How To Reduce Bandsaw Vibration - *BONUS* Adjusting for Blade Drift 

I hope that works for you!

Thanks Junior! I agree with you on the over-talking thing! I hate listening to myself talk so I tend to edit my videos down as much as possible. Most projects are first cut together at close to 20 minutes! Then I go through and start hacking out things that aren't necessary. My goal is to make things as short as possible without skipping anything important.

Great, I'm glad you got some use out of it!

It's not perfect, but it definitely makes things better with very little effort.

Well thank you! I'm glad I could help you out.

Thanks

You're welcome!

I was just thinking the same thing. He is direct and explains why he does what he does. It helps me learn instead of leaving me with more questions.

It's worth passing if it wasn't almost free. Even if all of the symptoms his showed were present you can still have issues that aren't present in his saw. Best bet is to move on and spend that money on a used one that doesn't present the problems.

I think Miguel makes a good point. If it was really cheap it could be worth a try. At the very least I'm sure you could have improved it and gotten your money back out of it if you weren't satisfied. My saw was a hand-me-down and I spent about $65 for the parts to make it run smoothly. I got lucky.

Yeah I agree with Miguel. I think I made the right choice. You can see a brief pic of it in my latest video (5 new hand planes) but it wasn't until I got up close that I started to see things I didn't like. But it's sure nice to know where to look in order to improve the vibrations in my current saw. I knew about the vbelt versus link belt improvement because I did that on my table saw but changing the tires is all brand new info for me. Thanks for the vid!

Fisher's Shop

You never know what it was, however the v belts can put a serious amount of vibration in things. My jointer I got shook the entire shop! On a cement slab! The worst was when I turned it off, as it spun down. I'm sure it would have torn up the bearings fairly quickly. This was a new jointer that had sat for 10 years without ever being turned on. I tried a link belt, and within 20 minutes it was twisting and tearing itself up. I ended up getting a new v belt, and the vibration is much better (a bit more vibration than the link belt though).

I'm glad you found it helpful!

I'm glad you found it helpful!

Well thanks Scott! It certainly made my bandsaw more more fun to use!

I'm glad I could help! Let me know how it goes for you.

Let me know how it turns out!

I hope you try these out and let me know if they made a difference for you!

I'm glad you found it helpful!

Thanks Mikkel! I hope you get yours all sorted out.

I'm glad I could help. You'll have to let me know if it works for you!

Thanks for the feedback Martin! I can see how a new heavy base would make a big difference.

Thanks Paul!

OLD?...that very saw is the newest machine in my shop.....lol.

Thanks Jeff.

Make sure your blade guide pads, top and bottom, are still good. I just had to replace all four of mine. When they start to get funky your blade will drift all over the place. Great saw otherwise.

Thank you very much!

That's a great tip! I've always meant to go back and ballance the wheels on mine, but it's worked well enough since this video that I keep putting it off.

Screws & tape....they make sheet lead that you could wrap and pound very similar to balancing a car rim

I did a test between each step for my own piece of mind and it seemed like the tires and the belt both split about half the credit for removing the vibration.

oxwilder and how long did it take you to work that out!!!

Man, that is a pile of good advice! Thank you. I believe that opens up a bit of a debate though, for a cheap (or in my case free) saw, how much money is it worth dumping into improvements? Is it better to just spend that money on a better saw. Or do the "better" saws have the same problems?

well there are several ways to approach this: the first is, if you have the knowledge, skills and tools but most of all the *time* to take a cheap piece of junk and make it into something useful then getting a cheap machine makes good sense. if however you're a stickler for quality of your own product and the tools you possess then it of course it doesn't. now you got into your saw as a hand-me-down and so the initial acquisition was essentially zero to you, now you have gone and done several upgrades, so the money you have into the upgrades is essentially what your initial cost is. your saw is worth about 200 to 300 on the open market based on condition. so if you spend 200 on parts and don't count your labor then you can reasonably expect to recoup your initial investment. if however you're doing this as a business it becomes essential to monetize your time and count it towards the equity value of the machine. so if you have to sink 10 hours @ 15/hr you're already past the threshold when parts are factored in. but then as a pro you have a different equity schedule you'll be working off of when it comes to lines of credit as you will over-valuating the machinery to the bank in order leverage the highest line of credit. but that's a whole other kettle of fish... so the bottom line here is if you envision selling the machine later on don't spend any more on parts and machine that would put you over the going market price. breakeven is good, making a profit is gravy most guys and gals tinkering around in their home shop simply don't have the money to dedicate to buying top quality machinery. however you can get into quality machines if you have access to the internet and watch local and national auctions. i have gotten into my entire collection of machinery thru ebay and have built probably anywhere between 25000 and 40000 in equity on less than a 5000 initial investment because i used certain strategies. also, buying a worn out name brand machine and restoring it can build enormous equity if you play your cards right. the other aspect is that often times older machines out of german or US manufacture are better running machines even in a worn out state than factory new chinese and taiwanese machines. i can't begin to recount how many times i have experienced this.. now when you do get into a cheap machine and do all the upgrades that make it a decent running machine, be aware that the improvements will not be reflected in a resale price as used machines will only fetch what the market can bear. it's the old adage of polishing a turd... my dad always said "if you're gonna have equipment you need to know how to work on it and have the tools do so" most people lack the knowledge of how to work on their equipment and kinda fudge their way thru it and with this wonderful resource of youtube they can quickly expand their knowledge base by looking for theme or machine specific advice. to your second question: no, decent (expensive) saws generally don't have those issues. band saws from sweden and germany that are delivered "ready to run" are exactly that. that's why you're paying a premium price. sadly many german manufacturers have outsourced their production to china (like the brand Optimum) and so you're back to square one if you buy an outsourced machine. the only advantage you have is that the seller has to honor the warranty, and there *WILL* be warranty issues. the one point i cannot stress enough, and i harped on it ad nauseum in my video review of the festool jigsaw is: *don't skimp on blades* you will not get a $10 cut from a 50 cent blade. buy the best blades you can possibly afford even if it hurts a little. the higher price will more than repay you in longer service life and quality of cut. and again, watch where your tooling comes from. chinese stuff looks really good until you stick a dial indicator on it or a micrometer and start measuring. the machine is only the implement running the tool. if the tool isn't worth a shit from the onset you will never get a satisfactory result no matter how good of a machine you might have so spend the bulk of your money on good quality blades...

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Dude, your a man after my own heart. Finally someone else who actually knows what the hell they are talking about. Fist bump. There is NOTHING sexier than a finely tuned bandsaw. Smooth, quiet and hums like a sewing machine. Most guys dont even begin to know what a good bandsaw is like to run. What saw you got ?

Love the straight shooting advice and as a weekend warrior I have gotten some less than stellar performance from my old 14" Delta with a riser installed. I have to have mine on casters as I have to move it into place when I need to cut longer pieces, I have already build a heavier base with a shelf and drawer. I have added a "ton" of weight by adding old horse shoes and RR track spikes. My next purchase will be better bearings. I have had two seize up already. Do you have any thoughts on the Carter bearing series? As to the tip of the better blades, could you recommend any specific brand? I get that the better ones will cost more but what do I look for that makes them better? Thanks Pat