Screw Board to Bandsaw Fence for Resawing?

[Steve H Graham]

Yesterday I posted a photo of a board I planed down to 1/4" with a planing sled and portable planer. Pretty exciting. But I started with a 3/4" board; obviously, I don't want to do that all the time.

I have a 19" Shop Fox bandsaw. I just got it tuned and ready to work. I would like to be able to use it for resawing.

The fence that came with it is fairly sad. It's a rectangular aluminum tube about 3 1/2" high. I've noticed that woodworkers in videos like to screw stuff to their fences. Should I go ahead and drill holes in this thing and mount a tall, thin piece of wood on it for resawing?

I thought I was a genius for buying a big bandsaw instead of struggling with a little one, but now I've learned that a lot of the accessories will only fit small saws.

[Joe Chritz]

Get a bandsaw book. The tips and techniques in there are wide, varied and very cool.

You can resaw with a tall fence and adjust for drift (the fence can be attached in many different ways) or use a point fence and adjust the cut on the fly.

You really need a flat face to put against the fence anyway so you are likely to still have to flatten one face with a sled or jointer, then resaw.

Gettting under 1/8" veneers is a piece of cake with my old Delta and a woodslicer blade up to the 6" max of the saw. That is with a piece of flat 2x4 clamped to the table for a fence. (3 1/2" direction up)

Joe

[george wilson]

One of the best ways I've used to resaw is to make a rip fence that offers a single line of contact with the wood.That way,you can adjust for blade drift as needed. I took a wooden knee left over from shop shelving, clamped it beside the blade,coming exactly from the bandsaw's column. In the front edge,next to the blade,I planed the edge of the knee to a 45 degree angle on each side,leaving a thin vertical edge for the wood to rest on. This edge was situated just where the blade starts to cut. Used it for decades.

[Jose Kilpatrick]

Get a bandsaw book. The tips and techniques in there are wide, varied and very cool.

You can resaw with a tall fence and adjust for drift (the fence can be attached in many different ways) or use a point fence and adjust the cut on the fly.

You really need a flat face to put against the fence anyway so you are likely to still have to flatten one face with a sled or jointer, then resaw.

Gettting under 1/8" veneers is a piece of cake with my old Delta and a woodslicer blade up to the 6" max of the saw. That is with a piece of flat 2x4 clamped to the table for a fence. (3 1/2" direction up)

Joe

I have seen great results with a point fence. Especially if blad drift is an issue.

[John Thompson]

I have used a point fence for years but... recently drilled a hole in my Steel City 18" stock fence.. and mounted a piece of 4" x 18" phenolic on it's face. If I need taller I have 3 pieces of MDF cut to fit the front of that with pre-drilled holes so I can quickly screw them on.

Tune the saw first to get blade vertical with table. Then shim between the stock fence and false fence to get the fence square to the blade. If you do so and have proper tension applied... there should be no drift. IMO adjusting for drift is simply a crutch that does not fix the problem of why there is drift as there shouldn't be on a well tuned saw.

Good luck...

Sarge..

[Jose Kilpatrick]

there should be no drift. IMO adjusting for drift is simply a crutch that does not fix the problem of why there is drift as there shouldn't be on a well tuned saw.

Good luck...

Sarge..

If you could show me a way to eliminate drift on my 1/3hp 9" shopmaster, you would have a follower for life. Though it's tuned to the best of my ability, I only get no blade drift if I move work at a snails pace.

[Peter Luch]

If you could show me a way to eliminate drift on my 1/3hp 9" shopmaster, you would have a follower for life. Though it's tuned to the best of my ability, I only get no blade drift if I move work at a snails pace.

My first thing would be to purchase the best blade possible and as wide a blade as can fit on your saw.
I have a Delta 14" and until I got a real quality blade I had problems. Now I get no drift at all even on Koa and other hard woods.

Aloha, Pete

[Steve H Graham]

That's pretty cool. Wonder if the nearest high-end lumber store has phenolic.

[Pete Bradley]

Count me among those who have never had to care about drift, even for maximum resaws. I usually resaw with a 1/2"X3TPI "timberwolf" band.

To the OP, my primary resaw fence is shopmade. I cut two pieces of MDF somewhat longer than the table, then screwed them together to make a long L channel. I then clamped it to the table and carefully screwed in right triangles using a square to make it perfectly vertical over the full length. The triangles were also epoxied to hold it square permanently.

Pete

[Jason Beam]

If you do so and have proper tension applied... there should be no drift. IMO adjusting for drift is simply a crutch that does not fix the problem of why there is drift as there shouldn't be on a well tuned saw.


HEAR HEAR!!! :)

For those who have saws with crowned wheels, you can fiddle a little with your tracking to help reduce any drift you might get. The right blade, properly tensioned on a correctly tuned saw will not drift. Period. It is not a fact of life, it is absoultely fixable most of the time.

The only time I've had drift I couldn't fix was on a nailfinder blade that I abused the heck out of. Even then, my drift was minimal and only a problem on the thinnest slices at max depth.

I sure wish the "teachers" of bandsaw technique would figure this out and stop perpetuating the "Living with Drift" mentality.

[William Falberg]

Listen to Jason Beam; he's got it right!
I'll add that it's the *blade* that drifts - not the saw. To stop the *blade* from drifting, increase the set angle (either buy a wider-set blade such as Timberwolf, or re-set your own) .
Wider blades are NOT the answer to drift! In fact, the wider the blade - the more beam strength you'll get.
At some point in the narrow-kerf, wide-blade scenario the blade starts to act like a fence and your workpiece will follow the blade and push your fence out of the way. I call that *fence drift*. How many do you hear complaning of *fence drift*? Not many. The solution to fence drift would obviously be a *point blade*. This is spam in the sense that I sell *point blades* to Falberg saw customers (only). My *point blades* consist of Timberwolf 1/2" 2&3TPI with re-set teeth. They'll follow any fence that comes along to hell and back. The trick is understanding set-angle.
In regard to point fences: why not just draw a straight line and free-hand. If you're wiggling the wood around anyway - why bother with the fence at all. THAT I don't get.........

[John Thompson]

That's pretty cool. Wonder if the nearest high-end lumber store has phenolic.

I got this particular one at Highland WW as it was made for use as a plate for Scary Sharp. I had several... saw it sitting there and now it got shuffled to another department. But.. any phonelic with a flat face will work. That piece has a melamine coating.

Sarge..

[John Thompson]

If you could show me a way to eliminate drift on my 1/3hp 9" shopmaster, you would have a follower for life. Though it's tuned to the best of my ability, I only get no blade drift if I move work at a snails pace.

I'm not familar with either a 9" BS or the blades it takes Jose... so I think I would pass on that. But.. just a guess would be that fact you don't drift at a snail's pace would lead me off to the question of what tooth count and configuration blade are you using. Keep in mind that re-saw cannot be done at the rate of shoving a rip cut through a 3 HP or above TS with a 20 T blade on board. Not even on large BS.. much less a 9" with 1/3 HP. Not familar with bearings.. gude-post.. etc. on that small a saw. :)

Sarge..

[John Thompson]

In regard to point fences: why not just draw a straight line and free-hand. If you're wiggling the wood around anyway - why bother with the fence at all. THAT I don't get.........

I used point fences for over 30 years and it gets the job done. I just recently swithched and here's why....

I will give you a for example. Two days ago I re-sawed QSWO 4/4. There were 20 pieces of it 24" long and I wanted to yield 4-5 1/8" slices off each piece. Now.. I could draw a line after each cut to do on a point fence. You really can't draw all lines in advance as you cannot precisely calculate the width of blade doing it that way.

So.. I spend over and hour or more trying to draw a line after measuring fore and aft to get my reference points for a straight line on between 80 and 100 cuts. That takes too much time but would be fine for 2-4 cuts if that is all one has to do.

But.. with re-saw fence set for a 1/8" rip.. I simply place the stock on the fence and move it through.. remove and move it through again and again until all 80 or so cuts are made. That took around 45 minutes of re-saw. If I had used a point fence.. it would still have taken 45 minutes plus another hour + to draw lines.

So.. a point fence is valid in some cases but not the "holy grail" for All and really not as good an option IMO as the re-saw fence which eliminates time consuming line drawing with a volume of work.

Regards....

Sarge..

[Chris Padilla]

I'll pile on the "what drift" bandwagon although I'll freely admit that I don't know what causes it or how to fix it despite what I read from William F. and Jason B. :)

I use a fence for resawing. Maybe one day I'll try a point fence to see if it is better but frankly, I don't get how it could be.

I look at a bandsaw fence much like a table saw fence although they are different beasts for sure. In Europe, they have "shorty" fences on TS that don't go beyond the back of the blade much. Why not have the same for a fence on a BS? It may allow the resawn piece to spread out and not cause any pinching or pushing off of the fence to mess up the cut. I guess a point fence does the same thing.

After all, once it is cut, who cares what happens to the wood after that? It has been cut to whatever thickness and is done. What you care about is what happens at the blade.

I just like the "security" of a shorty fence to giude me to the blade. I often like to put a featherboard just in front of the blade keeping the bottom of my wood firmly up against the fence. I find this works well for tall (12" + ?) resawing. I can then focus a bit more on the top of the wood being cut.

When I'm talking about resawing, I'm typically doing 3/32" veneer cuts and drum sanding them down to 1/16".

Now as far as blades go, I'm finding that wider isn't necessarily better. I own a 1" wide Lenox Trimaster (1", 2/3 var tpi, carbide) that is a wonderful blade. It cuts very very nicely. However, it eats up a 1/16" of wood (kerf).

I've been using a 1/2" wide Lenox Diemaster 2 lately (1/2", 6 tpi, hook style, bimetal) with great results and its kerf is a little larger than HALF the Trimaster's kerf. It is also about 20% the cost of the Trimaster and frankly I am shocked at how much wood it has resawn for me thus far and is still sharp. For those who watch David Marks' Woodworks, this is my best guess as to the blade he uses for resawing on his big bandsaw. Oh, I have a Minimax MM20 (20") BS. :)

[Ken Garlock]

Tune the saw first to get blade vertical with table. Then shim between the stock fence and false fence to get the fence square to the blade. If you do so and have proper tension applied... there should be no drift. IMO adjusting for drift is simply a crutch that does not fix the problem of why there is drift as there shouldn't be on a well tuned saw.

Good luck...

Sarge..

Oh pelosi.
You can spend a week tuning up a bandsaw and still have drift. Drift is a characteristic of the blade and the tension on the blade. Fixing drift is a two part process. One, get good tension on the blade, I use around 25K pounds. Second, and now the hard part: draw a straight line on a board parallel to its edge and cut a couple inches, free hand, along the line. Stop and mark the drift on your table top with a pencil. Continue to cut a couple inches more, and mark the board edge again. The two marks should be close to parallel. Move your fence up to one of the marks and adjust it parallel to the pencil mark(s). Tighten the fence adjuster. That blade will now cut a straight line without drift given that you keep your work against the fence.

That specific adjustment will work only for that blade at that tension. Change blades and you need to repeat the process. On my MM16, I use a good blade, a Highland wood slicer. When I set it up, I note the number of turns to release the tension, and mark it on a piece of tape on the cabinet door. Next time, crank up the tension and get with it.... (I release the tension at the end of the day.)

Don't believe me? OK, go to the DIY network and look up David Marks program on tool maintenance. David will show you the above procedure.

** There is a lot of opinions on blade tension. Many people like and recommend around 15K pounds, others like in the 20K+ range. I like the higher tension.

[David Romano]

I don't adjust my fence for drift either. My philosophy is to adjust the tracking. The fence is is set up to give no drift when the blade is tracking correctly and the guides are also adjusted. I do a test cut to see that ther is no drift of course, but with the right feed rate and maybe a tweak to the tarcking, I really don't have to worry about drift.

David

[Jason Beam]

Oh pelosi.

Cute ... *eyeroll*



You can spend a week tuning up a bandsaw and still have drift.


If it takes you more than 20 minutes to get rid of drift, buy a better blade. Period. You won't change my mind about that.



Change blades and you need to repeat the process.


Precisely the reason I refuse to live with drift. I have adjusted several saws to ZERO drift. You can spend your time adjusting a fence and living with drift. That's absolutely up to you. But acceptance does not make it unfixable.



Don't believe me? OK, go to the DIY network and look up David Marks program on tool maintenance. David will show you the above procedure.


Now I love David. I really do. If he'd let me, I'd show him how he doesn't have to go through all that. Mark Duginske used to teach the same technique. So do a LOT of other "teachers". Just because the teachers do it doesn't mean it's right. There were once teachers who told people the world was flat.

Believe what you want to believe. I don't intend to change your mind. But I do think debunking a myth is useful to those who are still forming their opinions.

Drift is a choice, you don't have to live with it. There is no debate about this. Look at all the other folks on this thread who have similar opinions. That beats any tutorial David, Mark, Norm or any other pro can give. Since when does pro unwaveringly mean expert? :)

[Chris Padilla]

Since when does pro unwaveringly mean expert? :)

A pro who sleeps at a Holiday Inn Express...I'll believe anything they say.

;)

[Jason Beam]

A pro who sleeps at a Holiday Inn Express...I'll believe anything they say.

;)


Touche!

That's my problem. I keep visiting Tom Bodette :cool::cool:

[Anthony Whitesell]

The second photo John Thompson posted shows a set of clamps (predominently from Rockler) that allow you to clamp stuff to the fence instead of drilling through it.

[William Falberg]

Jason: "That beats any tutorial David, Mark, Norm or any other pro can give. Since when does pro unwaveringly mean expert?"

By "pro" do you mean guys who actually design and build resaws? Or guys that write about bandsaws? I build saws that cut 16"W straight and flat veneer all day but apparently I won't be an *expert* until my book is published. If that's all you need to be qualified, I'm half way there. I've got the first five chapters drafted and haven't even started on fences yet. Each one of the subjects we're touching on here is worth and gets a whole chapter in my book, i.e., blade tension, blade dynamics, wheel design, frame design, set angle calculation, and operation. It's a very difficult subject and I've had to resort heavily to analogies in explaining the mechanics involved. Where I have the advantage, however, is that I can whip up a new saw to test my theories and make conclusions based on observable results. Thus far *blade drift* equates to *operator error* . The primary function of a fence is to keep cows off your property.

I got the title already: "Why My Band Saws Are So Cool And Your Band Saw Sucks So Bad" Like it?

[Chris Padilla]

William,

You say to increase the set of the blade...you can't really do that with a carbide blade like the Trimaster...can you??

Also, increasing the set increases the kerf.... I've made it a lifelong search to find the ulitmate compromise between kerf and finish quality in order to maximize the yield of veneers from a plank of wood.

If you are, indeed, writing a book, I hope that after reading it, I will have the answer to my lifelong search! :)

[Eric Gustafson]

Drift is a choice, you don't have to live with it. There is no debate about this. Look at all the other folks on this thread who have similar opinions. That beats any tutorial David, Mark, Norm or any other pro can give. Since when does pro unwaveringly mean expert? :)

Do you then summarize the zero drift process you recommend to:

Get a good blade and fiddle with the tracking?

[William Falberg]

Chris:
"If you are, indeed, writing a book, I hope that after reading it, I will have the answer to my lifelong search!"

The book won't help you with your women problems but, yes! , you can re-set a carbide blade; or at least I can - I have a little blade-setter of my own design that's quite precise. I hesitate to re-set carbide blades, however, because it destroys the nice surface finish. Bending them out produces the same sharp edges that cause "band saw tracks" on the finish. I tried different blade widths of Lennox CT blade on my Corbel King and found the narrow 3/8" 3TPI very sweet for re-sawing deep cuts. The 1/2" (also 3TPI) wanted to bow inside the kerf. I haven't tried the same experiment on my new SliceMiester, which has mucho more tension potential. I need to general some capital to procede with that project, like for buying all the blades I trash. (That chapter is called "Vulture Capital" and it deals with your favorite Dinosaur Tool Corp.) Selecting the right blade to optimize each situation will depend on whether I can shame the blade distributors into publishing their set-angles. So far they don't seem to understand the term and I suspect it's because the accountants that run the company can't do scientific math. We already know they don't employ research engineers but you'd think they could subcontract the hard stuff out to India, China, or wherever they get their owners manuals written. France? Anyway we need a chart of ALL the blade specs for comparative analysis. It might even help us all find a woman.

[glenn bradley]

I'm in the no-drift crowd. It took just a short amount of time on my G0513X; short enough that I didn't keep track. I generally just slide the fence up there and saw away. Every so often as my blade is near the end of its life or the figure in a board is just too squirrely, I'll use a knife fence/point fence/resaw fence or whatever you want to call it but, this is rare.

[Jason Beam]

Do you then summarize the zero drift process you recommend to:

Get a good blade and fiddle with the tracking?

No. Close, but not quite.

Everything i've said can be summarized as: Get a good blade, properly setup your saw and if you then have drift you can subtly adjust your tracking to help work out the drift.

[Brian Kerley]

Ok, with regards to drift, I've got a ton of it with my Olson blade. Yeah, it's a garbage blade, but I can't imagine that I have drift of like 30 degrees due to a bad blade. I'm going to order some timberwolf blades this weekend, but if that doesn't fix it, here's my big question. Assuming that the tracking is good, and the wheels are coplanar, and the table is square, and my guides are setup right, does more tension make drift better or worse? I've got my tension almost maxed out right now, and trying to figure out if its just an old spring causing me problems (saw is from 1974, 14" delta/rockwell).

[John Thompson]

Oh pelosi.
You can spend a week tuning up a bandsaw and still have drift. Drift is a characteristic of the blade and the tension on the blade. Fixing drift is a two part process. One, get good tension on the blade, I use around 25K pounds. Second, and now the hard part: draw a straight line on a board parallel to its edge and cut a couple inches, free hand, along the line. Stop and mark the drift on your table top with a pencil. Continue to cut a couple inches more, and mark the board edge again. The two marks should be close to parallel. Move your fence up to one of the marks and adjust it parallel to the pencil mark(s). Tighten the fence adjuster. That blade will now cut a straight line without drift given that you keep your work against the fence.

That specific adjustment will work only for that blade at that tension. Change blades and you need to repeat the process. On my MM16, I use a good blade, a Highland wood slicer. When I set it up, I note the number of turns to release the tension, and mark it on a piece of tape on the cabinet door. Next time, crank up the tension and get with it.... (I release the tension at the end of the day.)

Don't believe me? OK, go to the DIY network and look up David Marks program on tool maintenance. David will show you the above procedure.

** There is a lot of opinions on blade tension. Many people like and recommend around 15K pounds, others like in the 20K+ range. I like the higher tension.

I also use a lot of tensin but not maximum as I personally believe in beam strenght. And shimming the fence to square it to the blade works fine without all the further ado once the blade is tracking on-line. I used a 1/2 Wood-slicer for over ten years on my 14" BS before swithching two years ago to a Lennox bi-metal on my 18" which IMO definitely requires tension but not as much as a carbide.

Shimming the fence is adjusting the fence the same as on-board fence adjusters that you use.

Sarge..

[Jason Beam]

I got the title already: "Why My Band Saws Are So Cool And Your Band Saw Sucks So Bad" Like it?

I love that title. Let's see your bandsaw! :P


Jason: "That beats any tutorial David, Mark, Norm or any other pro can give. Since when does pro unwaveringly mean expert?"

By "pro" do you mean guys who actually design and build resaws? Or guys that write about bandsaws?


I think it's great you're writing a book. I don't think a book makes anyone an expert, either. But I do think that anyone who has placed themselves in the spotlight on a given subject should know what they're talking about. Even more importantly, they had better disclose where they may be lacking in information.

I don't think there are very many true experts in anything, to be honest. I see leaders, I see experienced folks, but I also see a lot of people who just do what they see others do. A few pros (professional woodworkers) I've asked about this whole drift thing have ultimately landed on "Well that's just the way I was taught." This is not acceptable to me. It may be acceptable to some, but that seems pretty self limiting in my opinion. Instead, I'd rather find things that improve the situation rather than live with it.

I dare say that just about any saw with an adequate blade (both in quality and in suitability of purpose) can be tuned such that there is no drift. Now, that requires some qualifiers for those who like to nitpick little details - the saw has to be located here on earth, with reasonably shaped wheels and features that allow it to be tuned and function correctly.

If the saw is compromising somewhere to get a decent setup (tension, alignment, guide positions, etc) then adjusting the tracking may have unfortunate side effects that have nothing to do with drift. It may make taking out drift impossible, but that's not something I'd advocate settling for. Solve the root of the problem. I've had 3 of my very own saws and was able to adjust any quality blade I threw on it to have near-zero drift. I've adjusted the saws of my friends to have near-zero drift. These saws range from those little 9" plastic dealies to the standard 14" cast iron frame saws (with and without riser blocks) and on up to the 17" grizzly I just bought.

I'll be the first to say that I don't fully understand the CAUSE of every instance of drift. There are factors that aren't easily measured, but I do know that crowned wheels can help sorta steer things a bit. Now that I think about it a bit more, I think maybe saying "ZERO Drift" is a misnomer. There may verywell be drift on some of the blades I've gotten to cut straight. That drift may be cancelled out by some of my techniques. Or maybe just be sure we define drift as "straight cutting without leading toward or away from a fence that's set parallel to the miter slot and/or blade".

By adjusting the tracking on a crowned wheel, it effectively aims the blade at a different angle. The cool part is that even just a little movement can make a big difference. I'm talking 1/16" to either side of center, maybe - depending on the width of the blade. If I need to ride more than 1/4" off center, I start considering a new blade, though.

*shrug*

I get no drift. I shared how I achieve that. I also believe that it's possible for most everyone else to achieve it, too. I haven't seen every saw, I'm just stating my opinion. I'm also noticing that lots of other people seem to agree. That makes me wonder why others would hold so strongly to something that clearly others feel is false. Your mileage may vary.

[Jason Beam]

Ok, with regards to drift, I've got a ton of it with my Olson blade. Yeah, it's a garbage blade, but I can't imagine that I have drift of like 30 degrees due to a bad blade. I'm going to order some timberwolf blades this weekend, but if that doesn't fix it, here's my big question. Assuming that the tracking is good, and the wheels are coplanar, and the table is square, and my guides are setup right, does more tension make drift better or worse? I've got my tension almost maxed out right now, and trying to figure out if its just an old spring causing me problems (saw is from 1974, 14" delta/rockwell).


Brian, I am of the opinion that springs don't get old. I may be wrong, but then my car's springs have held up for 20 years just fine. Beats me. I don't know enough about springs to say otherwise.

I do know that tension really hasn't been a factor in my drift experience. You're getting 30 degrees of drift? Holy crap ... on more than one blade? I say that's the problem for sure. I would be returning any blade that got more drift than I can adjust out of it. 30 degrees ... how do you follow a line?! :P

EDIT: I can't imagine ANY other cause BUT the blade, by the way. Get more than one on there. If several blades exhibit this problem, I'd start looking into the alignment of your wheels and the like.

[William Falberg]

"Assuming that the tracking is good, and the wheels are coplanar, and the table is square, and my guides are setup right, does more tension make drift better or worse?"

More tension just means you're making the motor work harder and the blade acts more like a fence. If you put a wide enough blade in there under enough tenson, without letting the blade crab in the shadow of its kerf, it'll replace the fence altogether as the guiding force. Do you want the blade to follow the fence or the fence to follow the blade? You can't have both. One or the other has to correct itself as-you-go. I don't know how to build a fence that *reads* blade lead, but I'll work on it. That would be a great after-market "band-aid" (to coin a phrase) and I could probably sell millions of them but until me or Dinosaur Tool Corp. perfects that technology we're stuck with our blade selections.

[William Falberg]

"Now, that requires some qualifiers for those who like to nitpick little details - the saw has to be located here on earth, with reasonably shaped wheels and features that allow it to be tuned and function correctly."

That's the nutshell version - well said. It takes *proportion* into account. When you see how stupid today's bandsaws really are you'll be the first to convert your two-wheeled dinosaur into a press; i.e., drill, brake, arbor, etc. There is most likely a booming business to be had converting them into marine accessories -yacht owners are always looking for cheap anchors. Have you ever wondered why it takes a five hundred pound machine, capable of crushing rocks, to tension a strip of steel .032" thick, by means of a spring you could collapse with your fingers? Overikll? Underkill? Who knows. It's that kind of "industrial design" that's got our balance of trade where it is today. Teach your children well.

[Chip Lindley]

I Just DO WHAT WORKS! With a Delta 14", it is much more effective to me to set the fence parallel to the slight *lead* than to fiddle for hours with a saw that otherwise tracks and runs just fine. Once the fence is set to the *lead*, ZILLIONS of 1/16" veneers have been sawed CONSISTENTLY! Why obcess??

There are those who will blame the saw OR blade, and spend valuable time correcting *something wrong*, OR there are those who will cope with such a deficiency and get on with their LIVES (and their bandsawing!)

[Brian Kerley]

Brian, I am of the opinion that springs don't get old. I may be wrong, but then my car's springs have held up for 20 years just fine. Beats me. I don't know enough about springs to say otherwise.

I do know that tension really hasn't been a factor in my drift experience. You're getting 30 degrees of drift? Holy crap ... on more than one blade? I say that's the problem for sure. I would be returning any blade that got more drift than I can adjust out of it. 30 degrees ... how do you follow a line?! :P

EDIT: I can't imagine ANY other cause BUT the blade, by the way. Get more than one on there. If several blades exhibit this problem, I'd start looking into the alignment of your wheels and the like.

I'm hoping that this is just a blade issue, so I'm ordering 4 from Suffolk. If those don't work, it's time to try something new.

One weird thing that happens though is with my current blade on there, there are times when I'm cutting and I start hearing what sounds like a slapping of the blade against the channel on the left side between the upper and lower wheels. Granted, the channel is a U of aluminum channel that was added by the previous owner due to the riser block he installed. That's why I keep tensioning the blade to heck thinking it's too loose, and that's why it's slapping, but I haven't been able to pin it down yet.

[Mark Koury]

From my point of view Jason Beam is on the right track regarding fence-guided resawing (vs. single point). But, one point needs emphasis: The table miter slot should be parellel to the blade and the fence parallel to the table miter slot. So that then the fence will be parallel to the blade, preferably a wide blade. This set-up is made with the blade in the center of the wheels and the guides away. (Needless to say the fence should also be DN perpendicular to the table.) Minor tracking errors can then be corrected by adjustment of the attitude of the upper wheel. This should work for any good sharp blade. If this doesn’t - - buy a new blade. (Assuming of course that the guides are set correctly and don’t twist the blade.) Band saws seem so simple - 2 wheels and a band - but, the geometry is so complex!

[Steve H Graham]

I was watching Doug Stowe's box video tonight, and he has a great jig for resawing. It's just a couple of pieces of wood at right angles to each other, with braces in the side away from the saw blade. He uses clamps to hold it on his table. Very simple.

[Chip Lindley]

Forget Point Fences! Just a Waste Of Time! I am really surprised NOBODY has come up with an Infinitely adjustable bandsaw resaw fence! A fence that can be slid along the fence rails and locked (front and back). The Truly Inspired aspect would be that the fence face hinges (and locks) left or right TO FOLLOW BLADE LEAD! (blade lead can accurately be determined by bandsawing freehand, about 12 inches down a marked centerline, into a 4/4 board, 3" tall)

BUT if I did market it, you could not buy it unless (1) You can prove your bandsaw is a piece of crap! (2) You cannot be a woodworking Pro, (3) You cannot be an author of bandsaw books! (4) You cannot custom-build bandsaws!

But, as soon as I market it, CHINA will steal it! So, I am keeping this little goodie all for myself! It is so simple that I am somewhat embarassed to be impressed! Anyone can build one and get to resawing with their *Less Than Perfect* bandsaw!! ...Or... continue pontificating on the *SIN of blade lead* while gaining their PhD in the physics and geometry of bandsaws! ME? I just wanna saw enough veneers to reface a kitchen or two, or three!

I think my little signature below, holds true HERE more than it has in a long long time!

[guy knight]

i mad a l shapped box with supports to keep it at 90 to the table from mdf 10" high and a torsion box 16" high from mdf that i clamp to my fence make sure it is square with the blade adjust for drift if any and you will be able to cut 3/32 veneer with a good quality blade i preffer carbide

[William Falberg]

"Forget Point Fences! Just a Waste Of Time! I am really surprised NOBODY has come up with an Infinitely adjustable bandsaw resaw fence! A fence that can be slid along the fence rails and locked (front and back). The Truly Inspired aspect would be that the fence face hinges (and locks) left or right TO FOLLOW BLADE LEAD! (blade lead can accurately be determined by bandsawing freehand, about 12 inches down a marked centerline, into a 4/4 board, 3" tall)"

That sounds interesting. Have you made such a device for your own use? Would you want to share it with us?

"BUT if I did market it, you could not buy it unless (1) You can prove your bandsaw is a piece of crap! (2) You cannot be a woodworking Pro, (3) You cannot be an author of bandsaw books! (4) You cannot custom-build bandsaws!"

I didn't understand this at all. Could you expand on that or clarify your meaning? Are you referring to me with sarcasm, or is that a general rant against this whole thread?

"But, as soon as I market it, CHINA will steal it!"

You have a choice in that regard: you can make it and sell however you want, but if you don't want any competition you'll have to patent it. Patenting prevents anybody from using your IP in their product, that includes China, with whom we have treaties to protect ourselves from infringement. I don't patent much of anything anymore because of the time and expense involved. I'm looking for investors currently so some ideas are kept on the back burner in the event they might want to file patent applications for their own financial protection.

"So, I am keeping this little goodie all for myself! It is so simple that I am somewhat embarassed to be impressed!"

That's your choice again. I've decided to simply publish (sell) my innovations and leave it open to whoever wants to use them. By doing so I "poison the well" so that nobody else can patent them either. "One World" if you will.

"Anyone can build one and get to resawing with their *Less Than Perfect* bandsaw!!"

Are you referring to my "less than perfect" or your "less than perfect" bandsaw? Either way, it sounds like a great idea and I'm going to try it out one of these days. If it works, I'll give you the credits publicly. Fair enough?

"...Or... continue pontificating on the *SIN of blade lead* while gaining their PhD in the physics and geometry of bandsaws! ME? I just wanna saw enough veneers to reface a kitchen or two, or three!"

I don't think anyone here was pontificating but I'll apologize if anything I said ruffled your feathers. What does that mean anyway; pontificating? It was an interesting discussion and I get as passionate about my opinions as the next guy.

Apparently you do too:

"I think my little signature below, holds true HERE more than it has in a long long time!-------------"If it ain't broke don't fix it""


Which expresses everything I stand against, in simple but eloquent terms.

[Phil Thien]

Euro saws I've used have had drift issues that I've been able to minimize (but never totally eliminate) via adjustments to tension and tracking.

Other saws with crowned wheels/tires and with the blade running in the middle of the wheel have not caused any drift problems for me.