I forgot to put the blade tension back on my bandsaw...

[GeoffW]

... and I cut the straightest line ever!
No drift.

Maybe I've been cranking the tension too much

 

[Spectric]

Without tension my bandsaw blade just comes off the wheels, no chance of it cutting anything. What machine do you have ?

 

[Teepeg]

Without tension my bandsaw blade just comes off the wheels, no chance of it cutting anything. What machine do you have ?

Yeah same here .. I now have a sign on my B/Saw to remind me before starting the cut ..

 

[GeoffW]

I have a Baileigh bandsaw Spectric.
I detention the machine when not in use, but not completely.
There was enough for the wheels to drive the blade.

 

[Ttrees]

There's seemingly a lot to be said about seeing how the blade behaves whilst
being undertensioned, i.e how much flutter will be present.

If you tried this on a flat tyred machine, and you were playing by the rules,
then the blade would jam into the thrusts very abruptly,
and that's when hand tracked, not under power.

I use a stick of pine to warn me, coz something's not right if there's pine on the table.

 

[baldkev]

I watched a youtube about bandsaw drift. Despite getting it with my old kity, this guy claimed it couldnt happen and was a myth. To 'prove' it, he detensioned his rather big bandsaw and cut a lump of maybe 9" high timber nice and straight.
Ive now hot a startrite and I havent even used it yet ( its been about a year ) so im hoping it doesn't get the same drift issues i had with the kity...

 

[eribaMotters]

The only time I have de-tensioned my bandsaw was when it was on a year long lay up. The rest of the time it is kept under tension as directed in the little window of my Startrite 352E. I have never had blade drift.

Colin