Resawing; Newbie

[Jon Wilson]

Hello,

So, it's seems that I'm ready to try my hand at resawing.

I have a 14" CM Band Saw, bought a 3/4" Woodslicer Resaw blade.
That's the largest blade I could get to fit my saw.

I have some 6/4 Paduak that I'd like to eventually resaw for some projects,
until then I'm going to use some scrap pine, oak and cedar that I'll practice on.

I've watched videos and read articles, the process seems pretty straight forward.
Which means it has to be more difficult than I think.

What I'm looking for is words of wisdom, advice, things you wished someone
had told you when you first started resawing.

I think my biggest question (concern) is which fence to use;
Flat or Point? Which lends itself to good results for the beginner?

As always... TIA!

[Ed Aumiller]

Make sure your blade is tracking properly without any guides via proper tension, wheel alignment, etc..
Then adjust your guides "at the height needed to resaw what you are doing, no higher"
My preference is putting a higher fence on and making sure it is square, both vertical & horizontal to blade...

Have found if above is done, the blade will not wander, etc and fairly easy to get good results..
The woodslicer blade is excellent unless you damage it... any blade that is dulled or the set is not equal on both sides will give major problems...

Good luck..

[Jim Matthews]

I'm still struggling with resawing, after three years of trying.

Three things are really important, for me to get it right -

* The blade needs to be low in "tooth count" to remove sawdust.
When you're cutting a wide (or tall) board, there's a lot of blade trapped in the kerf.
The sawdust needs to be exhausted, or the blade will not cut efficiently.

* The fence should be tall and broad, to give plenty of stability.
Some really experienced guys, that really know what they're doing like the point fence.
I find a higher fence gives me more confidence, I don't want the uncut section of the board swinging around.

* The board you're cutting needs to be flat and square on the two sides that register to the saw.
The long face riding the fence must be jointed to ride against the fence.
(If you're using a point fence, it can follow a curve at a fixed thickness.)
The edge that rests on the table must be flat, so that the workpiece doesn't rock up and down.

I keep the same reference faces against the fence and table, and advance the fence to make each pass.

While you can get good results using other methods, it's much more repeatable if two variables can be controlled.

I watched this video, and emulate it so closely as I can.

resaws QS white oak.jpg

[Myk Rian]

Put a 1/2" 3-4tpi blade on the saw. I don't care what anyone says. 3/4" is too much for a 14" saw.

[Rich Enders]

Jon,

I have a standard 14" bandsaw. My fence was made from two 6 inch pieces of 3/8 inch regular plywood, and clamped to the table with "C" Clamps. I tried to resaw air dried white oak using the factory supplied 1/2 inch blade. It was very slow going. I then ordered a 1/2 inch Wood Slicer, and proceeded to easily resaw about 250 feet of 3/32 inch thick by 5 inch tall pieces for glue lam legs for a curvy legged hall table. After an initial four square on each blank, I re-jointed the sawn surface before slicing off the next piece. After resawing I soaked the pieces in hot water and bent them around an MDF form. When dry I glued the pieces together on the same form. The whole process seems pretty forgiving.

[Andy Pratt]

Here is my advice:

- You must have a flat, jointed face to ride along your fence face
- You must have an adjacent, 90 degree flat edge to ride on your table
- Just use the normal square fence, but make sure you have it adjusted for your blade drift beforehand or this will not work very well. I find I get far inferior results with the "one point" style resaw fences.

- You need to have a saw with good guide bearings, adequate tension capability and a good quality resaw specific blade (sounds like you have that) or you will be easily frustrated by hard-to diagnose problems. It is really worth buying a book on bandsaws since there are a lot of small things that can make or break you and no one will remember to mention them all here, including me. Resawing is the bandsaw task where you either get frustrated and quit, or find out how to truly set up your bandsaw perfectly and realize that you can do it pretty easily.

- If you can't joint the width of your resaw capacity (or at least the part of the board that rides on the fence) then you need to have a decent "down" edge and a steady hand, and need to snap a thoughtfully laid out line on the "up" edge of the board to follow.

[Jim Finn]

Make sure your blade is tracking properly without any guides via proper tension, wheel alignment, etc..
Then adjust your guides "at the height needed to resaw what you are doing, no higher"
My preference is putting a higher fence on and making sure it is square, both vertical & horizontal to blade...

Have found if above is done, the blade will not wander, etc and fairly easy to get good results..
The woodslicer blade is excellent unless you damage it... any blade that is dulled or the set is not equal on both sides will give major problems...

Good luck..

Exactly! This is what I have done with good results. I re-saw a LOT of cedar and maple. (500 board feet a year). I find Woodslicer blades to work very well but do not last long. When they get dull the cut will wonder. I now use 5/8" carbide blades from Grizzly on my GO555 saw. They also dull but last longer than the woodslicer blades and in this way they are cheaper for me to use.

[Tai Fu]

Just wondering... could woodslicer blades be resharpened? I mean if the TPI is low enough (maybe 2 or less on .75 to 1" bands) a standard sawmill sharpener could sharpen it.

[Jon Wilson]

Sorry for the delay in a response... busy time of year for me.

Thanks for all of the tips, advice and info.

I have the saw dialed in pretty soundly at this point.
I spent some quality time watching videos and reading up on
the tune up as soon as I got it home and then spent some one on one
time with the saw putting those practices to use.

At this point I guess it's time to build a fence and jump in head first!

I'll keep ya posted on my progress!

I like challenges and this seems like it's going to be a fun, albeit nerve racking endeavor.

Thinking about the replies;
Is there a trick to learning the drift on a particular saw?
Because of the lack of this knowledge I was planning on going with the single point fence
snapping a line and then slowly and carefully walking that line. After reading the info here I think I'd prefer the tall fence
if i can learn my saw's drift.

[Shawn Pixley]

A couple years ago, I was where you are today. Jump in and try it. Your first try shouldn't be on the expensive wood. Last weekend I resawed 21 LF of birdseye hard maple 8-10" wide. From 4/4 stock I got 1/2" dressed and finished stock plus 1/8" veneers. I'm sure others get better results (less waste). But it beats turning the non-stock wood into chips via the planer.

No secrets - tuned saw, right blade, fence adjusted for drift as necessary, two feather boards to keep stock against fence. You'll be able to do this as well.

[Tai Fu]

By the way, a good practice for resawing expensive tropical hardwood (such as rosewoods) is to resaw some cheap hard maple. It's almost as hard as rosewood so it will give you a good feel, yet cheap enough that you can try and try until you get it right.

[Floyd Mah]

Here's something to try. I watched the video earlier in the thread and they used a Rockler gadget with a bearing guide to hold the wood against the fence. I think that that is an incorrect use of the gadget (it's meant for making thin strips on a table saw when the width of the boards are uniform and on the off-cut side). If you are resawing, it's only by luck that your board continues to be uniformly thick after a few cuts. In other words, the guide will cause the board to bind and burn your wood or be too loose. I recently did come resawing and used a brush in the place of a feather board to apply pressure to my work. Use a long brush like the type used to dust off your work bench (Harbor Freight calls it a "bench brush"). Clamp a block to your bandsaw top and then clamp the brush to the block so that the bristles are horizontal. It will work fine for work that is several inches high. You can elevate it higher for wider work. A bonus is that since the feathering action is flexible, you can steer your work under the blade. If there is blade drift you can minimize it's effect. Also it will keep your hand away from the blade.

More hints: Always use push sticks. It may seem obvious, but usually the pressure releases suddenly at the end of a cut and then your digits are headed in an uncontrolled fashion towards the blade. Also, I've nicked my fingernail (luckily) while rotating the bandsaw wheels manually, so remember that the cutting surfaces of the blade are still active even under manual power, and even when the blade isn't moving. I also recall another post here of a woodworker losing part of his hand because he either lost his balance or placed his hand on the table surface while losing his balance or crouching under the table to clear something. My rule of thumb (no pun intended) is to never place my hand on the surface of power tools (table saws, bandsaws) if it isn't under direct vision. Sounds obvious, but sometimes you are reaching to adjust a blade height and inadvertently contact the power switch. Always check the path that the blade or work will take for obstructions or potential flying objects.

feather2.jpg

[John TenEyck]

Here's my two cents. Like Myk said, a 1/2" blade is the widest that you can come close to tension enough on a cast iron 14" BS. Even then you can't get more than about 12K psi on the blade compared to the 18K minimum most band manufacturers recommend. You can still cut well, just not as fast as you could at higher tension. Adjusting your fence for drift is the wrong approach, though many do it. It is far better to spend the time required to get your saw to track straight. Everything just goes easier once it does. Woodslicer blades are fine for cutting veneer and other thin sections, they work great in fact. But they are worthless for resawing thicker sections if the wood pinches the least little bit. There is so little kerf that if the wood pinches at all it will stall the saw unless you have a lot of HP, which not many 14" BS's do. It's better to use a blade with more kerf for that work. I use Olson MVP bimetal blades with good results but there are many that will work well. If you want to resaw thick sections a single point fence will work OK, or no fence at all. But if you want to resaw veneer you really need to use a tall flat fence with feather boards, etc. holding the board against the fence. It's the only way I've been able to take thin slices of consistent thickness for many feet. Have fun.

John