there okay now when I demonstrate that little rigging show and do this when I turn the saw and everybody backs away because they're afraid something's gonna blow up just watch what happens this is pretty interesting so as a review I've got no guy on top here I got low tension I've got a 3/8 blade not normally a blade most guys would use Theresa watch how I cut just watch what happens here okay let me make a little little slice off the outside here you see that playin vibrating in there my cut do you tell anything every bit that trans before the other thing I want you to notice when I stop very quiet I leave that there for 10 minutes I'm knocking all the burn mark on the inside of my cut there's no sidewalk career-long straight up and down and right on the front of the beach a lot right there most guys he's pretty happy with that now where I saw right about there you can almost see we're not blade with vibrating in there but there's absolutely no burden much because there was no side pressure here at all so long story short the reason that what a roofer is not drifting the way you setting up for drift is you don't got to do build a squat when you first set this thing up you got line it up to your miter gauge nothing saying that later game is anywhere close to parallel that believe this is close enough doesn't make a difference to saw the guides the blade the tension the setup the only thing that matters is that you don't bind that blade now we know a lot of people are gonna disagree with that but tell me how I'm wrong you have any other questions send me an email I love answering them thank you

Channel: EthAnswers by Stockroom Supply

Views: 237,227

Keywords: Bandsaw Blade, Blade drift, Sawmill, mini sawmill, bandsaw guides, Bandsaw, tension, Bandsaw tire, Drift, hook tooth, skip tooth, set, kerf, logs, resaw, resaw pin, fence, Rikon, resaw fence, bandsaw fence, little ripper, ripper, little ripper sawmill, round ripper, bandsaw drift, bandsaw blade drift, rikon bandsaw, band saw blade drift, cure bandsaw drift, correcting for drift on bandsaw, resawing boards, cutting a straight line with a bandsaw, bandsaw drift adjustment

Id: 4k-r5utmU2Q

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/nottingtons]

People need to watch this video in it's entirety before commenting on it!

Nobody needs to buy the jig, most people can make their own (it's basically a table saw type clamping jig made out of aluminum and shrunk down for use on a bandsaw, it's not complicated) but just watch the complete video.

A lot of old bandsaws didn't have the blade tensioning ability newer saws have, and they were still excellent saws (maybe not the safest, but they did what bandsaws do and cut without drift). That's a sales pitch (not that that's a bad thing, imo).

What the guy is doing in the video is the equivalent of drawing a straight line, close to the edge of a piece of wood (oak I think) and cutting exactly that line without any drift!

He has (and I don't recommend anyone else do it the way he does, just view it) taken almost all the tension off the blade and completely pulled the blade guides away from the blade! Yeah! From that alone, when I first watched it, I thought "Here we go, another guy trying to show the dangers of using a tool the wrong way totally unprepared for when things fail in a way he clearly won't be prepared for!?!?), but it isn't like that and people shouldn't be afraid to just watch the video (and admit it). After that, if you think it's insane (it is) go ahead and post.

[u/wormil]

It's an advertisement. Would be nice to disclose that upfront. Also tell me what problem is being solved without having to watch half the video to find out. edit; and he's hardly the first person to say there is no such thing as bandsaw drift.

[u/Corner-Woodworks]

Wow

[u/TheRiflesSpiral]

Well... he's not wrong.