Thread: Resawing no problems...

Hurry up with the pics...

Forgot the memory card didn't I...

You're just teasing us Schtoo! Where's the piccs, I'm trying to work out if its a bandsaw or something else you've come up with!!

Originally Posted by Schtoo

It runs backwards to start with

What does it do after start, run back the other way!?

Cheers,

Just a few pics, descriptions to follow later.

1. The saw itself. I know it's not 100% safe without a guard so you don't need to tell me.

2. How I weighted the wheels for perfect balance. Before I balanced everything, the saw did a very nice tango...

3. Almost finished the cut. About 1 minute after firing up the saw.

4. As it came off the saw, motor just stopped.

5. After planing.


The piece started at 24mm thick rough planed, finished up with 2 10.5mm thick pieces, only light sanding required. Wood was red oak, and not exactly easy to cut, no real problems. I know the cherry that needs to be stuffed through next will not be a problem.

As I said, more descriptions to follow, but I wanted to stop Dan whining.

Bout bloody time.

Good post Schtoo

Mind you, I wouldn't want that bugga tangoing around the shed after me :eek:

Still didn't stop Dan then did I?

1. The bandsaw is some local invention. All ally castings, a 900w universal motor and a gearbox attached. Not sure what speed it runs at, but doesn't seem to be too fast. The 'frame' is two pieces of thickwall steel tubing, and the things runs the blade counterclockwise, as opposed to almost everything else running clockwise.

The guides are something I made myself, as are the table and fence. The guides are simply a steel plate with ally blocks that slide in and out, bolts into the sides and the bearings run on the bolts. The upper left guide has a longer rear bolt so the thrust bearing runs there. Not perfect, and quite ugly, but they protrude from the upper casting by less than an inch, giving me about 1" more clearance. I'll change them to something better one day, but maybe that will wait till I make another bandsaw.

The table is just a steel frame wtih MDF screwed down to it. Nothing notable other than it too rests on the lower casting, again giving me another inch or so, which brings the thing from about 5.5" capacity up to just over 8". A useful improvement. Lower guides are identical to the top, but there is no thrust bearing there because it won't fit with that big blade and the lowered table.

Fence is a poor incarnation of a regular T-square fence. No measurements in it, and it's not as rigid as I would like, but it works. Clamped to it is a small auxiliary fence of MDF. The MDF stops at the back of the blade.

2. Silicone to balance. Reason I used silicone is because it's cheap, it's sticky and it's heavy. Those wheels were out of balance by a long way, but now they pretty good. Maybe not perfect, but at least it doesn't dance anymore.

3. A picture is worth a thosand words. But what the picture doesn't show is how the fence is set.

The fence itself is not square to the blade. I could adjust it to be square, but it doesn't matter very much for resawing. The fence's face is parrallel to the blade though, which IS important. In the fence's 'T' are two pairs of adjusting screws, one for square to the blade, one to adjust it for where the blade wants to cut. I did that a while ago, and it's stayed accurate since. A better fence would be much higher, but as I have not yet done much wide resawing, I haven't made one yet. The MDF stops at the back of the blade so that if there is any tension in the wood and it wants to open up, there's nothing for the wood to push against and upset the cut. That piece closed up a little.

4. Just cut, and I use a scrap of wood to finish the cut. I keep fingers well away from that blade, doubly so because I can't fit the cover to the saw. If that thing breaks and whips, it will definitely remove body parts. Speaking of the blade, it's a Ryobi, 2" wide and about 2TPI, not quite sure on the TPI because it doesn't really fit TPI very well. Stellite tips every second tooth and no set to the teeth at all. The tips are ground slightly wider than the body to allow the body to slip through. It makes a 1mm kerf. It cost me Y8500, or just over $100 Aussie.

5. A couple passes through the planer removed both the rough planing (done by someone else) and the saw marks. A couple extra light passes bought them to the same thickness. I lost 3mm overall by resawing, which is acceptable to me. I only needed 10mm thick boards, and I got them without any problems.

The wood is red oak, quite hard but not too bad. Cuts fairly easily, but still stalled the blade a few times. There is a point where the blade cuts very slowly, a little more pressure and it goes to work, a little more and the clutch slips and the blade stalls. If I could tighten that darn clutch the thing would eat wood like nothing else and I could have done that cut in about 20 seconds. But it does show that power is not the only way to get the job done, but it does help.


The only problems I have with the whole mess is that darn clutch, lack of guards and dust collection and the fact that I think that blade is not too kind to the saw as a whole. It needs a lot of tension to work properly, and I don't think that's really very good for the saw. Hopefully I can work out another saw just for resawing, and take this one back to just curved stuff, which it is very good at.

I think it does a rather good job considering it cost about $250 all up, including the guides, blade, table, fence, the saw itself and delivery. A bit of time to make it all work, but I had nothing to lose and not much cash to spend. The saw that is supposed to take that blade costs well over $1000, and yes it's a Ryobi too. A nice little thing, with a frame that makes almost anything else I have seen look puny, even at twice it's size.

If you start with a better saw, I can't help but think that resawing has gotta be easier and cleaner than my decrepid little thing.