Resawing Tips

[jackellis]

The 14" Ridgid bandsaw I bought a few weeks ago is starting to earn it's keep. I now understand why Mark Duginske is so enthusiastic about them.

On Saturday I picked up a bunch of Ash and Walnut at an excellent price from a local furniture maker who was shutting down his shop. Most of it needs to be resawed and I've read up on the best blades (Timberwolves), blade sizes (1/2" and larger) and how to correct for blade drift.

However, I noticed in Tom Hintz's review that the thicknesses of the pieces he cut with a Timberwolf blade vary slightly. Something similar happened to me while practicing with a piece of scrap 1/2" plywood and a 1/4" blade, but I initially attributed that problem to lack of a tall fence, which I need to build.

I'm perfectly happy to joint both sides of a board, resaw and then plane to desired thickness but I'm now wondering whether having a tall fence is going to make that much difference if the blade drifts in two dimensions rather than just one.

I also noticed on the Suffolk Machinery site that they advocate lubricating the blade with PAM (spray-on vegetable oil) for narrower blades or chain saw oil and kerosene for wider blades. Does anyone do this?

[Ken Massingale]

Jack,
First, IMHO a 1/4" blade isn't the right one to judge by. I'll say what works for me, but I don't mean to imply that it's the only correct solution.
I have the HF 14" BS, on which I have added link belts an Iturra tension spring and new tires. I just a few days ago added a Grizzly riser block.
I tried 3 fences, including the FastTrack with the curved resaw attachment. What I use now is a 2 by 4 with a flat 4" tall piece of ply screwed to the front of it.
I have tried TW blades, which I think are the best affordable BS blades overall, for resawing (1/2" 3 tpi) but wasn't happy with the variations I had in thickness of the resawn pieces.
I tried a Woodslicer from Highland Hardware and IMO it is better that TW's for resawing. ($30) I just found that Iturra sells the exact same blade for $20.
I install the blade (1/2" 3 tpi) and tension it to the 3/4" mark on the tension scale. Highland says to tension all the way up, but I leave a tad for movement of the saw.
Use a square to get the blade dead on square to the table. I track the blade to run in the center of the tires, then scribe a line about 2" in from the side of a 12" piece of scrap. I cut on the line freehand about half way, stop the saw while holding the stock firmly in place. I then measure the angle that the scrap is at relative to the table front. I set the shop made fence to that angle at the distance from the blade that I want to resaw to. I clamp the 2 by 4 fence on both ends, confirming that the angle of the fence doesn't move.

Make sure that the stock rides against the fence and the resaws will be consistent, top to bottom and end to end. If I do my part feeding the stock, I consistantly get no more than 1/64" variations in thickness.
For taller pieces with the riser installed, I cut another higher piece of ply and screwed it to the 2 by 4.
Keep in mind, resawing is slow, listen to the saw and you will find the sweet spot for feeding the stock.
I keep meaning to make a high featherboard but that hasn't happened yet.
HTH, and sorry for the length.
ken

[gjbivin]

I'm perfectly happy to joint both sides of a board, resaw and then plane to desired thickness

I've had pieces warp from internal stress after resawing, even though the original board was straight. I wouldn't put too much effort into jointing the board originally (maybe one side), because you'll probably have to joint it again anyway.

I made a simple right-angle plywood fence, one face 3" wide and the other 5" wide, and as long as my saw table is wide, with trianglular braces glued in the inside angle for strength and rigidity. I use two clamps to fix it in position on the table. Normally, I use the 3" side as the fence, but the 5" side is available for wide resaws (I don't have a riser block, so I'm limited to 6").

[jackellis]

Both ideas very helpful. Thanks.

[jonathan55]

I have the HF 14" BS, on which I have added link belts an Iturra tension spring and new tires. I just a few days ago added a Grizzly riser block.

Any trouble fitting the Grizzly riser block on the HF bandsaw? Did you need to modify it?

[Ken Massingale]

Any trouble fitting the Grizzly riser block on the HF bandsaw? Did you need to modify it?

See http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=21710
ken