Spent 2 days fighting a bandsaw blade tension issue, turned out to be the wheel bearings

Our shop's old bandsaw kept throwing blades on pork shoulders, and I swore up and down it was the tension dial. Replaced the spring, checked the guides, fiddled with tracking for a full two days before I finally pulled the wheels off. The top wheel bearing was shot, sloppy enough to wobble at speed but fine when you spun it by hand. New bearing cost 18 bucks and took 20 minutes to swap, now it cuts clean. Anyone else ever chase a simple fix while ignoring the obvious wear part?

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1 Comment

jana_scott9d ago

Bearing wobble when spinning by hand is actually pretty easy to miss, had the same thing on a jointer once where it felt fine but had like 1/16" of play under load. Cheap parts always hide behind the annoying stuff, drives me nuts.