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Ripping on bandsaw
Wondering if anybody have ever ripped western red cedar for a kayak/canoe on there band saw. Every time I finish ripping on ts and look at the pile of saw dust I payed for and maybe a little safer with the 16' lenght. I keep thinking about tring out my bandsaw. I have a 18" steel city but have never tried ripping long lengths with it. My concern is blade drift and keeping a uniform thickness over the width of the board. Any thoughts.
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Glen,
I have an Inca #710 bandsaw ( a 3 wheel bandsaw with 8 inch resaw capacity).
Within the last year I re-sawed spanish cedar, koa & mahogany, they were all were approx. 12' long & both re-sawed to about 1/4". I had no problems whatsoever.
The things to look out for is ......
>tuning up your bandsaw
>using a sharp resaw blade ( I used a 1/2" Wood-slicer blade from Highland) http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/w...s705to137.aspx
>making sure you have a jig set up keeping constant pressure against the work.
>having your feed and out-take tables set up nicely where you don't have to think about that while cutting.
>have a dust collection system set up
>go SLOW!
cheers,
roger
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Put a 1/2" 3tpi timberwolf on the saw and use the flutter method to set the tension. It will saw all day just fine.
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In my experience there is no comparison between the quality of cut between a bandsaw and a table saw. The bandsawn surface is going to be noticeably rougher than the table sawn surface; therefore you would have consederably more sanding to do or you would have to run the strips through a planer to get a smooth surface, which would negate the savings of the thinner kerf made by the bandsaw.
A bandsaw kerf will be about 0.062" wide not counting blade wander. Try ripping with a thin kerf blade (Freud LU87 make an 0.092" kerf) and save the sanding time.
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I agree with Lee, a thin kerf blade will do great on the table saw. Get some feather boards and you can rip like mad, and it would be faster then the band saw.
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I have done both ripping and short height (6" and less) resawing on Grizzly G0513X2 bandsaw recently. I have noticed the quality of the cut depends on the quality of the blade (I only have the stock Grizzly and a few Timberwolves for comparison), the TPI, and the feed rate. If you use a low TPI blade while ripping, you can vary your feed rate. The faster you feed the more course the cut looks. I used a 1/2" 6TPI and a 10TPI blades as a test. If I cut at the same speed with both blades, you can barely notice the difference. The 6TPI allows me to cut faster, and if I do the cut looks like I just got the board from the mill. If I was attempting your project with the bandsaw, I think I would try for a 1/2" 10-14TPI blade for the cleanest cut.
As for blade drift, the blade will not drift any more or any less on a short board vs. a long board. To check the drift, use a 2-3' long piece of scrap. Scribe a line down the piece, setup the fence and send the piece through. Hopefully the cut follows the line. Whatever angle the board is cut at is the drift angle. I found with my bandsaw, that if I push too hard (try to feed faster than the blade and saw can accept) the blade will twist and give me some "drift", usually towards the fence. When I back off, the cut gets back on the line.
When resawing and going quickly, I loose only slightly less material that if I use a table saw (1/32 to 1/16" saved on the bandsaw with finish work by a drum sander). Going slowly and taking my time I can get up towards the 1/16" saved. The difference for me between the two is resawing thickness. My table saw maxes out at 3 1/2" in two passes (just enough to split a 2x4), the G0513X2 is around 12". Big difference between my saws.
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You can get good smooth tablesaw like cuts with a bandsaw, but you have to use a good carbide blade to do it. Those are not a whole lot narrower than the tablesaw blade. If your cuts are in the tablesaws capacity range, I'd use it. Bandsaws shine on resaw work that is out of tablesaw capacity.
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I haven't built my canoe yet, but I have about 60 board feet of cedar that I ripped on my bandsaw for that purpose. The cut is rougher than a tablesaw, but I don't think that will matter considering how much of the strip is removed when fairing the hull. I guess I'll find out.
I didn't feel very safe cutting 1/4" by 16' long strips on the tablesaw when I tried doing that, so I actually decided to buy a bandsaw for this purpose. I too worried about blade drift based on past experiences with saws that were apparently not set up properly. The 14" JET bandsaw I bought, along with a 1/2" 3 TPI timberwolf blade and a Kreg fence made it an easy task.