Bandsaw Shake

[Jim Ebert]

It almost looks like one or both of the wheels are out of round. As the saw comes to a stop you can see where the blade and guides seem to move in and out a consistent rate in proportion to the speed of the wheels.
Jim

[Jim Ball]

It almost looks like one or both of the wheels are out of round. As the saw comes to a stop you can see where the blade and guides seem to move in and out a consistent rate in proportion to the speed of the wheels.
Jim

I saw that, and it appears to be poor castings. The outer machined rim seems to be concentric and true though. I've done a lot of research online, and this particular bandsaw has a bad reputation for vibration.

[ken cierp]

Have you contacted Rigid? There may be some sort of settlement if this is a known un-fixable problem.

[Jim Ball]

Have you contacted Rigid? There may be some sort of settlement if this is a known un-fixable problem.

I haven't found anything anywhere that suggests Ridgid acknowledges the problem. I dug out my dial indicator and checked runout on the wheels under tension - measuring on the blade itself on the upper wheel and directly on the tire on the lower wheel. The upper wheel has .006" of runout and the lower wheel has .015" of runout. The upper wheel isn't too bad, but .015" on the lower is probably enough to introduce some gallop in things.



I also learned that I was checking coplanar wrong. I was checking with the blade off. The lower wheel needs shimmed about .090" I have some shim washers for 3/4" shafts, but I need a special shim that has no more than 1.00" OD to avoid rubbing on the ball bearing's plastic shield. I've got a pkg on order from McMaster-Carr.

[ken cierp]

Jim what I am suggesting is that you email them with the issue and send the video as an attachment -- I deal with the tech supports for many companies and they are always helpful.

[Jim Ball]

Jim what I am suggesting is that you email them with the issue and send the video as an attachment -- I deal with the tech supports for many companies and they are always helpful.

I doubt that they will offer me free replacement wheels, considering I purchased the bandsaw in 2009. A new pair of Ridgid wheels is about $150.00 and I run the chance of getting something no better than I have. I'm trying to find out if any of the Grizzly 14" wheels will fit. I know that many of the other parts on the Ridgid can be replaced with Grizzly parts.

[Jim Ball]

I do not think I need new wheels. I sanded the tire on the lower wheel until it was within .004-.005 thousands of being true. That eliminated almost all the remaining vibration. The bandsaw will now "almost" pass the nickel test. A nickel will stay on edge for a few seconds before toppling. During all this, I tracked an intermittent noise down to one of the lower bearings. I removed the lower shaft and pulled the lower bearings. The outer bearing has a rattle to it when shaken, so it's about to fail. New bearings are on order, along with some shoulder washers to space the lower wheel out enough to get the blade tracking in the center of the lower tire and bring it into being coplanar with the upper wheel.

I think, once it is all back together, that a little more work sanding the tires and fine tuning the wheel balance will solve my vibration issues.