Slackening of Bandsaw belt?

[Charl]

Got a better and newer bandsaw last weekend. The friend who sold it to me, told me that he always loosen the belt after use. Is that sort of normal practise with bandsaws? My very basic woodwork schooling never mentioned anything like that. With the old one I never did, and also don't want to spend 1/2 hour setting it up every time I want to use it.
Any of you guys that slacken the belt after use?

[taharris]

Do you mean loosen the blade?

I was always told to loosen the blade after each use to extend blade life.

[KurtHuhn]

I say poo to that, and leave the blades tight on both bandsaws all the time. No problems in almost a decade.

[kola]

"Poo" (sometimes spelled pooh) is the KH technical terminolgy used in regards to bandsaw tensioning.

[Boekweg]

I agree with kurt. I have worked in fab shops for over 30 years and have never seen anyone use that practice. Always keep them tight.

[KurtHuhn]

The KH Poo Factor.

[Charl]

Yip, sorry! I meant blade Lost somewhere in Afrikaans/English/Charl translation and I suppose a late night didn't help!
Thanks for the replies!
Another problem I had with it last night, is that the blade runs sort of "helter-skelter", it doesn't run in one plane. If you're facing the table like you would when sawing, the blade seems to run with about 2mm "wobble" from left to right. I thought that it might be that the tension on the blade is too much, or that the tensioner on the fanbelt from the motor might be too tight. Will play around with it tonight and see if I can get a solution.

[geigerpipes]

Carl check this free chapter out it might give you some usefull info:

http://books.google.se/books?id=dL1biU1 ... &q&f=false