Thread: Resawing timber - Advice required

I now use Henry Bros for all bandsaw blades.
Very hard to beat for both service & quality.
Ph (02) 96275088
Good luck!
Regards Sandman.

6tpi is too fine pitch for thick boards - the blade can't clear the cuttings at the bottom of the board and can cause all sorts of problems such as overheating and loss of set on the blades as well as drift.

If looking for a new balde, look for a bi-metal blade (not sure they are available in 3/4 inch) ..... more expensive but last longer and in my limited experience may be less susceptible to drift because they are somewhat stiffer.

Qw

3 tpi skiptooth will work much better

Also, you'll need to set your fence compensate for blade drift. Easiest way to do this, is to mark a straight line parallel to theedge on the flat face of a board between 20-40mm thick and cut to the line without resting the board against the fence. As you cut, you'll notice that the board will want to be feed to the blade at an angle other the 90 deg. Once you've cut at least 400 mm along the line, stop the cut use the edge parallel to the line to mark the table. Ste you fence to this line and you'll find that the blade will no longer drift.

The fence on my BS is not adjustable, so I clamp an aux fence parallel top the drift line and use that.

Hope that helps.

BTW. Once set, the drift shoudn't alter. If it does it probably means your blade needs resetting.

Chook,

6TPI is way too fine for re-sawing go to/ring the company that sandman has mentioned or a saw specialist in your area. Talk to them about what you are doing and the type of timber you are using.

I use a 3/4 3tpi portaband (i think thats the name) made up to the length I require. This is the band that they use on portable saw mills. it has enough flex in it to get around the smaller wheels of the 14'', 16" size bandsaws that most people seem to have. I found out that this was available by talking directly with the local saw doctor. I'm not sure if it's available in a bi-metal form but I haven't needed to find out as yet.

good luck with it,

H.

There's two schools of thought on that. The other is that you set your rip fence at 90 degrees to the front of the table and adjust your tracking to compensate for drift. I've tried both ways (after a suggestion from Termite) and had much more success with the latter. If the cut starts to wander, a small adjustment to the tracking puts it back on course. I don't bother adjusting the rip fence any more and I can also use the mitre gauge.

The recent FWW mag had a great article on bandsaws, well worth getting. I found that most of the problems that I was having have been solved by following their advice.
He was adamant that 3tpi was the only way to go. Get the mag and have a look at what he has to say, it is worth the purchase price just for that article
Suresh

As others have said, a good 3tpi blade is the go. I use a 3tpi 1/2 inch for just about everything, including resawing. See Henry Bros. Keep an eye on the blade for a build-up of resin on the teeth. You can remove it using oven cleaner. You can also resharpen 3tpi bandsaw blades using a Dremel or similar with a chainsaw sharpening grinder. Just touch it up from the gullet to the tip.

I only ever have the fence set parallel to the blade. Make sure the blade is sitting om the crown of the top wheel. I've attached a piece of ply to my fence that only goes from the front of the table to the blade. That way, if the piece opens up as you cut it, it doesn't push away from the fence.
The article Suresh refers to is a beauty - well worth reading.

I've got a BP-16A and use a 1" 3TPI blade for resawing (Henry Bros), and believe it or not I can take a 1.5mm veneer off with it too.

Termite,

How do you find the BP 16A?? The local woodies club has an older version which I think came from the woodman group. Nobody seems to like it & avoid it like the plague. They prefer to use the BAS 350.

It is certainly cheaper than the 4300 series if it does the job.

Ken

FWW gave the woodslicer blade from Highland hardware (see www.highlandhardware.com ) in the US a good rap. I got one for my Jet 14DX with riser and it is a really nice blade. I resawed a big curved chunk of 8x2 Huon this evening and no wandering and a very nice finish. Gets through myrtle and tas oak and celery really well too.

regards,

Andrew

Chook,

Phone Henry Bros in Sydney, the number was given in the second post above, speak to Mark. He will send you a 1.25 TPI x 3/4" blade. Once you use this blade you'll discover the pleasures of resawing with a 14" bandsaw. I got one for a standard 14 " saw like yours, use it on my BAS-350 and we also use the same spec blade but 30 mm wide on the clubs SBW-4800. As a matter of fact it is such a fantastic blade that it stays on my BAS-350 as my everyday blade. They are not expensive from Mark either. Once it gets blunt you can touch up the teeth with your Dremel or even a 115 mm angle grinder.

Thank you everyone for the advice.

I rang Henry Brothers and spoke to the salesman there.As a result a 1.3 TPI blade is on its way. They don't have bimetal blades to suit but think that I will be right without one.

I am intested in the idea of adjusting for drift via the tracking. How does that work?

I mentioned that I had replaced the standard blade quides with an $80 set from carbatec. This was a really good investment and made the whole thing much better to set up and to use.

Chook,

As you know, the tracking adjustment works by tilting the top wheel. This moves the blade towards the front or back of the wheel. Because the tyre is curved, this has the affect of twisting the blade to left or the right as it comes off the side of the wheel and travels down to the guide blocks. If you tilt the wheel towards the front, it twists the front of the blade to the left - tilt towards the back and it twists the blade to the right.

So if your blade is drifting to the left, causing the stock to move away from the fence to the right, if you adjust the tracking very slightly so the blade is further back on the wheel and twisting to the right, you can compensate for this.