I just evidently can't resaw... any creative ideas?

[Matt Armstrong]

So, I don't know what the deal is, but I've got a G0514X2 and a 1" Laguna resaw king blade. I can't even resaw a 2x4 without the thing drifting out of control. When resawing, the blade decides to point slightly towards the fence, causing the piece to tug away from the fence. If I use featherboards to push the piece against the fence, it just tries to pop out of the wood and into the fence. When attempting to resaw a 4" wide piece of walnut into ~1/4" slices, it almost popped out and into the resaw fence itself. Ugh.

When I go to set the drift, it seems like it's always drifting to the right, but as soon as I stop pushing forward, the blade itself (being 1" thick) swivels the material to a near perfect-parallel-to-the-miter-slot position. If I shut off the saw and hold the material in place to the drift angle (before it swivels back straight), the angle is more severe than I can even set my fence for.

I've checked coplanarity but when the wheels are coplanar the blade is towards the front of both upper and lower wheels slightly. In this position, or with the wheels adjusted so that both upper and lower wheels have the blade tracking in the center of the crown, I still have this drift problem.

I've also tried other blades... a 3/4" blade (stock, but worth testing) does the same thing, though slightly less noticeably, and a 1/4" timberwolf blade does it somewhat, though the smaller width blades are less finicky with drift anyway, for obvious reasons. So in short, all of them seem to do the same thing.

I've tried an incredibly slow feed rate, but that just slowly causes the same problem.

It's fairly depressing, but I'm willing to keep tweaking with it, though I probably need some more 2x4's to hack up.

Edit: Video showing severe drift problem when using 1/4" timberwolf blade. It just happened during a freehand cut. The wood is doug fir, face / edge jointed. THe blade tension was set. The total length of the cut (It's hard to tell how fast I'm going from the perspective) is about 6". The cut speed was a little bit quick, admittedly, but the material is onlya bout 5" wide and it's doug fir...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5JQGixqhZI

Another video of the saw itself, turning on, running, etc. Youtube says quality will improve once it transcodes, I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY1VzD-zR5Q

[Tri Hoang]

I guess the problem is not having the fence at the correct drift angle. On larger blades such as the resaw king, the fence must be parrallel to the blade or you wont be able to saw straight.

I'll also make sure that the blade has adequate tension.

[Matt Armstrong]

Drift angle is always set... its too extreme for the fence though

[Frank Warta]

I've got no real expertise here so this is all supposition, but my understanding is that the crown of the wheel has a lot to do with the drift angle of a band saw. That being the case it stands to reason you should be able to have some effect on the drift angle by moving the blade, in the case it feels intuitive that it would need to move away from the operator but trail and error may prove otherwise.

I can imagine that a 1" blade probably doesn't leave a whole lot of wiggle room but assuming you've got some I'd imagine it couldn't hurt to give it a try.

[Tri Hoang]

If the blade tracks correctly, it should not require large fence adjustment for drift. It it does, I'd check the tires and make sure they are in good shape. You could also reduce the drift by adjusting how the blade is tracked on the tires. Too much forward, the fence would point into the blade. Too far back, it points away. On larger blades, it is possible that the blade will have to track very close to the front edge of the tires.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Matt,

You could by really do yourself a favor by buying Mark Duginske's latest book The New Complete Guide to the Band Saw: Everything You Need to Know About the Most Important Saw in the Shop (http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Guide-Band-Saw/dp/1565233182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269920943&sr=1-1). It's currenlty $13.57 at Amazon. It is an incredible wealth of information about a bandsaw.

As stated, typically I adjust my fence for drift and it's on. In his book Duginske shows an alternative method using a guide pin of sorts. When you use this method, you have to mark a line on the wood and follow it manually.

The main thing is don't get too frustrated. What should be fun loses the joy then.

[Steve Prill]

As you move the blade forward and back on the tires, do you readjust the thrust bearing behind the blade for proper clearance? Does moving the blade slightly behind center on the tires change the drift angle?

My 14" saw with a 1/2" blade doesn't require any drift adjustment with the blade set in the middle of the tire.

Steve

[Dan Hahr]

After you verify that the blade is tracking properly and running as close as possible to the center of the wheels, try to set the fence again for the drift angle. When you do this, there should be no forces trying to move the wood or twist it side to side. You should be able to very carefully let go of the wood without it moving at all. If it does, the back of the blade is touching the kerf, and that means the drift angle is wrong.

Also, find the drift angle using a squared up thinner piece of wood. I usually use 3/4 inch stock that has flat faces. I mark a line about a 1/4 inch from a straight edge and steer the board into the blade from the very rear of the board, basically letting the blade steer the forward end of the board. Also, using a 2x4 that is not perfectly square can steer your blade into a never correcting twist. Whatever kind of wood, once the blade starts wandering or twisting, it rarely "goes back" to straight.

If you do this properly, and your fence will not correct to the severe angle, it sounds as though the blade has dulled on one side or lost some set. I had a Woodslice that I hit a nail very lightly, but enough to see some shiny spots on the points. That was all it took to turn that blade into trash. It would turn itself backwards in 6 inches.

You should be able to set that saw up to slice up anything.

Good luck, Dan

[Matt Armstrong]

I've got no real expertise here so this is all supposition, but my understanding is that the crown of the wheel has a lot to do with the drift angle of a band saw. That being the case it stands to reason you should be able to have some effect on the drift angle by moving the blade, in the case it feels intuitive that it would need to move away from the operator but trail and error may prove otherwise.

I can imagine that a 1" blade probably doesn't leave a whole lot of wiggle room but assuming you've got some I'd imagine it couldn't hurt to give it a try.

I've placed it near the rear of the tire, or the front. It does affect the drift angle but even near the rear of the tire, the drift angle is probably 4-5 degrees, with a significant variance that's ruined several nice pieces of hardwood.

I should also point out that while the grizzly fence doesn't adjust more than a few degrees in each direction, I have improvised a fence that's perpendicular to the table and infinitely adjustable by clamping onto the table, though the variance in drift still is creating some terrible cuts.

[Matt Armstrong]

As you move the blade forward and back on the tires, do you readjust the thrust bearing behind the blade for proper clearance? Does moving the blade slightly behind center on the tires change the drift angle?

My 14" saw with a 1/2" blade doesn't require any drift adjustment with the blade set in the middle of the tire.

Steve

Yes, and yes, but not enough.

[Matt Armstrong]

After you verify that the blade is tracking properly and running as close as possible to the center of the wheels, try to set the fence again for the drift angle. When you do this, there should be no forces trying to move the wood or twist it side to side. You should be able to very carefully let go of the wood without it moving at all. If it does, the back of the blade is touching the kerf, and that means the drift angle is wrong.

Also, find the drift angle using a squared up thinner piece of wood. I usually use 3/4 inch stock that has flat faces. I mark a line about a 1/4 inch from a straight edge and steer the board into the blade from the very rear of the board, basically letting the blade steer the forward end of the board. Also, using a 2x4 that is not perfectly square can steer your blade into a never correcting twist. Whatever kind of wood, once the blade starts wandering or twisting, it rarely "goes back" to straight.

If you do this properly, and your fence will not correct to the severe angle, it sounds as though the blade has dulled on one side or lost some set. I had a Woodslice that I hit a nail very lightly, but enough to see some shiny spots on the points. That was all it took to turn that blade into trash. It would turn itself backwards in 6 inches.

You should be able to set that saw up to slice up anything.

Good luck, Dan

Since even every other problem should be correctable, I'm beginning to suspect that the major source of drift is the resaw king blade itself. The blade was bought as part of the SMC special, but I've never been able to get it to resaw right.

After correcting for a still-somewhat-significant drift angle, I used a 1/4" pos-claw timberwolf blade to resaw some 10" wide bubinga. It was sort of slow and left a rough surface but it didn't wander during the cut like the resaw king keeps doing. To be fair, the timberwolf tends to be more forgiving in general due to the tooth set and the narrow blade width itself.

[Van Huskey]

Tension sounds like it could be an issue as well, carbide blades want about 25000 PSI where a silicon steel is fine with 15000 and usually have a thinner cross section than a carbide blade so one thing I would try is really cranking up the tension. Quite frankly though many may disagree you are pushing the limits of the 514 with a 1 inch carbide blade.

[Don Morris]

Matt,

Just know, you're not alone. I've about given up trying to resaw. And yes I have Mark's book. I've tried two blades. Watched films. Tweeked my BS as best I can. I'm just incompetent or my BS can't be tweeked (doubtfull). Probably the former, but I have to move on. If there was a class at the local Woodcraft on it, I'd take it, but in the meantime, I'll just have to do other projects.

[Chip Lindley]

Ditto Matt! My first thought is that the blade is at fault. It could have been dulled on one side (it doesn't take much) to make it pull drastically to one side. I learned this chainsawing! It only takes a slight touch on one side against anything non-wood to dull it beyond it's ability to cut.

Try a new 1/2" or 3/4", 3 or 4 TPI blade and see if your results don't improve.

[Josh Bowman]

Matt,
I feel Vann may be correct. Insure the tension is set correct. It should be very tight. On my Laguna with the 1 inch resaw king, it is set so I have about 1/4" deflection when I'm 5 inch's down from the back of the top wheel using moderate pressure.
I use to only have a shop smith band saw:( But I could resaw with it to the max. It was slow, but this is what I leaned from a FWW article back in the 80's. 1st they wanted me to get a rather narrow 3/8" "bi metal" blade. Found them at my local saw supply, they made them up for 30 bucks apiece....that is and was expensive. 2nd and this is where I think you are. Take the blade to the proper tension. This is were that resaw king may push your saw. That blade has to be tight! I read something once that had you tighten the blades for resawing to a sound pitch. The bottom line is if the blade is not tight enough, it will follow the grain or what ever else it wants. Using this my old shop smith could cut book match leaves from walnut very well. Up until I got a strong enough blade, they would drift and break the blades. I went through every steel blade I owned. But when I got the bi metal, I had to take the tension all the way to the max and a little more.
Now that resaw king is plenty strong to do what you need. I just went to Grizzly's web site and the G0514X2 is almost identical to my 14" SUV Laguna (except for the cute bear heads on the wheel;)). So you need to tighten that puppy up. Follow the above tension instructions and if that does not work, the other guys are right, one side of the blade is defective and causing the blades drift. I've been using mine all week to resaw maple boards. I've taken very straight cuts, yours should do the same.

[Myk Rian]

Try a new 1/2" or 3/4", 3 or 4 TPI blade and see if your results don't improve.
That's what I would do. Try a 1/2" 3tpi. Tension it using the flutter method.

[Mike Cutler]

Matt

If you have a pic of the boards you've resawn, it would be a big help if you posted them. Specifically a shot showing the end of the board at the beginning and end of the cut.

The 1" blade is toward the end of the scale for blade capacity, but the machine should handle it. Just make sure that if you increase tension that there are gaps between the spring coil.

Your bottom wheel has a pitch and yaw adjutment, the four screws on the back. If the plane of the lower wheel is not the same as the upper wheel it could cause problems. This is not a simple co-planar adjustment. It may take two straight edges to perform it, and the top and bottom of the wheels on both sides of the arbor shaft have to be in plane with the upper wheel or your blade is running with a twist in it.

Pay attention to the tracking alignment mechanism. If you have to keep adjusting the tracking there may be an issue with the way the screw is applying pressure to the tension mechanism. The screw has a very small cross section and bears aginst the back of the tension assembly. It may be "dimpling" the back of the tension mechanism making your tracking adjutment erratic.

Use an engineered sqaure and check to see that the back of the blade is perpindicular to the table. Additionally, very lightly, apply a stone to the back of the blade. You are trying to "round" the back edge of the blade so that there are no burr edges that can cause drift.

Stop using 2x4's to test with. I know they're inexpensive, but 2x4's are loaded with resins and water which leave pitch deposits on your blade. You will definitely have issues with a fouled blade. You may need to really clean the Resaw King blade at this point.

Get a nice kiln dried 8/4 piece of material about 12" long and maybe 4" wide, avoid pine, and mark the edges all the way around in the middle. Resaw this material freehand following the line on top. When you are done inspect the line that was marked on the bottom and see how close you are. Drag a flat edge across the material end to end and see if it is consistently flat, or does it have a curve to it. You're checking for barreling here, which is an indication of too little tension. You only want to apply enough tension to the blade to stop the barreling.

As you freehand the material through you will get an idea of the amount of drift angle that is evident. In all honesty though a machine like yours should have virtually no blade drift compensation. If you still find that you need to accomodate drift, check that the blade is parallel to the fence. An easy way to do this is with a piece of MDF about 2 feet long. Take the MDF and set the blade and the fence to just touch the MDFat the back of the blade.Once this is set, push the MDF through the blade backward and see if it catches the front teeth. If it does your fence is not parallel with the blade and you will definitely have problems. The blade will keep trying to move the material.
One more trick to try is to attach a piece of MDF to the existing fence. Have this piece of MDF end at the back of the blade, it has now become a "new Fence". Try to resaw with this configuration. As the material exits the back of the blade, it clears the fence and any strsses that are released are free to move independent of a fence behind the blade. This is actually a good technique to deal with squirrely woods that move after resaw. Sometimes wood just moves.

You have a really nice bandsaw, and a very well regarded blade. You shouldn't be having problems. Take pics of your resaw tests and post them. Maybe someone will see something that will help correct the issues.

[Phil Thien]

Have you tried a different blade?

If you take the blade off and lay it on a flat surface, is the blade body perfectly perpendicular to the flat surface?

[Quinn McCarthy]

I have the same saw and blade as Matt. I have been able to get the blade to resaw decent. I am not happy with how rough the surface is. I thought is way supposed to be smoother. I need to sand what I do. The question I have is how fast do you feed for resawing? I am going so slow my ADD is kicking in. I have a bunch of interior doors I need to cut veneer for. I get about the same result from my wood slicer blade. I haven't made any adjustments for drift yet to the saw. I have been able to cut some veneer in the 1/16" range.

Help.

Quinn

[Rye Crane]

Matt,

Your carbide bandsaw blade needs at least 25000# tension, but more like 30-35000# tension makes it work great. I don't know the capacity of your bandsaw but try burying the spring, crank it all the way up, you won't break the band and try it. The flutter method is fine for some carbon blades but not for carbide.

Good luck, let us know what happens.

Rye Crane
Pittsburg, Ca.

[Brian Kincaid]

I have the same saw and blade as Matt. I have been able to get the blade to resaw decent. I am not happy with how rough the surface is. I thought is way supposed to be smoother. I need to sand what I do.

Quinn, although a clean perfect resaw is the holy grail, very few achieve it even with the most expensive saws. If all you need is some ROSanding then you are in the top %. Most need a little hand planing or a belt sander.

-Brian

[james bell]

I agree with the comments on tension. i have a minimax 16 with laguna resaw carbide blades, and had the same problem you are having. i cranked up the tension (way beyond the guides on the saw) and it works much much better. I have also been practicing a lot with ash (making 3/8" thick draw fronts for all my shop cabinet drawers - $1.95/bd ft is much better than hacking cherry/walnut/etc). I screwed up a lot of money in resawing walnut until I switched to ash to get some experience in resawing.

Practice does help, but also the old saying "practice makes perfect" is totally wrong. Practice make PERMANENT. If you practice it wrong, it will stay wrong. Perfect practice makes perfect!

[John Coloccia]

FWIW re: resawing and fences
If you start with square lumber, I've found it's far easier to resaw by hand than fiddling with a fence, especially if you change blades all the time (the drift angle will keep changing). I would at least give this a try a couple of times. I was surprised how easy it was to split my line.

[Curt Harms]

If you're trying to adjust drift by tracking the blade forward or aft on the wheels, make sure all the guides are clear of the blade. Once the blade is tracking in whatever position you're trying for, then reset the guides. I think some feel that if they have good enough guides and enough tension on a bandsaw, they can FORCE the blade to do what they want. Good luck with that :rolleyes: It's not my experience. The only time I've had a bandsaw do what you're describing, I messed with the settings with no success. Put the settings back where they were originally, put on a new blade and viola, it worked great again. So, a damaged blade is a distinct possibility. I couldn't see any damage with the problem blade but there was some. I guess that's why I use $15 or $20 blades, it's less painful to pitch 'em.

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt,
I feel Vann may be correct. Insure the tension is set correct. It should be very tight. On my Laguna with the 1 inch resaw king, it is set so I have about 1/4" deflection when I'm 5 inch's down from the back of the top wheel using moderate pressure.
I use to only have a shop smith band saw:( But I could resaw with it to the max. It was slow, but this is what I leaned from a FWW article back in the 80's. 1st they wanted me to get a rather narrow 3/8" "bi metal" blade. Found them at my local saw supply, they made them up for 30 bucks apiece....that is and was expensive. 2nd and this is where I think you are. Take the blade to the proper tension. This is were that resaw king may push your saw. That blade has to be tight! I read something once that had you tighten the blades for resawing to a sound pitch. The bottom line is if the blade is not tight enough, it will follow the grain or what ever else it wants. Using this my old shop smith could cut book match leaves from walnut very well. Up until I got a strong enough blade, they would drift and break the blades. I went through every steel blade I owned. But when I got the bi metal, I had to take the tension all the way to the max and a little more.
Now that resaw king is plenty strong to do what you need. I just went to Grizzly's web site and the G0514X2 is almost identical to my 14" SUV Laguna (except for the cute bear heads on the wheel;)). So you need to tighten that puppy up. Follow the above tension instructions and if that does not work, the other guys are right, one side of the blade is defective and causing the blades drift. I've been using mine all week to resaw maple boards. I've taken very straight cuts, yours should do the same.

OK, I'll tension the snot out of it to see if it makes a difference...

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt

If you have a pic of the boards you've resawn, it would be a big help if you posted them. Specifically a shot showing the end of the board at the beginning and end of the cut.

The 1" blade is toward the end of the scale for blade capacity, but the machine should handle it. Just make sure that if you increase tension that there are gaps between the spring coil.

Your bottom wheel has a pitch and yaw adjutment, the four screws on the back. If the plane of the lower wheel is not the same as the upper wheel it could cause problems. This is not a simple co-planar adjustment. It may take two straight edges to perform it, and the top and bottom of the wheels on both sides of the arbor shaft have to be in plane with the upper wheel or your blade is running with a twist in it.

Pay attention to the tracking alignment mechanism. If you have to keep adjusting the tracking there may be an issue with the way the screw is applying pressure to the tension mechanism. The screw has a very small cross section and bears aginst the back of the tension assembly. It may be "dimpling" the back of the tension mechanism making your tracking adjutment erratic.

Use an engineered sqaure and check to see that the back of the blade is perpindicular to the table. Additionally, very lightly, apply a stone to the back of the blade. You are trying to "round" the back edge of the blade so that there are no burr edges that can cause drift.

Stop using 2x4's to test with. I know they're inexpensive, but 2x4's are loaded with resins and water which leave pitch deposits on your blade. You will definitely have issues with a fouled blade. You may need to really clean the Resaw King blade at this point.

Get a nice kiln dried 8/4 piece of material about 12" long and maybe 4" wide, avoid pine, and mark the edges all the way around in the middle. Resaw this material freehand following the line on top. When you are done inspect the line that was marked on the bottom and see how close you are. Drag a flat edge across the material end to end and see if it is consistently flat, or does it have a curve to it. You're checking for barreling here, which is an indication of too little tension. You only want to apply enough tension to the blade to stop the barreling.

As you freehand the material through you will get an idea of the amount of drift angle that is evident. In all honesty though a machine like yours should have virtually no blade drift compensation. If you still find that you need to accomodate drift, check that the blade is parallel to the fence. An easy way to do this is with a piece of MDF about 2 feet long. Take the MDF and set the blade and the fence to just touch the MDFat the back of the blade.Once this is set, push the MDF through the blade backward and see if it catches the front teeth. If it does your fence is not parallel with the blade and you will definitely have problems. The blade will keep trying to move the material.
One more trick to try is to attach a piece of MDF to the existing fence. Have this piece of MDF end at the back of the blade, it has now become a "new Fence". Try to resaw with this configuration. As the material exits the back of the blade, it clears the fence and any strsses that are released are free to move independent of a fence behind the blade. This is actually a good technique to deal with squirrely woods that move after resaw. Sometimes wood just moves.

You have a really nice bandsaw, and a very well regarded blade. You shouldn't be having problems. Take pics of your resaw tests and post them. Maybe someone will see something that will help correct the issues.

I'm definitely not seeing barreling (I've always inspected the cutoffs to learn as much as I can) but you're right about posting pics. I'll try to do some later today.

Only one thing confuses me - The blade drift angle changes as soon as I start to feed wood into it. It's definitely not the same angle at rest, so I'm not sure if the MDF test will help here. I'll clean the blade, I guess, though I'm not enthusiastic about wasting a bunch of 8/4 hardwood :(

[Matt Armstrong]

I agree with the comments on tension. i have a minimax 16 with laguna resaw carbide blades, and had the same problem you are having. i cranked up the tension (way beyond the guides on the saw) and it works much much better. I have also been practicing a lot with ash (making 3/8" thick draw fronts for all my shop cabinet drawers - $1.95/bd ft is much better than hacking cherry/walnut/etc). I screwed up a lot of money in resawing walnut until I switched to ash to get some experience in resawing.

Practice does help, but also the old saying "practice makes perfect" is totally wrong. Practice make PERMANENT. If you practice it wrong, it will stay wrong. Perfect practice makes perfect!

Not a bad idea to grab some ash. It'll be an interesting trip to the lumber store "hello, i'd like some wood to ruin please"

I will try a couple runs with higher levels of tension, as well as post pics.

[Matt Armstrong]

FWIW re: resawing and fences
If you start with square lumber, I've found it's far easier to resaw by hand than fiddling with a fence, especially if you change blades all the time (the drift angle will keep changing). I would at least give this a try a couple of times. I was surprised how easy it was to split my line.

The cut starts off straight but quickly disintegrates into curvy town when I try this...

[Josh Bowman]

The cut starts off straight but quickly disintegrates into curvy town when I try this...
Matt,
Does it do this at full tension? If so, call Laguna, they have good customer service and should replace the blade.

[Andrew Joiner]

I have the same saw and blade as Matt. I have been able to get the blade to resaw decent. I am not happy with how rough the surface is. I thought is way supposed to be smoother. I need to sand what I do. The question I have is how fast do you feed for resawing? I am going so slow my ADD is kicking in. I have a bunch of interior doors I need to cut veneer for. I get about the same result from my wood slicer blade. I haven't made any adjustments for drift yet to the saw. I have been able to cut some veneer in the 1/16" range.

Help.

Quinn


I get no drift on my Grizzly 21" G0531 saw. Even with the blade that came on the saw I can cut uniform 1/16" veneers with rough faces. I do tension a bit more than the gauge on the saw requires for all blades.

Even with the guides completely backed off I get the same resaw cut quality on all the bandsaw blades I have except for face smoothness.


I found the Laguna resaw king and kerf king blades cut a little smoother if you feed faster. I push as fast and steady as my 5HP saw will allow.
Still not much smoother than a 1/2" timberwolf cut face. None of the Laguna's come close to a cheap 10"combination blade in my table saw.

I have a bunch of 1/32" thick x 3" wide veneer strips to slice and I'll be using the table saw. The table saw produces slices ready for light 150 grit sanding.
All the sanding needed to remove teeth marks on the Resaw king faces results in the same amount of lost stock to a table saw blade kerf.

For face smoothness my recent tests come out with these results on 1/16" x 3" veneer strips. I graded them from A=best to F= worst

Stock 1" blade that came with saw D+

1/2" Timberwolf C-

Kerf king C+

Resaw king C slow feed, fast feed B-

10" Dewalt 3106 60 tooth in table saw A

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt,
Does it do this at full tension? If so, call Laguna, they have good customer service and should replace the blade.

Yes, it does...

[Matt Armstrong]

I get no drift on my Grizzly 21" G0531 saw. Even with the blade that came on the saw I can cut uniform 1/16" veneers with rough faces. I do tension a bit more than the gauge on the saw requires for all blades.

Even with the guides completely backed off I get the same resaw cut quality on all the bandsaw blades I have except for face smoothness.


I found the Laguna resaw king and kerf king blades cut a little smoother if you feed faster. I push as fast and steady as my 5HP saw will allow.
Still not much smoother than a 1/2" timberwolf cut face. None of the Laguna's come close to a cheap 10"combination blade in my table saw.

I have a bunch of 1/32" thick x 3" wide veneer strips to slice and I'll be using the table saw. The table saw produces slices ready for light 150 grit sanding.
All the sanding needed to remove teeth marks on the Resaw king faces results in the same amount of lost stock to a table saw blade kerf.

For face smoothness my recent tests come out with these results on 1/16" x 3" veneer strips. I graded them from A=best to F= worst

Stock 1" blade that came with saw D+

1/2" Timberwolf C-

Kerf king C+

Resaw king C slow feed, fast feed B-

10" Dewalt 3106 60 tooth in table saw A

I've gotten ridiculously clean cuts with my unisaw... I love the quality, accuracy, and repeatability it's given me. I also get ridiculously smooth and crisp accurate cuts with my router table.

But neither of those tools can resaw more than 3" or so...

[Matt Armstrong]

I've just received a call from Laguna Tools. I explained that I doubt it was the blade initially but he said they'd get their support guys to regrind it and check it out. Definitely an impressive response on their part!

I also attached pictures of a cut that popped out of the side of a piece of zebrawood (only 4" wide) when freehanding it, as well as the cutoff which shows no barrelling. And some macro shots of the blade teeth for anyone interested.

[Josh Bowman]

Matt,
Before you send it off. How fast are you feeding the board? And how hard? Move the board to the tips of the teeth and establish a kerf line then start a gentle feed in.

[Brian Kent]

That's what I would do. Try a 1/2" 3tpi. Tension it using the flutter method.

I have a thread somewhere about the same problem with a 3/4" Timberwolf blade on my Grizzly 513X2. I used the flutter method and in this case it did not work. Extreme drift.

I tightened it until I thought I was going to break something, then tightened some more. Finally. It worked.

I still use the flutter method for other blades and other uses, but when I resaw with a wide blade I crank that mother really hard.

[Brian Kent]

I've just received a call from Laguna Tools. I explained that I doubt it was the blade initially but he said they'd get their support guys to regrind it and check it out. Definitely an impressive response on their part!

I also attached pictures of a cut that popped out of the side of a piece of zebrawood (only 4" wide) when freehanding it, as well as the cutoff which shows no barrelling. And some macro shots of the blade teeth for anyone interested.

Fantastic. I'll add to my above post that a couple of times when I had a drift problem, it was the blade and a new blade solved the problem.

You have diagnosed the heck out of this one, so I am glad they are stepping in to re-grind.

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt,
Before you send it off. How fast are you feeding the board? And how hard? Move the board to the tips of the teeth and establish a kerf line then start a gentle feed in.

Slow or fast, it doesn't make a difference with the RK blade.

With my 1/4" timberwolf blade, a fast cut makes a wavy pattern, but it doesn't necessarily cause it to drift out of the wood. The waviness is quite pronounced with the 1/4" under a fast feed, but smooth under a slower feed rate.

[Matt Armstrong]

I have a thread somewhere about the same problem with a 3/4" Timberwolf blade on my Grizzly 513X2. I used the flutter method and in this case it did not work. Extreme drift.

I tightened it until I thought I was going to break something, then tightened some more. Finally. It worked.

I still use the flutter method for other blades and other uses, but when I resaw with a wide blade I crank that mother really hard.

The blade becomes taut around a "2" on the grizzly tension gauge, and I have tried using the blade at any setting from 5-8(max) to no avail. Maybe I should go further?

I took the blade off and replaced it with the 1/4" timberwolf. The TW takes a less extreme drift angle (about 1.5 degrees to the right, still) and I can actually resaw with it if I go slow enough. But the end result is far from smooth

[Joseph Tarantino]

matt...when you're tired of wasting time, contact lou iturra @ iturra design. he's probably forgotten more about bandsaws than any of us will ever know. he can be reached here:

http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_l6b7r

no website but if he can't straighten out your issue, then it probably can't be fixed. BTW, i have one of Duginske's band saw books....makes excellent kindling for a good fire!

[Josh Bowman]

The blade becomes taut around a "2" on the grizzly tension gauge, and I have tried using the blade at any setting from 5-8(max) to no avail. Maybe I should go further?

I took the blade off and replaced it with the 1/4" timberwolf. The TW takes a less extreme drift angle (about 1.5 degrees to the right, still) and I can actually resaw with it if I go slow enough. But the end result is far from smooth
I give up after this, but one more thought. When I first started resawing, fences really weren't used as such. We would us a kind of point guide beside the blade. So to see better whats going on, you can take the fence off. Get a real 2 inch or greater board that's 4 to 6 inches high. Make sure the board will sit well on the 2 inch edge. Now draw a line splitting the board in half. Feed the board and guide it until you get a few inchs into the cut. Turn off the saw and see where you have to keep the tail of the board inorder to maintain a straight cut.
Below is an example of that kind of fence. Now I would expect the blade to track well enough to use a standard fence, mine does, but this might give you a better idea of what's going on.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/assets/uploads/posts/4991/Resaw_Fence_(5)_lg.jpg

[Ray Bell]

I love this place for all the knowledgeable, and helpful folks here. I have been intensely watching as I have this same saw being delivered tomorrow. Good luck Matt, and hopefully it is just a blade problem.
Ray

[Van Huskey]

The blade becomes taut around a "2" on the grizzly tension gauge, and I have tried using the blade at any setting from 5-8(max) to no avail. Maybe I should go further?

I took the blade off and replaced it with the 1/4" timberwolf. The TW takes a less extreme drift angle (about 1.5 degrees to the right, still) and I can actually resaw with it if I go slow enough. But the end result is far from smooth


Be careful not to tension higher than when all the coils of the spring meet otherwise you are simply bending the frame.

[Matt Armstrong]

Be careful not to tension higher than when all the coils of the spring meet otherwise you are simply bending the frame.
Definitely not a risk - the space between the coils is still fairly significant.

I'll take a video of the saw running if I can...

[Josh Bowman]

Definitely not a risk - the space between the coils is still fairly significant.

I'll take a video of the saw running if I can...
I said I quit earlier, but you say you have space between your coils??? Your blade may not be tight enough yet, you HAVE to check it by pushing on the blade about 5 " down from the upper wheel at the back. You should have to firmly push to get about 1/4". The scales on saws are often wrong and can be put anywhere.

[Matt Armstrong]

Here's a video of the problem when using a 1/4" blade... i posted it at the top of the thread as well. Again, I should have cut a little slower, but by the time I started to speed up the feed rate, the piece was already in severe drift mode...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5JQGixqhZI

So now I'm not sure what to think. I seem to be able to "force" the 1/4" blade to give me a reasonably straight cut when pressed up against the fence with featherboards and a painfully slow feed rate, but when I tried free-handing it, it's obvious the desired drift angle is more extreme than it should be. I'm starting to feel the buyer's remorse here... this is the most expensive tool I've bought to-date and the one that's given me the most problems by far, and I am reluctant to blame any manufacturer, alignment process, etc. Gremlins maybe?

[Paul Atkins]

I noticed that the blade jumped forward as it was turned on, and then back as you were sawing. Must not have been against the thrust bearing. How are the guides set? The blade deemed a bit dull too, from the sound. Red oak should cut very easily. Must be driving you nuts.

[Matt Armstrong]

I noticed that the blade jumped forward as it was turned on, and then back as you were sawing. Must not have been against the thrust bearing. How are the guides set? The blade deemed a bit dull too, from the sound. Red oak should cut very easily. Must be driving you nuts.
That's doug fir, even softer. You're right about the thrust bearing... it jumps forward a bit when the saw kicks on a little bit. I set the thrust bearing a small bit away from the back of the blade, standard procedure.

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> Here's a video of the problem when using a 1/4" blade...

If that is your normal set up for resawing, you should have the upper guide much lower until it almost touches the board being sawn. It's well too far above the workpiece for proper control of the blade while the blade is cutting.

[Matt Armstrong]

>>>> Here's a video of the problem when using a 1/4" blade...

If that is your normal set up for resawing, you should have the upper guide much lower until it almost touches the board being sawn. It's well too far above the workpiece for proper control of the blade while the blade is cutting.

I moved it to take a video. Problem is the same regardless of where the guide is (which supports the consensus about blade guides - they are there to prevent the user from forcing the blade off track or off the wheels, but not to "make" the blade cut straight)

[Josh Bowman]

That's doug fir, even softer. You're right about the thrust bearing... it jumps forward a bit when the saw kicks on a little bit. I set the thrust bearing a small bit away from the back of the blade, standard procedure.
Matt,
I think the blade is to loose. Also your guide is to high (maybe for the video, but it needs to be just about the wood) For sure that blade looks loose though IMHO

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt,
I think the blade is to loose. Also your guide is to high (maybe for the video, but it needs to be just about the wood) For sure that blade looks loose though IMHO

I would think if anything it's overtensioned... it's only 1/4" wide yet at the "5" out of 8 mark for blade tension on the bandsaw. Not that the numbers correspond to much, but it's got a nice twang to it when plucked and requires a decent amount of pressure to deflect with my finger :confused:

[NICK BARBOZA]

Now i may be way off base but judging by the video of the saw; within the last 10-15 seconds you showed the blade in right near the upper guides... It didn't look like the bearings were even close to touching the sides of the blade. I am not familiar with this saw nor the guides on it... and also, my eyes may be deceiving me... Also, i have not read all of the posts in this thread. But it just might be something to check...
Good luck
NWB

[Brian Kincaid]

... I'm starting to feel the buyer's remorse here... this is the most expensive tool I've bought to-date and the one that's given me the most problems by far...

Matt, try to be patient with it. The bandsaw is very versatile but also requires patience, practice, and experience. (the three pce's?) It is definitely not a 'flick it on and it works' kind of tool. Requires a little tuning and tweaking as you go. As everyone here helping will tell you though it is worth it to climb this learning curve.

-Brian

[Matt Armstrong]

Now i may be way off base but judging by the video of the saw; within the last 10-15 seconds you showed the blade in right near the upper guides... It didn't look like the bearings were even close to touching the sides of the blade. I am not familiar with this saw nor the guides on it... and also, my eyes may be deceiving me... Also, i have not read all of the posts in this thread. But it just might be something to check...
Good luck
NWB

I was just under the impression the guides aren't supposed to "hold" the blade straight, but they are probably slightly further from the blade than they should be. They start screaming like banshees once the blade starts to drift if they're any closer.

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt, try to be patient with it. The bandsaw is very versatile but also requires patience, practice, and experience. (the three pce's?) It is definitely not a 'flick it on and it works' kind of tool. Requires a little tuning and tweaking as you go. As everyone here helping will tell you though it is worth it to climb this learning curve.

-Brian

I hope you're right!

[Josh Bowman]

I was just under the impression the guides aren't supposed to "hold" the blade straight, but they are probably slightly further from the blade than they should be. They start screaming like banshees once the blade starts to drift if they're any closer.
Lauguna and Shop Smith has you push one guide to touch the blade and the other you put a dollar bill ($100 works better :D) between the other and the blade and tighten it down. That should give you just enough. That has to be done to the top and the bottom guide. Also the rear guide should just touch the back of the blade on the top and bottom guide. I read the above quickly, but this will cause the same problem. If the blades defection at 5" below the back of the wheel shows firm, then tension is not it. Oh ya, make sure the side guides are just up to the gullet of the teeth. If you get them in to far, or the back guide is not set, then the blade will get pinched between the side guides and remove all the set.

[Johnnyy Johnson]

Not read many of the replies..but I can tell you this, I had almost the same problem and was ready to pull my hair out. I stuck with it and bought different blades. The end result now is that I know my bandsaw like the back of my hand. I worked through the problems and can now resaw straight and true. If I had put the blade on and sawed perfect resaws off the get go, I would not have learned anything about my saw. I am glad I had to struggle and learn..made my knowledge better!!

Thanks
JJ

[Chris Padilla]

Matt,

I'm local...sent you a PM. :)

[Curt Harms]

Lauguna and Shop Smith has you push one guide to touch the blade and the other you put a dollar bill ($100 works better :D) between the other and the blade and tighten it down. That should give you just enough. That has to be done to the top and the bottom guide. Also the rear guide should just touch the back of the blade on the top and bottom guide. I read the above quickly, but this will cause the same problem. If the blades defection at 5" below the back of the wheel shows firm, then tension is not it. Oh ya, make sure the side guides are just up to the gullet of the teeth. If you get them in to far, or the back guide is not set, then the blade will get pinched between the side guides and remove all the set.

That's what I was noticing as well, it looks like a line on the front bearing guide from tooth contact?. The teeth should not contact the bearing guide, just the smooth back of the band. That's why I'm not thrilled running <1/4" blades with bearing-style guides. I've tried resawing with a 1/4" blade on a Rikon 10-325 just because I was too lazy to change bands for one short board. It worked out well but very slow. The slow part was not unexpected given the small gullets on 1/4" bands but still no drift.

[Brian Kincaid]

Matt,
I'm local...sent you a PM. :)

How cool is SMC? :D
-Brian

[glenn bradley]

I hope Chris can help out. Something odd is going on for sure. I run a 3/4" TW on my G0513X and confidently cut veneers or resaw tall boards using the fence set dead straight. When you find the culprit I have the feeling everything will fall into place.

[Matt Armstrong]

I hope Chris can help out. Something odd is going on for sure. I run a 3/4" TW on my G0513X and confidently cut veneers or resaw tall boards using the fence set dead straight. When you find the culprit I have the feeling everything will fall into place.


I am optimistic that you're right! I would really loving nothing more than the problem to be "me" (it is the common element, after all) but I am not entirely sure yet.

[Josh Bowman]

I am optimistic that you're right! I would really loving nothing more than the problem to be "me" (it is the common element, after all) but I am not entirely sure yet.
Matt,
Just got off of vacation. Are you able to make book matched acoustical guitar fronts yet?

[Van Huskey]

Was wondering the same thing!

[Josh Bowman]

Matt,
I thought I might post some picture of the results from my Laguna 14" SUV with drift master fence and 1" resaw king blade. I cut 5 inch maple into different thicknesses. Although not so clear in the pictures the wood is consistent in thickness and fairly smooth. The cut took almost a minute, but I moving a lot of saw dust.

[Brendan Plavis]

I have not any experience with a bandsaw, but might I recommend something like this: http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-plans/bandsawing/bandsaw-resawing-guide/ A guide for the wood you are resawing...

Like I said, I have no experience with this type of a saw, so your guess is as good as mine...

[Ray Bell]

Matt, were you and Chris able to straighten this out?

[Stephen Tashiro]

Since you asked for creative ideas -you could make your own bandsaw out of wood: http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/

[Dave MacArthur]

Bump... Matt's around again, and I'd love to know how this problem was solved, and what the issue ended up being. I'm not saying I've ever, ever, had the same problems, but just that it's a really interesting topic. Really.

[Thomas love]

Matt , heres my two cents. With the RK set the tracking so the blades teeth are slightly proud of the front of the wheels, Set the side guides as you normally would with front of the bearings somewhere near the middle of the blade (not right behind the gullets) Now loosen up thrust bearing and push it on to the back of the blade, with a glove or rag grab the blade and push it back on the thrust bearing until the gullets are just proud of the side bearings, tighten the thrust bearing at this setting. ( this should all be done with the blade under tension) Now set the blade drift as you normally would.

When re-sawing the thrust bearing should not be making much contact with the beam (backside of the blade) It is there to keep the blade from running off the wheel.
good luck
tom

[Matt Armstrong]

Maybe it's technique, feed style, or whatever, but I just made a resaw fence that had small holes drilled on the outfeed side in series. The whole thing is enclosed except for a 2.5" port for my shop vac. With featherboards on the before-the-blade part and the vacuum sucking the wood against the fence on the after-the-blade part, i'm able to cut thin veneers.

So, it works, though I am not convinced it's entirely healthy yet. I'll wait for someone with a lot more skill than myself to come and have a look, but now I'm in no rush since the vacuum fence is pretty foolproof (so far).

[Van Huskey]

Maybe it's technique, feed style, or whatever, but I just made a resaw fence that had small holes drilled on the outfeed side in series. The whole thing is enclosed except for a 2.5" port for my shop vac. With featherboards on the before-the-blade part and the vacuum sucking the wood against the fence on the after-the-blade part, i'm able to cut thin veneers.

So, it works, though I am not convinced it's entirely healthy yet. I'll wait for someone with a lot more skill than myself to come and have a look, but now I'm in no rush since the vacuum fence is pretty foolproof (so far).

If it works and doesn't cut body parts off... then it works!

Not sure what was going on but do you move around the saw or just feed it like a table saw?

[Matt Armstrong]

If it works and doesn't cut body parts off... then it works!

Not sure what was going on but do you move around the saw or just geed it like a table saw?
I probably have a tablesawesque technique. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong or just need practice, but I'm reluctant to practice with my resaw king... though i guess it makes more sense to practice with the blade i'd resaw with!

[Eiji Fuller]

BTW the laguna blades they say are carbide are deffinately not carbide but stellite. The stellite tips on the Laguna Resaw Kings dull much faster than a real carbide blade like Lennox' Trimaster or Woodmaster CT.

I don't know how they get away with marketing their blades as carbide, and even price them above the competition which is real carbide.

I was going to go for the 2 for 150.00 but decided that would be a mistake when I found out they werent even carbide.:mad:

[jackie gates]

Since even every other problem should be correctable, I'm beginning to suspect that the major source of drift is the resaw king blade itself. The blade was bought as part of the SMC special, but I've never been able to get it to resaw right.

After correcting for a still-somewhat-significant drift angle, I used a 1/4" pos-claw timberwolf blade to resaw some 10" wide bubinga. It was sort of slow and left a rough surface but it didn't wander during the cut like the resaw king keeps doing. To be fair, the timberwolf tends to be more forgiving in general due to the tooth set and the narrow blade width itself.

The blade tooth SET is the problem!!!!!!. Read the post by Dan Hahr 3rd para. The pics of your blade shows that it is well worn and appears to have no set or little. Even a CARbide tip must have equal SET or it will drift. The wider a blade is I.E. 1" Vs. 1/4" the more force it will exsert on the piece.

[Mike Green]

I feel your pain Matt. I've had sporatic luck with resawing myself. One time it turns out pretty good the next it's terrible. I know this is counter-intutive but I've had much better luck backing off the tension a bit and I went from a 3/4" blade back to a 1/2" blade. My resaws still aren't perfect, but they are getting better...thank god for planers :D Good luck, Mike

[jackie gates]

:eek::eek: well with all due respect, I have read all of the replies. And IMO and from much experience in wearing out many 100's of feet of both wood and metal cutting blades I still say that there is a wearing away of the proper set of the blade. If so the blade will set up a drift and will do exactly as the problem we have here. So be it with regards. Jackie.

[Thomas love]

New ones are carbide.
tom.

[Thomas love]

Jackie , do you know if the Resaw Kings have a set?

[jackie gates]

Jackie , do you know if the Resaw Kings have a set?
:)I have not had any exper with the Resaw Kings. But what, I know about any blade is that the teeth must make an even sided kerf wider that the blade body so that there is no binding or drifting in the kerf. All blades CIR or Band have to be designed to produce this clearance. My observation of carb tip cir or band blades is that there is no sideway bending of the teeth for a set as it is with HSS blades, however they are wider than the body and are normally alternately ground to provide the necessary side clearance. If one side of the blade is dulled more that the other the sharp side will cut more than the dull side, therefore the blade will tend to move toward that side. There are many good and sound replies to this thread about the necessary alignments for a bandsaw to preform its duty well. One that I did not see is "if a section of the band has been bent to one side, that section will cut outside of the line and the rest of the blade will tend to follow". Also the blade backer roller bearing behind the blade can get a wear grove in it which can cause the kerf to pull to one side. Uneven pitch on a blade can cause drift. Check all align's for Sq. and wear, new clean blade and try again. Should work. Good luck. :D jackie.
:)Keep us posted on the progress it's a good learing EXP for all of us.

[Matt Armstrong]

:)I have not had any exper with the Resaw Kings. But what, I know about any blade is that the teeth must make an even sided kerf wider that the blade body so that there is no binding or drifting in the kerf. All blades CIR or Band have to be designed to produce this clearance. My observation of carb tip cir or band blades is that there is no sideway bending of the teeth for a set as it is with HSS blades, however they are wider than the body and are normally alternately ground to provide the necessary side clearance. If one side of the blade is dulled more that the other the sharp side will cut more than the dull side, therefore the blade will tend to move toward that side. There are many good and sound replies to this thread about the necessary alignments for a bandsaw to preform its duty well. One that I did not see is "if a section of the band has been bent to one side, that section will cut outside of the line and the rest of the blade will tend to follow". Also the blade backer roller bearing behind the blade can get a wear grove in it which can cause the kerf to pull to one side. Uneven pitch on a blade can cause drift. Check all align's for Sq. and wear, new clean blade and try again. Should work. Good luck. :D jackie.
:)Keep us posted on the progress it's a good learing EXP for all of us.

Hi Jackie...

I had the blade resharpened by Laguna. It still drifted. So, a good theory but unless it was re-sharpened improperly, this probably wasn't my problem.

[Rick Markham]

Matt, did ya ever get it figured out?

Judging by your video of the 1/4" blade and its drift, as well as your description of the resaw king, before and after resharpening, it looks like you have something going on other than your blades.

I do know if you are getting a drift problem, and you try to use feather boards to correct it, it only compounds the problem, it will actually increase the drift trying to force the back end against the fence.

In your video it is a very extreme amount of drift your getting. Something isn't right. There has to be an issue somewhere with your saw...

[Carl Beckett]

While not necessarily fixing the root of the problem, I had very good success a few years back with a similar problem.

I made a vertical jig with a beveled edge, which sat offset to the blade.

This way I could feed the board at any angle, and it was always spaced the same distance from the blade adjacent to the cutting edge.

This served me well for quite some time until I replaced the blade and upgraded the fence and got it properly tuned in.

[jackie gates]

[QUOTE=Rick Markham;1503533]Matt, did ya ever get it figured out?

Judging by your video of the 1/4" blade and its drift, as well as your description of the resaw king, before and after resharpening, it looks like you have something going on other than your blades.

I do know if you are getting a drift problem, and you try to use feather boards to correct it, it only compounds the problem, it will actually increase the drift trying to force the back end against the fence.

In your video it is a very extreme amount of drift your getting. Something isn't right. There has to be an issue somewhere with your saw...[/QUOTE

Matt: I concur with this post there is sometyhing wrong other than the usual things that we have exper., don't know what since I can't see it at hand. It maybe a major flaw in the Manufac't process, !! It's hard to say or see from this distance, to use an old or even current saying maybe you have been sold a LEMON. I would get back to the seller source and work it out at that piont. again please keep posting until a conclusion is reached . with regards. Jackie: Best of results wished for you.:)

[Matt Armstrong]

Matt, did ya ever get it figured out?

Judging by your video of the 1/4" blade and its drift, as well as your description of the resaw king, before and after resharpening, it looks like you have something going on other than your blades.

I do know if you are getting a drift problem, and you try to use feather boards to correct it, it only compounds the problem, it will actually increase the drift trying to force the back end against the fence.

In your video it is a very extreme amount of drift your getting. Something isn't right. There has to be an issue somewhere with your saw...

I'm out of ideas, unless my technique is bad. Maybe some day someone can come by and give it a shot and let me know whether i'm nuts. Until then, I've tried everything I can think of...

[Tom Rick]

I'm out of ideas, unless my technique is bad. Maybe some day someone can come by and give it a shot and let me know whether i'm nuts. Until then, I've tried everything I can think of...

It's the saw.

Resawing is simply placing a board on the table and pushing. On my Old WT I just walk up to the saw and cut. I don't think about it I don't fight with it. Paper thin veneers board splits, whatever.

The issue here I believe it sorting out the saw issue which is making the blade unstable. If I had to guess it is a combination of wheels out of plane and too much crown on the tires.
I'd start playing with the tracking knob on the saw. Take a look at where the blade is tracking- top and bottom wheel. Start a cut, when the saw has gone off track- stop the saw mid cut and look at the position of the blade on the tire.

Try dialing the blade front to back on the tire and cutting with the blade in each position on tire- front, middle, back. Keep stopping the saw and looking to see if the blade has wandered off where you set it on the tire.

I would start this way:

1) Determine if the saw will track on cut at what ever drift angle it is currently cutting at.

To do this clamp a board at the current drift angle and you should be able to slice paper thin veneers all day long. If the saw still wanders off the drift problem is dynamic- that is the saws drift angle changes during a cut.

2) If the saw passes the above test, dial in the drift angle to parallel to fence by adjusting the position of the blade on the tire.

In the end a BS should not be all that sensitive to drift angle setting of the fence. You should be able to slop the fence angle to the difference of the leading edge of the kerf and the trailing edge of the blade.
On my saw I will routinely clamp up the fence on about the width of cut I want and just knock the closer end back and forth the dial in the veneer thickness I want.

IF the saw fails the above test look to the camber of the tires, any slop in saw rigidity, bearings close to wheels, co-planer wheels (mine is way out and seems to make no difference so ???)

I am betting the saw will fence up fine and just needs the drift angle pulled in to more parallel will miter slot...

[Rick Markham]

Matt, could you spend a few minutes describing how you checked for coplanarity of your wheels. Maybe someone can spot a mistake. I know there are several way of doing this, some of which involve taking the table off and quite a bit of work. (sometimes a daunting task) In my mind at this point, I would take a breather and consign myself to "going to any length". For me this would mean partial dissasembly and starting from the beginning with checking to make sure the wheels are coplaner in the most accurate way possible, which involves using a true straight edge actually touching both sides of both wheels.

I know it sucks, but the payout of figuring this out will leave you with a machine that will make resawing all that much more enjoyable for you.

I don't know how to tell if your frame is twisted, maybe someone here does, I would start at the absolute basics and work your way through everything from start to finish. There is something you missed the first time. You built that awesome drum sander man! The answer is somewhere in front of you, unfortunately you might have to start at the beginning and dig for it :(

[Matt Armstrong]

OK, you guys have encouraged me to do some more testing on the saw. I prob. won't get to it this weekend, but I'll probably record my "checking of coplanarity" among other things.

[Dave MacArthur]

Ahh, this thread is like a good weekly TV show I can always count on ;) I wish I knew more about re-sawing to help, but at least I'm an avid audience member.

[John Coloccia]

Did you ever figure this out, Matt?