OK, I also have a Ridgid 14" BS and have few problems. Mine is was made in
St. Louis by Emerson, not overseas. It has a LIFETIME warranty, and I have
had the wheels and tires replaced without any hesitation by Ridgid. It does
not drift hardly at all. Blade guides are fine. Vibration is minima. Using
Timberwolf low tension blades.

Improvements I would and will get:
1) change existing rubber tires to neoprene
2) replace belt with linktwist belt.

That being said, I do not buy Ridgid now that the lifetime warranty has been
reduced, and now that mfring has been sent overseas. Too many other reliable
brands around.


"PC Gameplayer" wrote in message
om...
I just got the Ridgid 14" bandsaw and set it up a couple weeks ago.
It all went together nice, and then I wanted to test it out. I took a
couple scraps of wood (no thicker than 3/4"), put a spare miter gauge
into the slot, and tried running the wood through. I expected that
the cut would be more or less perpendicular to the back side of the
wood (where it rides on the miter gauge), but no dice. The cut "veers
off" or "drifts". If I drew a straight line across the wood in the
direction where I was making the cut, I could start out on the line at
the beginning of the cut, then I'd end up about 1/2" or more (on a 3"
wide piece of wood) above the line. Sorry if I'm over-explaining, but
does this make sense?

I checked the blade tension according to the instructions. I also
DAGS, but the only things I could find blade drift were either old
blades (this is a brand spankin new machine) or resawing (which I'm
not doing). Is it just the blade tension, and is there a better way
to gauge it than just looking on the tension indicator on the back of
the machine?

Any help y'all could give would be appreciated...

Jim