Thread: extra hard Black Heart Sassafras

I not sure I'd be putting BHSass into a "hard" catagory, from memory it's in the 500 to 600kg/m3 density range so makes it more of a medium density timber.
Describe "jamming the blade" a bit further....
and fine dust makes me think tooo many teeth per inch or more than likely blunt blade ..even tho u said u put on a new one not all blades r created equal.
Peter

sounds like some one put the new blade in upside down
can you do that on a bandsaw i have never looked to see if its possible trying to do it mentally hurts this time of the morning

thanks pjt and texx,
A little more useful (or useless) info might help then.
Firstly, the timber is kiln dried, I have the blade on correctly and it is a new one i put on to replace what I already thought to be a good one.
The original good one was capable of performing the same cut on Tas Oak or mdf without any difficulty.
The "jamming effect" happens when I seem to ask too much by pushing the wood too quickly. However I am trying to be as gentle as possible. The wood actually stops the blade if I try to push any quicker than the slowest speed imaginable. I guess this is why I`m getting all this fine dust. I`m talking of a speed of 5cm/minuteslow.
I`m using a full length fence, and am about to try a simpler point fence guide to see if I`m jamming against the drift, but I think not as the same effect comes about when I try to cut completely freehand.
WOT NOW????

Oh yes , and the other comment is that it is a normal half inch (cringe with Imperial measures) 3 teeth per inch (there we go again) blade.
To all those of other than Metric persuasion--- Get your heads out of the sand!!!!
RB

Just throwing it out here but have you checked the belt tension from the motor to the bottom wheel? Is the motor itself stalling or just the blade?

RB,why don't you give the bandsaw crew a go ? They may have solved your problem some time ago. The wooden boatbuilders aren't too bad on matters concerning the bandsaw, especially the folk in Tassie.

DJ could be onto something there...tho there should have been a belt squealing kinda noise
Assuming... sharp blade with adequate set (if u don't have enuff teeth set, blades will jam in the cut) especially if theres tension in the wood that is closing the kerf as u cut, on correctly, drive system all good (belts tight) and u stall the machine when perfoming normal cutting I'd say ur machine is way underpowered

Just reading that again...timber that closes up on the blade will stall a machine and burn the edges of the timber more so with table saw tho due to the higher speed, keep an eye on the kerf behind the blade an see if it's closing at all, u may need to put a wedge in the kerf to keep it open, although that then leads me to ask...R u getting bowed pieces of wood from out of a straight piece of wood?
Tension in wood is a not to mention a PITA it requires extra work to make it useable to tossing it...it will depend largly on what u want to do with the piece?

Peter

Hi Ron,

Let's not get bogged down in the rhetoric here. It looks to me like you are trying to feed the material through the blade constrained by a fence set at an angle it is not comfortable with. It doesn't matter that the angle determined by your fence may be perfectly aligned with your stationary blade it has to be properly aligned with how the saw and the blade want to perform in the dynamic mode. Consult any basic text on setting up a band saw on how to align your fence with how the band saw wants to cut and it will all fall into place. All basic joinery machinery stuff and your problem is infinitely correctable. Take heart!


Old Pete

Have you tried to cut anything else on the same set up to determine whether it is the set up or the wood?
Southern Sassafras - Atherosperma Moschatum is normally very easy to work with (turns and carves well) as grain is straight with texture fine and even.
Heartwood is various shades of brown and the black hearted nature arises from a fungal attack as a result of the tree copping a lightening strike.

Reading Ron's post again suggests to me that he is not having the jamming problem as a result of any bandsaw blade drift as the same problem occours when cutting freehand!

OK boys, you`ve all had many good thoughts and ways to fix the prob and all have been worthwhile.
Turns out that the problem was a loose fanbelt on the pulley from the one below the lower drive wheel for the blade.--one upfrom the pulley connected to the motor.
Once they had both been re-tightened we had a goer.
Sorry to have been such a dud but it seems it is usually the bleeding obvious that I can`t see.
I guess if this sort of thing arises it is always best to go back to square one, but sometimes we are so sure that the simplest things couldn`t possibly be wrong.
Once again---many thanks. RB