Ridgid Band Saw Vibration

I sent this e-mail to a fellow woodworker, but thought it might be of some use to others who have had the same problem with their Ridgid Band Saw.

Well, last night I went home and couldn’t wait to test out what suggestions I learned from some of the guys. Here’s what I did.

• Removed the blade & spun the wheels. I noticed they returned to the same position each time; even when only turning them 1/4 turn. I marked the location of the spot and thought, “this thing is not smarter than me. There’s got to be a simple way of balancing this wheel. I found some fender washers and for the top wheel I used industrial double back tape to tape it on the opposite side of the top wheel. Then I wrapped the washer with some metal tape I had laying around. That solidified it into place.

For the bottom flywheel I found it required 2 washers. Went through the same proceedure of double back tape and wrapped some metal tape around them to attach them to the lower flywheel.

I put the blade back on and waited for the moment of truth as I flipped the switch on. Much to my surprise, ALL THE VIBRATION WAS GONE!!!!! It ran smooth and I stood there in amazement with my finger on the table of the saw sensing a quiet hum and no vibration.

Oh, one other thing I did was to replace the plywood spacer between the motor and saw with a 1/4 inch hard rubber floor mat trimmed to fit the stand.

If you’d like, I can take some pictures of my mechanical genius and e-mail them to you. I hope this information works for you.

-- GrandpaD, Painesville, Ohio - demcvickersr@hotmail.com