Resawing on a big bandsaw with a power feeder?

[ian maybury]

Hi guys, i've posted before on both power feeders, and on the saga the led to my buying a 24in Agazzani for its resaw, ripping and general capability. It's not up and running yet as my shop is still in mid refurbishment.

I'm (idly at this point) thinking of the possibility of getting a power feeder for it at some point in the future to if needed improve the consistency of rip quality - Grizzly have one that while not cheap is not wildly expensive: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Power-Feeder-For-Bandsaws/H0796

Does anybody have any experience with a PF on a big bandsaw? Does it really deliver much beyond a decent fingerboard/roller set up?

Thanks

ian

[Scott T Smith]

Ian, I used to own the powerfeeder that you posted; it was attached to a 24" Grizzy BS. It worked acceptably well (and it's nice to keep your fingers away from the blade when resawing), but for limited use I can't say that it would be any better than a tall fingerboard setup.

One thing that was nice about it was that the boards moved smoothly past the roller fence, and you also were able to eliminate any variations caused by stopping and starting during the cut.

For longer boards (8' or so), a powerfeeder is really great. For short ones, it's nice but not as necessary.

[Eiji Fuller]

I'm in agreement with Scott.

[ian maybury]

That's about what i seem to be picking up too guys, thanks for reinforcing the view.

Having a big bandsaw is new for me, and i haven't even run it yet as i'm trying to find a used phase converter to power it and so far a suitable one hasn't come up.

I was thinking a feeder might be useful with an eye on ripping, but will for sure be making a few manual trials and waiting for the right job to come up before making any moves....

ian

[Greg Portland]

improve the consistency of rip qualityA good setup + practice -or- the power feeder will give you similar results. The power feeder is nice from a safety & production standpoint.

[Richard McComas]

Hi guys, i've posted before on both power feeders, and on the saga the led to my buying a 24in Agazzani for its resaw, ripping and general capability. It's not up and running yet as my shop is still in mid refurbishment.

I'm (idly at this point) thinking of the possibility of getting a power feeder for it at some point in the future to if needed improve the consistency of rip quality - Grizzly have one that while not cheap is not wildly expensive: http://www.grizzly.com/products/Power-Feeder-For-Bandsaws/H0796

Does anybody have any experience with a PF on a big bandsaw? Does it really deliver much beyond a decent fingerboard/roller set up?

Thanks

ianYou might find this discussion useful.

http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43300

[ian maybury]

Thank you Rich, there's certainly food for thought in that. Sounds like it's a case of exhausting the aids to manually fed resawing first, and if in the end it looks like a feeder might help (and it starts to sound like a bit of a luxury for the sort of quantities i'm likely to do) then proceeding very carefully. ....

ian

[Van Huskey]

For me they tend not to be worth the price UNLESS you get a good one (high dollar or Euro..).

I really only feel they prove themselves on a BS when cutting veneer from larger heavy stock BUT I think the Griz you posted is a PF where a metal wheel touches the wood, I hate them for veneer, only the ones that use sandpaper tires on the wheels have been acceptable to me. The PF is not a cheap trick to great veneer cuts, that takes skill and time and using the PF well takes just as much as hand feeding, just a different skill set.