BandSaws and Re-sawing

[Jim Murphy]

With two threads currently active on bandsaw setup and blades, I'd like to offer the following. No brag, just fact.

Over the last weekend, I spent a half hour tuning up my Rikon 10-345. It has a nearly new TimberWolf ½" 5TPI blade. I'm not sure what note the blade makes when plucked, as I am tone deaf. I never could get the "flutter" thing to work, so I just tension the blade until it feels right, and with my limited experience, that's sort of a WAG.

So, after reading the bandsaw threads, this afternoon I decided to do some veneer-type resaw and see how well it worked. I used a piece of cherry that was a firewood pile rescue that had spent over a year in the shop. Earlier, I had jointed one face and one edge. The board was 5" wide and about an inch thick.

The first slice I took merely cleaned up the ragged face. The second slice was somewhat thick, and the third slice was significantly thinner.

Results: On the thicker slice, it started out at 0.12, skinnied down to 0.10 in the middle and was 0.13 at the other end. The thinner slice was 0.04 at the start, 0.03 in the middle and 0.06 at the other end. Each edge compared with the adjacent edge within 0.01".

I did not take any special care, did not use a featherboard, used the factory Rikon fence with an MDF adjunct, and just slid the board through. No attempt to compensate or adjust for blade drift, just shoved it on through the blade.

I don't know if these results are normal, exceptional or horrible. It's just what the saw provided. If anyone else has performed a similar experiment, it might be interesting if you post your results. As always, YMMV.

 

[Woodman2k]

Jim,
well this may not be the response you were looking for but I ordered the same saw at the Charlotte Show and while its backordered till April 15th I sure am glad:rotflm: to hear the results of your trial cuts.I was hoping that it would be a good performer:icon_chee and I imagine with a little tweaking you will even improve on thoseresults.Do you plan on trying any other blade types?Looking forward to getting my saw,
Thanx,Greg B.

 

[Trent Mason]

Jim,

That is a great post. I tried to resaw a 4 foot 2x4" today. I just eyed it as it was only a test. It was probably about 3/8" cut. I did clamp a small featherboard to the table because that was about all I had to work with. The beginning of the cut was representative of what I've been dealing with. It kind've waved back and forth and then settled onto a more or less straight line. It was still a little curvy back and forth, but it was generally straight. I was feeding the wood pretty fast and about halfway through I tripped the motor (3/4 HP) off. From there, I just took the board off of the table with some assistance from a coworker.

I was using the blade that came with the riser kit. 105"x1/2" 6 TPI Grizzly. I feel like the side to side movement is a result of the tension being off and the wheels being out of line. The motor tripping off was probably a combination of feeding too fast, a crappy blade and possibly a lack of horsepower(?).

To attempt to remedy this situation, I am going to (attempt to) correct the tension and wheel alignment and I just bought a 105"x3/4" 3 TPI Woodslicer resaw blade from Highland WW. It is being shipped UPS ground, so who knows when it will be here. I'm just going to try and correct the other stuff until the blade gets here. I feel like, "If I can get a crappy blade running reasonably well, getting a good blade running well shouldn't be too hard." That could be wrong, but that's what I'm thinking right now. Thanks for sharing your results. Hope I didn't ramble too much. :eusa_doh:

Trent

 

[Bas]

Jim, I had similar results with my Grizzly G0555 (no riser block). I resawed a piece of 4/4 cherry, about 3' long and 5" wide. I used a home made fence clamped against the stock fence (basically two pieces of plywood made into an L). The 'veneer' I cut was about 3/16" thick. No adjustment for drift, just pushed it through. I did use a featherboard to keep the stock tight against the fence.

It came out quite even, maybe .20" on one end and .17" on the other, if that. For those not good with fractions, that's less than 1/32". And for that, people buy drum sanders The face was very smooth, a little 220 sanding and it'd be perfect. This was using a 1/2" Woodslicer. I'm not sure how fast I fed the work piece, maybe 1/2" per second?

To saw thinner veneers, I'd probably need to do a lot more setup, but I'm confident I can consistently saw 1/8" pieces.

 

[Bas]

Trent, based on what you wrote, I strongly suspect the blade. A poor blade would cause all these symptoms - drift, blade not tracking properly, side-to-side movement etc. No amount of (de)tensioning will correct that. Resawing a 2x4 (unless it's extremely wet and the kerf closed up) should NOT cause the motor to stall, not even a 3/4HP one.

As far as getting the saw to work with a bad blade it can't hurt, and it's a great exercise in learning all the ins and outs of your saw. Just don't clobber it out of frustration until you try a new blade

 

[Jim Murphy]

It kind've waved back and forth and then settled onto a more or less straight line. It was still a little curvy back and forth, but it was generally straight.

Trent, I think it was the Bandsaw Handbook that I read that suggested that you initially "kiss" the wood to the blade, and hesitate a moment to let the blade wake up and realize there's wood to be eaten. Then, you slowly advance a quarter inch or so, and after that, you can let 'er rip. Since reading that, that has been my bandsaw technique. Try it, there's no cost or after-effect I know of.

 

[Mike Davis]

I have the Rikon 10-325.

Last Saturday I made a couple bad cuts and then remembered I had cut an old piece of Walnut that had a nail in it. Even with that blade I was getting better than some of these posts.

So, I put on my new Timberwolf 3/4 by 3 TPI blade, adjusted the guides to it and sliced 4 5/16 inch slabs out of a 10 x 6/4 piece of Sapele. Ran them through the planer and got nice 1/4 inch panels out of them.

Like Jim I just used the standard Rikon fence and ran them straight through.

 

[Trent Mason]

One question for you guys. I looked up the Rikon model that Mike and Jim have, 1.5HP. Bas, yours is either 1 or 1.5HP. Mine is 3/4. Does HP really make that much of a difference? Probably a stupid question, but I am new to this.

 

[Travis Porter]

Size matters :gar-Bi at least in HP for resawing. You can do about what anyone can with a bigger motor, you just have to do it a lot slower. If the motor is bogging down you are going too fast.

 

[pslamp32]

When resawing, where relative to the blade do you clamp the featherboard? Fore, aft or right at the blade? Dumb question I'm sure but amuse me if you will. Thanks!

 

[Bas]

My saw has 1HP. Travis' bandsaw is like 240HP. I gently push a 6" block of cherry through, he hurls a 20" block of hard maple at it from one of the shop, then runs to the other side to catch the sawn pieces.

So yes, horsepower matters. But for slicing off a piece from a 2x4, 3/4HP should be plenty, provided the wood didn't bind (something pine is prone to do).

Oh, and remember - there are no stupid questions! Only stupid people

(those are the ones that are afraid to ask questions....)

 

[Ken Massingale]

For resawing rough stock, like the ~10" Cherry below this jig makes resawing consistent slices pretty easy. My 10-325 sliced this wide stuff like butter. The jig is from Wood or Woodsmith, I'll have to check which.
Of course I was using a Bladerunner, 5/8". :smile:

 

[LeftyTom]

A tip for Jim and those who like to "tune" the BS blades: for less than $30 you can pick up an acoustic guitar tuner with a light or needle indicating the note to which the blade is tensioned. Still cheaper, get a pitch pipe, and compare the blade to the note.

 

[Trent Mason]

Ken, I doubt I'll be resawing half a tree like you, :rotflm: and Bas, I would like to be able to resaw up to about an 8 or 10 foot board of pretty much any type of wood (probably no more than 8" wide). My main purpose for getting this saw was to be able to do bent lamination. I'm just trying to figure out if that is doable with this one. If not, I wonder how cool the folks at Grizzly would be about me returning it and getting the GO555 or G0555X. I don't mind spending a few hundred more dollars if the quality is lights out better than what I have. However, if it is doable with mine, then I'll be happy to keep it and save the $$$.

Trent :icon_bigg

 

[Mike Davis]

Trent,

If you can get it squared up and a good blade on it you should be able to do what you need.

The saw I gave Sawduster was not as good as what you have and I was able to cut 1/8 pieces with it. The limitation was 6 inch height which I couldn't get by with.

Get it set right with the right blade and you can slice, dice and marinade with the best of them.

 

[CarvedTones]

Taking a close look at the ruler in the picture, I see it's about 10", so I could take a picture like that (which is different than saying I could saw a log like that). :jealous:

Mine claims 3/4 HP, but that must have been when the mice in the wheel were younger and a little more dedicated. But as Bas says, it is mostly a matter of how long it will take to cut. I have no plans to resaw anything more than a couple of feet long. My ADD would kick in way before I finished an 8' long 8" wide board. :roll:

The troubles I had the other night were almost entirely based on tension; a subsequent test confirmed that. I am still getting a bit more "wiggle" (I think that's the proper technical term) than I should be and I do need to look closer at exactly how well I have it set up. It was so out of whack before adding the riser and adjusting that getting it close seemed perfect, But now that I am used to this as the "new normal"; I think I can get closer to perfect.

 

[Travis Porter]

Ummm, I haven't used a feather board to resaw..... I would think you would want it right before to right on top of the blade.

My saw is 5.5 HP contrary to BAS' comment. :gar-BiI have resawn 16" maple with it, but boy it is dusty.. As for resawing with a 3/4 HP saw, it will do it, it is just going to be slower. Even with my large saw, you have to listen and adjust your feed rates appropriately. If you hear the motor struggling, slow down. Feeding too fast will put excessive strain and premature wear on your blades and components not too mention give unsatisfactory results. If you are not feeding too fast, then you have adjustment issues or a substandard blade. The first thing to do before resawing is tune and align your blade. You should do this every time you change blades. Back off all the guides and bearings, put the blade on, get it tracking right, get the upper and lower side guides spaced from the blade the thickness of a dollar bill, and then get the rear thrust bearings where it is not touching the blade. Spin the wheels by hand and inspect and listen. Turn the saw on, and make sure the rear thrust bearing is stationary and the blade is running smoothly.

Lastly, try to have your upper guide post set to where you want it when you do this. Many (read that as most or almost all) are not properly aligned and when you move it up or down changes the position of your guides so you get to do the above all over again.

My .05 worth. Used to be .02 but the dollar keeps declining in value.

 

[Trent Mason]

Thanks so much Steve and Mike. You guys have definitely given me hope. We went out there this morning and adjusted the tracking and it seems to be working better. I'm still waiting on UPS to deliver my two Wood Slicer blades from Highland. Not sure how long that will be. All it says is "in progress." I doubt I'm going to mess with it that much before those blades get here since I'll have to re-adjust everything again. I'm really relieved to hear that I can do what I need to do with this saw and won't have to spend more money and go through all of the trouble of getting another one. We shall see.

Steve, 5.5 HP? 8-O Can I borrow that motor for my boat sometime? :rotflm:

Trent

 

[CarvedTones]

I did use a small featherboard pretty much right at the teeth. My reasoning was that it is easier to make sure I am keeping the top of the board tight against the fence than trying to make sure I am keeping the whole face flat to the fence. Also, I was resawing thin spruce that flexes a little. After taking a slice or two off, the board cupped slightly, but it is thin enough (especially with those slices gone) that I can keep it flat against the fence with help from the featherboard. The doownside is that I have toreadjust it for every single cut. and my stock must have consistent thickness.