Thread: Dedicated Resawing Bandsaw

Yeah I'd say it would need something a bit more HD that a 355.
It's not necessary for bread boards but like resawing with my 1.33 TPI 32 mm band.
How's you dust collection?

Dust collection is good. I don't think I'll be able to achieve what the lady wants - all the 240v bandsaws I can find top out at 1500w which is what mine is anyway. I might need to talk to my supplier about getting thinner pieces to begin with, though this will push prices up exponentially I suspect.

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Originally Posted by Putty

Dust collection is good. I don't think I'll be able to achieve what the lady wants - all the 240v bandsaws I can find top out at 1500w which is what mine is anyway.

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Carbatec have some 2200W single phase bandsaws.

Hammer/Felder, SCM, Laguna

Thanks Cava I didn't even check Carbatec I just went to Hafco doh!

Do you think the 2200w High Capacity at $2299 would be powerful enough to handle it? It does look like a pretty serious bandsaw. I notice the maximum and width is the same as my existing one (19mm) but I am guessing a more powerful motor, it wouldn't be labouring as hard to do the same task, so there would be at least a little travel eliminated from it?

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Originally Posted by Putty

Thanks Cava I didn't even check Carbatec I just went to Hafco doh!

Do you think the 2200w High Capacity at $2299 would be powerful enough to handle it? It does look like a pretty serious bandsaw. I notice the maximum and width is the same as my existing one (19mm) but I am guessing a more powerful motor, it wouldn't be labouring as hard to do the same task, so there would be at least a little travel eliminated from it?

Yes it should be powerful enough - a rough guide for Aussie hardwoods is 100mm of cut per horsepower but more power is always better.
I note it is very heavy for a 14" saw weighing in as much as my 10 year old 19" Carbatech BS so it would seem it is seriously "built".
However, it's not just about power especially if you want to run a wider band.

In practice the limit on the width of the band depends on the ability of a BS to provide enough tension, and whether there is enough space for a wider band to fit, and the guides can adequately support a wider blade. The 3HP Carbatech saw you refer may be limited in this regard although being so heavy it sounds like it should still be able to support a higher tension band but it still may not be able to generate the tension.

You will notice the width of the tyre was not mentioned and while it is important, it is quite normal for a significant about of the band to be hanging off the back of the drive tyre. I've often wondered if most manufacturers of lower end machines play it safe with max band width specifications and just specify a max width up to the tyre width. To give you an extreme comparison, the bandsaw mill I use to mill timber uses a 27HP motor and a 50 mm wide blade and the 27" diameter drive wheel tyres are only about 25mm wide but there is plenty of clearance so its not a problem but it's a bit scary seeing so much band spilling off the sides of such narrow tyres. Tension is provided by an hydraulic ram that generates very high tensions on the blade.

My 19" BS was originally a 2HP single phase and I up graded it to a 3HP 3 Phase motor, and was speced with a 32mm max width band and a couple of years later I noticed the specs for the exact same BS was reduced to 25mm. I don't know why it was changed because it easily generates and supports the required tension and supports the wider band although using a 32mm band is a relatively tight fit and has little room for error which was maybe why they did it.

With many smaller saws it sometimes comes down to whether a wider band can physically pass through all the passage/path ways without contacting anything inside saw since it does not matter if the band width spills over the back of the tyre.

Finally, can the band guides properly support the wider bands? If not the band may wander in the cut.

As an aside, most folks don't realize that optimised wood cutting speeds for bandsaws blades are ~1650 m/min whereas most woodshed bandsaw are only run at 1200 m/min.
The difference doesn't sound that much but as this clears the sawdust 38% quicker, small TPI can be used to cut surprisingly fast. I noticed this using the bandsaw mill and so I addd variable speed to my 19" BS and it does work. I should add this is not for the faint hearted as there some downsides, the main one being that much more heat is generated - this does not matter for short bursts of cutting but if prolonged cutting is required then some cooling may be needed. On a BS mill, water or a water based coolant is used that stops the blade gumming up but that is not really practical in a wood shop. More heat also means the teeth will dull a bit quicker although this has turned out not to be as bad as I feared. The other thing to watch out for is that if a problem arises then outcomes may be a lot worse - I've seen that too on the bandsaw mill when the band came off and wrapped itself around the drive wheel and I had to cut the mangled twisted band off with an angle grinder - that's a $200 band down the toilet in about a second. It hasn't happened to me on my 19" BS because I tend to take it easy using that machine.

Being able to speed things up means being able to slow things down as well. This sounds a bit daft but sometimes if I'm cutting something awkward, dropping the saw speed produces a lot less noise and allows me to concentrate better on staying on marked cut lines especially curves.

I'm sure that if you search youtube you will find a well recognised woodworker using a 1/4" wide blade to saw veneers, which is perhaps the most challenging of resaw tasks.

For what it's worth, 1500 W is about 2 hp and should be sufficient for working with material 200 mm thick.

adequate blade tension is always a challenge and I suggest that a 1/2" blade is the practical maximum width for a 14" saw -- the specs say you can fit a 3/4" blade but tensioning such a blade is often beyond the capability of the saw's frame.

However, if this is an "excuse" for a new saw, by all means investigate saws from the like of Hammer / Felder / Laguna / SCM

Originally Posted by ian

. . . . adequate blade tension is always a challenge and I suggest that a 1/2" blade is the practical maximum width for a 14" saw -- the specs say you can fit a 3/4" blade but tensioning such a blade is often beyond the capability of the saw's frame.

The Hafco is 113 kg and the CT is 148 kg so hopefully some of that extra weight has gone into strength to enable the saw to generate enough tension for a 3/4" band.

I'll contact a friend of mine who is a Luthier, he recuts all his timbers into veneers, sometimes 250 deep cuts. I'll contact him to get the details of his saw, for you.
Kryn

You need one of these
H.

Originally Posted by clear out

You need one of these
H.

There great but I used one for a while in a shop in Berkeley when I lived there and unless you are 5' 4'' or so you really need to put it up on blocks. I know a resew is usually lower than a regular bandsaw but this is nearly kneecaps. I'm only 5' 11" and I found it really awkward unless the timber was 200mm or wider.
Lots of power & the satellite blades do really well even in our hardwoods.

I went the other way & bought a big old secondhand machine an old Agazzani for a lot less than any of these Carbatec or Hafco things. Even if you had to replace the 3phase motor with a decent size single phase you are still going to be way ahead on dollars and a machine that is just not going to stop.

Have fun,
Alli

Originally Posted by Allison74

I went the other way & bought a big old secondhand machine an old Agazzani for a lot less than any of these Carbatec or Hafco things. Even if you had to replace the 3phase motor with a decent size single phase you are still going to be way ahead on dollars and a machine that is just not going to stop.

Sometimes it not necessary to replace the 3P motor. If the motor is compatible at the can be driven by a single phase to 3 Phase VFD. I deliberately replaced my single phase motor with a 3P and a VFD so I could get variable speed and slow start - not essential but really nice to have.

A friend of mine picked up an old bandsaw, about 10' high with about 4' diameter wheels. He runs it off the PTO on his tractor. Got it for scrap value.
Kryn

Originally Posted by BobL

The Hafco is 113 kg and the CT is 148 kg so hopefully some of that extra weight has gone into strength to enable the saw to generate enough tension for a 3/4" band.

weight is just one aspect.
Ofttimes the limiting criteria is the tension spring and associated bits and bobs.

as I mentioned, a 1/2" wide blade with a low enough tooth count should be easier to tension than a similar 3/4" blade and provide an as good or better cut