Balance Your Bandsaw Wheels

An out-of-balance bandsaw wheel, whether upper or lower, can cause you problems in a number of areas. First, it can produce excessive wear and tear on the machine, as the vibration can loosen bolts, transmit to the motor, and cause accelerated deterioration of important items such as bearings and tires. Also, the vibrating bandsaw wheel can negatively affect cut quality, and produce a surface that requires excessive amounts of sanding or planing. And finally, if a bandsaw wheel is dramatically out of balance it can become a safety factor, as the performance and behavior of the tool become unpredictable.

Learning how to identify and address a vibration problem on a bandsaw wheel is important and a powerful addition to your knowledge base as you establish the capability to service and maintain your arsenal of woodworking tools.

Determine whether your bandsaw wheel is out of balance.

If you are interested in bandsaw tips, this is a simple and fundamentally important one. George provides a simple, low-tech way to identify the heavy side of your bandsaw wheel. You’ll run the test a number of times, and watch for a pattern that will indicate the severity of the problem. Once you are confident that you have the location of the heavy point on the wheel identified, you will move into “fix it” mode.

Remedy the situation.

After the heavy side is identified, you’ll simply offset that by applying weights to the other side, retesting and repeating until you have a wheel that is balanced.

Repeat on the other wheel.

Once you have balanced one wheel, repeat the procedure on the other for maximum benefit.

K and L Quickstick Wheel Weights – Amazon.com

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