Change band brands...change tracking?

[kelLOGg]

I have always used Simonds bands because they came with my mill 12 years ago. Recently, Fat Ole Elf gave me a WM band and when I installed it, it required considerable adjustment to my tracking. (I found the same to be true for a couple of Cooks bands I have). The only difference in the Simonds and others is that the Simonds are 0.042" and have been sharpened several times and so are slightly <1.25" wide. The WM and Cooks are 0.050" and are unused. Why would tracking adjustments be needed?
Bob

[ladylake]

 Maybe more or less tension built in the band, I check the tracking every band change and some of the ones that have been sharpened a lot will track farther ahead than a new one..  Steve

[Chuck White]

I'm kind of surprised that the tracking would change when changing band brands! 

[NMFP]

There would be no reason to need to adjust tracking, unless you changed width of the bands.  If you need to adjust it, there is something else wrong. 

I have numerous customers that own multiple brands of bands and they run them all interchangeably.  The only thing that will change is the setworks in that, when you change thickness from say a .042 to a .055 band, your setworks will be slightly off, but depending if its manual or electronic, it may not matter.

[Magicman]

Maybe your old bands have crowned somewhat and "settled in" ??

I have used/tried different brands and thicknesses and never touched the tracking.

[YellowHammer]

I have used/tried different brands and thicknesses and never touched the tracking.

 
Me too.  Seems odd.
YH

[ely]

on my norwood I have to adjust my tracking when I change blades every once in awhile, and 95% of my bands are cooks, only have a few different bands now.
I attribute that to the fact that some of those bands are about used up... but they still cut well so I still use them.

and I may be speaking out of place here, I only had to adjust my actual tracking twice last year, but I do have to adjust the rollers a lot when I change bands... because the different bands will crowd back too far and rub the guide roller flange or others will be 3/16 to a quarter inch out from the roller flange.

[drobertson]

I have used/tried different brands and thicknesses and never touched the tracking.

 
Me too.  Seems odd.
YH

Another head scratcher for sure,

[backwoods sawyer]

sounds like a depper issue,
When I bought my mill I was adjusting tracking for each saw change, turned out to be a bad set of bearings in the idler arm swing arm pivot point. You can check that when you have the saw off by trying to move the arm in and out 90* to the way it pivots.

Also be consistant with band tension as movment in a bearing that is going bad can change with more or less presure on them.
   

[Driftless]

I have noticed this also.  On my homemade mill I origianly started with belted wheels and never noticed it.  But then I went to steel wheels from cooks and noticed it.  Good bearings, same tension.  Blades tried were Cooks super sharp, Lennox C-Sharp, Simonds red streak and Timberwolf.  Seemed that the cooks rode the furthest back.  So I set up the alignment for that blade and live with the other blade alignment.  Full day of trying blades and adjusting the alignment to get this all figured out.  Just easier to run one blade!

[barbender]

There's no reason it should be different, but I've seen it on my mill. I have been running WM bands, I tried a Simonds recently and had to adjust for it. One difference though, it was slightly longer than my WM bands, that could cause it, I suppose.

[fat olde elf]

The main reason Bob got that WM band from me is that I "won" it and many others at the Pig Roast a while back. Another good reason to attend the Pig Roast.....I got 3 bands from Lennox to evaluate, they were c-sharp. Good performance but they were a lot wider than any other bands I have run. I ended up just running them and sharpening them so I wouldn't need to adjust tracking back to Simonds, cooks SS, regular lennox, and a bunch of others that I seem to have acquired in 12 years of milling.  There are a lot of good bands out there and they have improved over the 12 years. I'm headed back to the Pig Roast and hope to score more bands to irritate the gizzard out of WDH. I only pick on people that I like.......Paul E. Randolph

[ladylake]

on my norwood I have to adjust my tracking when I change blades every once in awhile, and 95% of my bands are cooks, only have a few different bands now.
I attribute that to the fact that some of those bands are about used up... but they still cut well so I still use them.

and I may be speaking out of place here, I only had to adjust my actual tracking twice last year, but I do have to adjust the rollers a lot when I change bands... because the different bands will crowd back too far and rub the guide roller flange or others will be 3/16 to a quarter inch out from the roller flange.

 Maybe some aren't paying close enough attention to how the band is tracking, Ely when you have to adjust the guide rollers back or forth you tracking is changing , on my TK it takes less than a minute to make the band track right with the back of the blade even with the back of the wheel, a lot easier than adjusting both guide rollers.  Keep the flange at 1/4" behind the band as Cooks recommends if you want the best blade life, 1/16 or 1/8 is not enough on higher HP mills, it might be OK on low HP mills that aren't pushed very hard.  Steve

[Dave Shepard]

I have never adjusted the tracking on my mill from the day it was delivered. I only run WM .055" 1.25" bands, so maybe that is why. Simple adjustment to move tracking in and out if needed.

[ladylake]

 
Most times it's a band that has been sharpened 15+ times that wants to track 1/8" too far ahead but I've had different brands brand new that track a little different and no there is nothing wrong with my  mill.   Steve

[hamish]

Most times it's a band that has been sharpened 15+ times that wants to track 1/8" too far ahead but I've had different brands brand new that track a little different and no there is nothing wrong with my  mill.   Steve

The only time I need to adjust my tracking is when going from a well used band or batch of bands to a new set.  Be it the same or different manufacturer.

[5quarter]

Bob, you're running steel wheels, right? Maybe the crown is wearing some. I've seen some small differences in tracking due to wear but not enough to adjust it out.

[kelLOGg]

Bob, you're running steel wheels, right? Maybe the crown is wearing some. I've seen some small differences in tracking due to wear but not enough to adjust it out.

Yes, I am running crowned steel wheels. Driftless noted that, too. Maybe there's more band curvature w/ crowned wheels and MM's comment is consistent with that too. Hmmm.. Cook use to have a rental grinder to resurface crowned wheels, if I remember correctly. Has anyone resurfaced their wheels?
Bob

[ladylake]

 The crown certainly isn't wearing between taking on band off and putting another on.  The fact is that some bands from different company's track a little different.  Most likely going from .042 to .050 makes a difference too. Steve

[5quarter]

Steve...When the crown wears down, you lose some control over the tracking. Blades are not all created equal. some will start riding back on the flange, some might start running forward.