HF Band Saw and Resawing

[tfischer]

I've had my BS for several years, but for the first time, am attempting doing resawing. I have the HF (Central Machinery) BS with riser, and am using a 1/2" Timber Wolf blade, specifically recommended by Suffolk for resawing. I'm using a Kreg universal BS fence with resaw attachment.

What I'm finding is that the blade, no matter how tight I tension it, is flexing within the wood during the cut, such that it is perfectly parallel when the cut starts, but within a few inches, the bottom of the cut is not nearly parallel with the top of the cut.

Any ideas of what to do? I understand that the TW blades aren't supposed to be tensioned that much -- I tried cranking it up anyway, to no avail.

Would a better spring help? Is my technique that bad? Other thoughts?

-Tim

[dbhost]

Hmmm....

Not sure why you are having that blade drift issue, except maybe the stock is moving? I have a shop built resawing sled, that honestly needs to get redone. I messed it up... But anyway I digress... Go to Wood Magazine, click on Woodworking Videos, then wood cuts, Then Bandsaw Tips & Techniques, and finally resawing found wood.

Of course if you are resawing, something that started out square, this won't help..

When resawing I keep my tension pretty high for what Suffolk recommends. I go with what Wood Magazine recommended in their videos, and the blade stays on track just fine. BUT.... I also treat my blade to the PAM spray that Suffolk recommends too...

[tfischer]

I was (just for practice) resawing square stock. It was Ash in this case...

I don't think the stock was moving. I first thought it might be so I set up a featherboard at the bottom to make sure it wasn't pushing out.

At the end, I cranked the tension such that the spring was almost completely compressed. Hence my question about getting a bigger/better spring.

[poolhound]

Do you know if its the top getting wider or the bottom getting narrower? Are your guides/bearings all set OK?

[dbhost]

That was my next question. Are you sure the guides are set up and locked in? Are you using the stock guides, rollers, or Cool blocks?

I have roller guides on mine, and have to be SURE that they are locked down or they open up and I get what you are talking about. I don't know, but I suspect the OE guides would behave the same way...

[tfischer]

The bottom is getting narrower.

I'm using the HF roller guides, and as far as I know, everything is set up properly.

-Tim

[cgallery]

How wide is the stock you're resawing?

[LCHIEN]

one thing i have noticed is that less feed pressure will allow the blade to deform less and cut/resaw straighter. An underpowered saw or dull blade will cause this to happen. A more powerful saw and sharper blade will remove material faster and more efficiently and deform the blade less, requireing less feed pressure and cutting faster.

[gerti]

Maybe you need to adjust the entire mechanism. I got my G0555 with a riser block which I installed before ever using the saw (and I had never used a bandsaw before). Took me a long time to figure out that installing a riser block threw off the 'rough balance' of the tensioning system. I had to figure out the mechanism (manual was no help at all) and rise up the mechanism a bit. Now the tensioning mechanism is finally doing it's job.

[tfischer]

Maybe you need to adjust the entire mechanism. I got my G0555 with a riser block which I installed before ever using the saw (and I had never used a bandsaw before). Took me a long time to figure out that installing a riser block threw off the 'rough balance' of the tensioning system. I had to figure out the mechanism (manual was no help at all) and rise up the mechanism a bit. Now the tensioning mechanism is finally doing it's job.

I'm in the same boat. I bought my bandsaw, and installed the riser kit right away, so I could invest in good blades and not have to rebuy them if I decided I wanted the riser later. To be frank, I haven't used the saw all that much even though I've owned it for a few years now -- just the occasional cut here and there. I finally got my Kreg fence installed now and bought the resaw attachment, so I thought I'd try my hand at some resawing...

I've also done the Grizzly mod that was discussed here a few years back (around the time I bought my saw) regarding adding a quick blade de-tensioner to the saw, which I love. But I might have messed up something with the tensioning system when installing it? Could you go into a bit more detail at what you meant by "throwing off the rough balance", etc? I'm definitely new at this stuff, experience-wise.

Loring's idea of taking it slower might be something also. I don't think I was forcing it, but you never know (stock was about 6" wide). Blade is all but unused, so should be very sharp.

Thanks,
-Tim

[bmyers]

I think on woodmags website there is a video for "bandsaw tune-up". Do the entire tune-up in the order thats given and your problems should go away. If they dont then it's something in the sled or you're feeding it too fast.

That unit will resaw nicely, I have the same one with the riser, HF roller guides and it works great.

Try this one:
http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/fil...tid=1641902277

Bill

[Tom Miller]

My first (barely educated) guess would be bandsaw tension. After only a few years, the tension spring on my Jet 14" (with riser) had weakened to the point that it could not properly tension a 1/2" blade. I replaced it with an Iturra spring, which is still going strong. BTW, according to Iturra, this is to be expected from such run-of-the-mill 14" saws.

The only way I really knew I wasn't able to properly tension, was by making and using a tension gauge (see this post). Otherwise, I could only guess.

I do know from experience, though, that if the blade is under-tensioned it'll do exactly what you describe.

Since I was already placing an order with Iturra, I bought their version of the Woodslicer. That does a lot better job than my Suffolk blades.

Regards,
Tom

[Rich P]

One of the editors at FWW (Rogowski) says something about resawing like "you can cut fast or you can cut straight but you can't do both" so you might want to slow the feed rate. If the blade is flexing then more tension is probably the answer. If you can't get enough tension with the stock spring go for the Iturra replacement and while you are at it order their version of the Woodslicer...IMHO far superior to the TW, especially for resawing. Their "catalog" (which is free) has everything you might want to know about the bandsaw and many other fun facts to boot. Don't know if Iturra has his web site up yet but if you call you can probably talk directly to him for advice.

[tfischer]

Thanks for the tune-up video. I should double-check my coplanar-ness and table's perpendicularity to the blade, but I'm pretty sure my guide bushings are proper, and that seems like the only thing that would cause what I'm seeing...

Tom, thanks for the input. I'm tempted to pick up a spring and see what happens. I was looking at the MCLS one but if you've had good luck with the Iturra one that might sway me that way...

Would still like clarification on Gerti's post as well

Just noticed both of you two are local to me!

-Tim

[tfischer]

Heh, when I bought the TW blades a couple years ago everyone was swearing that that was the way to go. Now I get two posts in a row that TW are crap, go figure

-Tim

(P.S I know you guys didn't say 'crap', just amplifying for comedy's sake )