Does anyone have any experience setting drift on a Laguna 14/12 bandsaw? Any advice you could help me with, thanks. Jonny
Setting drift on a Laguna 14/12
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It's been said that the lingo this guy uses is wrong, that his knowledge of physics/engineering/mechanics is wrong (and some of it is) but I've never actually heard anyone say the way he sets up a bandsaw is wrong. I started to do it the same way he does and I've never had drift since. I do this with 1/8" and 1/4" blades on my 10" saw and a 1" blade on my 17" saw. I do cuts in 1/4" material all the way up to resawing 14" pieces. Just be very patient and particular about your set up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU
I can not provide you with specific instructions for setting a compensation drift angle for your specific bandsaw, but with most any bandsaw you will have two alternatives for dealing with drift...either setting up your fence to accommodate for drift or to eliminate the drift itself. Either will achieve the same end result of a straight cut, but I tend to prefer eliminating the source of the drift and avoiding drift angle adjustments altogether.
Provided that your table and wheels are coplanar and square to one another so that the blade is properly squared with the table then it helps to realize that drift is not intrinsic to bandsaws but, rather, is a function of how the blade was manufactured and is sopecific to each blade. If you are willing to sacrifice a little bit in turn radius with your blade (a good portion of which can be restored with another touch up to the blade that also reduces breakage) then you can address the source of drift. The actual drift comes from how the blade teeth and band were originally punched or ground from the original sheet metal. The result are burrs that get left on one side of the blade but not the other causing the board you are feeding to drag a bit to hat one side versus the either, creating the actual drift. Unevenness in tooth set, if greater to one side than the other, can also contribute, but it is mostly the burrs that account for drift.
To address the source of drift you will want an old oilstone of about fine or medium coarseness (I do not recommend waterstones as they are too soft). You can use the oilstone wet (soaked with mineral oil) or dry, your choice, but be sure to clean any sawdust from anywhere in the vicinity of the throat plate and lower guide bearings to ensure that sparks from grinding do not set fire to the sawdust. The first step is to remove burrs from the side of the teeth and even up the set of the teeth. To do so, carefully hold the stone parallel to the blade and then *manually* rotate the blade in reverse so as to safely drag the teeth along the stone while applying light pressure against the blade. Continue doing this for 3-4 passes of the blade (it is easiest to count the revolutions by counting how many times the weld joint has passed). This action does reduce tooth set a bit, as well as removing burrs, so turn radius gets reduced a bit, but it greatly reduces, or eliminates, drift and also results in much smoother cuts since tooth set has been evened up considerably. To restore some of the lost turn radius and reduce the risk of blade breakage you then want to grind a radius on the rear of the blade band, eliminating the sharp corners from which microfracturees tend to propagate. This part can be done either under power or by manual rotation of the blade (I prefer under power, but that is a personal choice, and takes a little longer than the first step since we are removing more metal and reshaping the rear of the band. Carefully use the oilstone to first remove the corners (I like to hold it at a 45-deg angle) then carefully round the corners to create a smoother radius, taking great care not to catch the teeth with the oilstone. When finished, some of the lost turn radius in step one will be restored since the corners have now been removed from the rear of the blade and you will greatly reduce the risk of premature blade breakage. You will want to periodically redo this last step from time to time if you use the blade for resawing or other heavy work as the forces during resawing can flatten the back of the blade over time from the pressure against the rear guide bearing surface. If you still have tooth set after this then repeat the first step one more time (I would stop after a second attempt as you do not want to remove too much tooth set, but how many passes is more a function of how coarse your oilstone is, finer stones will need more passes than coarser stones).
Just be very aware of where your hands are relative to the blade teeth at all times to ensure your body remains well clear of the blade. If you need greater separation for comfort you can use a piece of wood to create a paddle by gluing the oilstone to the paddle (epoxy works well). If any operation with any tool makes you uncomfortable then that is usually a sign that you should consider another approach -- if something makes you nervous then you should listen to that inner voice. Done carefully and with attention the above can be accomplished with about the same degree of safety as normal cutting operations on a bandsaw so long as your oilstone, or paddle, are not too small so you have a safe hold of it and you mind where the teeth are relative to your hands at all times. Practice your moves with the bandsaw unpowered initially. As always, wear safety glasses.
The other option, of course, is to set a drift compensation angle for your fence, but the above only takes a few minutes for each new blade once you have done so once or twice and is my preferred approach as it avoids having to change drift angles with each blade change since the exact drift angle needed is specific to each blade.
Provided that your table and wheels are coplanar and square to one another so that the blade is properly squared with the table then it helps to realize that drift is not intrinsic to bandsaws but, rather, is a function of how the blade was manufactured and is sopecific to each blade. If you are willing to sacrifice a little bit in turn radius with your blade (a good portion of which can be restored with another touch up to the blade that also reduces breakage) then you can address the source of drift. The actual drift comes from how the blade teeth and band were originally punched or ground from the original sheet metal. The result are burrs that get left on one side of the blade but not the other causing the board you are feeding to drag a bit to hat one side versus the either, creating the actual drift. Unevenness in tooth set, if greater to one side than the other, can also contribute, but it is mostly the burrs that account for drift.
To address the source of drift you will want an old oilstone of about fine or medium coarseness (I do not recommend waterstones as they are too soft). You can use the oilstone wet (soaked with mineral oil) or dry, your choice, but be sure to clean any sawdust from anywhere in the vicinity of the throat plate and lower guide bearings to ensure that sparks from grinding do not set fire to the sawdust. The first step is to remove burrs from the side of the teeth and even up the set of the teeth. To do so, carefully hold the stone parallel to the blade and then *manually* rotate the blade in reverse so as to safely drag the teeth along the stone while applying light pressure against the blade. Continue doing this for 3-4 passes of the blade (it is easiest to count the revolutions by counting how many times the weld joint has passed). This action does reduce tooth set a bit, as well as removing burrs, so turn radius gets reduced a bit, but it greatly reduces, or eliminates, drift and also results in much smoother cuts since tooth set has been evened up considerably. To restore some of the lost turn radius and reduce the risk of blade breakage you then want to grind a radius on the rear of the blade band, eliminating the sharp corners from which microfracturees tend to propagate. This part can be done either under power or by manual rotation of the blade (I prefer under power, but that is a personal choice, and takes a little longer than the first step since we are removing more metal and reshaping the rear of the band. Carefully use the oilstone to first remove the corners (I like to hold it at a 45-deg angle) then carefully round the corners to create a smoother radius, taking great care not to catch the teeth with the oilstone. When finished, some of the lost turn radius in step one will be restored since the corners have now been removed from the rear of the blade and you will greatly reduce the risk of premature blade breakage. You will want to periodically redo this last step from time to time if you use the blade for resawing or other heavy work as the forces during resawing can flatten the back of the blade over time from the pressure against the rear guide bearing surface. If you still have tooth set after this then repeat the first step one more time (I would stop after a second attempt as you do not want to remove too much tooth set, but how many passes is more a function of how coarse your oilstone is, finer stones will need more passes than coarser stones).
Just be very aware of where your hands are relative to the blade teeth at all times to ensure your body remains well clear of the blade. If you need greater separation for comfort you can use a piece of wood to create a paddle by gluing the oilstone to the paddle (epoxy works well). If any operation with any tool makes you uncomfortable then that is usually a sign that you should consider another approach -- if something makes you nervous then you should listen to that inner voice. Done carefully and with attention the above can be accomplished with about the same degree of safety as normal cutting operations on a bandsaw so long as your oilstone, or paddle, are not too small so you have a safe hold of it and you mind where the teeth are relative to your hands at all times. Practice your moves with the bandsaw unpowered initially. As always, wear safety glasses.
The other option, of course, is to set a drift compensation angle for your fence, but the above only takes a few minutes for each new blade once you have done so once or twice and is my preferred approach as it avoids having to change drift angles with each blade change since the exact drift angle needed is specific to each blade.
I would highly recommend the bandsaw videos from Workshop Essentials. They fully cover setting up the bandsaw including tuning out as much of the drift as possible. In many cases it is possible to get rid of all the drift. That is worth doing because then a miter gauge is useful as well as various jigs that can run against the fence. In addition, he's got some excellent jigs detailed and includes plans for them. One of them is his bandsaw tenon jig.
[video=youtube;w4WdkYNNGI0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4WdkYNNGI0[/video]
[video=youtube;w4WdkYNNGI0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4WdkYNNGI0[/video]
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