Took me 3 weeks to figure out why my band saw blade kept wandering off the wheels

I was chasing this issue for almost a month on my old Hobart saw. New blade, new guides, checked tension like ten times. Turned out the rubber tires had glazed over from years of built up fat and grease. Had to take a wire brush to them real good and then scuff them with 80 grit sandpaper before it tracked straight again. Anyone else ever waste that long on something that simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

adams.vera29d ago

Heard an old machinist say once that if your blade is wandering, look at the drive tires first before anything else. Saves a ton of headache. I guess it makes sense though, the rubber gets hard and shiny over time and just doesn't grip the blade right anymore. A guy on another forum said he even cleaned his with brake cleaner first before sanding to get all the oil out of the rubber pores. After that he'd run the blade at low speed for a couple minutes to sort of break the tires in again like new ones.

uma_nguyen2428d ago

Oh man, that's actually a really good point about the brake cleaner! I never would have thought of that but it makes total sense because those tires pick up all kinds of crud over time. But here's the thing I'm wondering, have you ever tried just roughing them up with like a 80 grit sandpaper instead of the whole brake cleaner routine? Seems like that would be quicker but maybe I'm missing something about the oil being trapped in there. Also does the brake cleaner mess with the rubber at all or does it dry out and crack over time?