Quick Resaw Question

[Daniel Smith]

I getting ready to resaw "for real" for the first time. Having aligned my fence to account for blade drift, I'm wondering, is it better to make the cut with the narrow cut off outside the blade and reposition the fence after every cut or should I set the fence once and have the narrow piece against the fence? Does it matter?

[Jamie Buxton]

My general rule is that the piece whose thickness I care about is between the fence and the blade. For instance, when I'm cutting veneer, the veneers are between the fence and the blade. For a different instance, when I'm making drawer sides, the drawer side is between the blade and the fence.

[Brian Kincaid]

I getting ready to resaw "for real" for the first time. Having aligned my fence to account for blade drift, I'm wondering, is it better to make the cut with the narrow cut off outside the blade and reposition the fence after every cut or should I set the fence once and have the narrow piece against the fence? Does it matter?

I think some folks work differently, so feel free to disagree.

I keep the workpiece against the fence and the cutoff is the keeper. I have to reposition the fence after each cut. The only reason I do this is so I am always sliding a reference surface down the entire fence for each slice.

If you 'cut lunchmeat' with the keeper between the fence and blade then any roughness/error will ride down the fence the next cut possibly accumulating over several cuts. You could joint the edge again after each resaw operation to avoid this but you will sacrifice some additional material to the jointer blades. I find it difficult to keep the workpiece straight and steady towards the end of the cut when working this way because there is so little reference edge against the fence.

-Brian

[glenn bradley]

If I am making boards that will become parts of a piece I want a flat side against the fence and table. If I am after several boards of equal thickness, I do this:

- joint one face
- joint one edge
- plane to get faces parallel
- set the fence so the "keeper" is away from the fence
- saw off your piece yielding an over-size board with one flat face and edge
- using your reference face that was against the fence, run blank through planer to get faces parallel
- reset fence and repeat
- use one flat face of cut-offs to plane to parallel (over-sized)

If I am doing one-offs or different thicknesses I vary the process as required. If I am just resawing a larger piece to stack I put the "keeper" between the blade and fence and just go at it.

[Daniel Smith]

Thanks for the replies. A little more information: my goal is to end up with 1/8" pieces for a bent lamination. The plan is to resaw to 3/16" then plane to final thickness. Since I need a reference surface to plane off of, I intend to face joint the source board after every cut. Other than control of the thin piece at the end of the feed (good point), are there other compelling reasons to make the cut with the keeper piece outside of the blade or is this a case of "do what ever works best for you"?

[Josiah Bartlett]

If I'm resawing something that I didn't joint the table edge of, for whatever reason (sometimes I want to keep the wavy edge, or the log is too wide for my jointer), I'll attach a wide, flat board to the table side of the log for a reference. My bandsaw has more table area outside the throat than in, and it tends to be easier to get a good grip on the piece when its on the outboard side of the blade. Other than making sure I have a good reference to either the table or the fence, I don't find it makes much difference which is the keeper side of the resaw.

[Brian Kincaid]

... A little more information: my goal is to end up with 1/8" pieces for a bent lamination. The plan is to resaw to 3/16" then plane to final thickness....

In this case I would still use the reference to fence method but run the material through the planer after each resaw with the reference face down.
Again, the idea is to not waste more wood than you have to by keeping your reference surface throughout.

-Brian

[Van Huskey]

If I am cutting veneer I like the cut off outside the fence ie not balony cutting. For lamination cuts I will balony gut as the quality of the cut and the precision of the width is not as important.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the replies. A little more information: my goal is to end up with 1/8" pieces for a bent lamination. The plan is to resaw to 3/16" then plane to final thickness. Since I need a reference surface to plane off of, I intend to face joint the source board after every cut. Other than control of the thin piece at the end of the feed (good point), are there other compelling reasons to make the cut with the keeper piece outside of the blade or is this a case of "do what ever works best for you"?

For this I would run the keeper against the fence, joint, run against the fence, joint, etc. In the end it is definitely "what works best for you" that matters.