resaw methods, let me count the ways

[Dan Karachio]

Okay, I have tried a few methods in resawing with good success, but I am wondering what others do. Do you use the fence and if so, which side of the blade do you make your cut? Or do you use the little resawing attachment on the fence and do it by following a line.

After the cut, how do you clean it up? Say, a 1/4 thick piece. Hand plane, planer, jointer, card scraper?

Thanks

[Jaze Derr]

uh, resawing on what machine? table or bandsaw?

[Bill Huber]

Okay, I have tried a few methods in resawing with good success, but I am wondering what others do. Do you use the fence and if so, which side of the blade do you make your cut? Or do you use the little resawing attachment on the fence and do it by following a line.

After the cut, how do you clean it up? Say, a 1/4 thick piece. Hand plane, planer, jointer, card scraper?

Thanks

If you have had good success I would say you are doing it correct, there are always to do things different but when you find the one that works for you I would stick to it.

Now to answer your question.

First I set the bandsaw up so I get no drift and then just us the normal fence, in my case it is the Kreg fence.

Then I will run them in the planner if the are over an 1/8". So if I want an 1/8" thick board I will cut it a little over so I can plane it down to the 1/8.

[Jim Rimmer]

I use a Highland Woodslicer 1/2" 3tpi blade on a well tuned 14" BS. Setup, as Bill said, for no drift and I get a cut that can be cleaned up with ROS. I set the fence to blade distance for the size cut I want.

[Neil Brooks]

My technique's a lot like Jim Rimmer's. No surprise ... we have the same saw.

I use my OEM resaw fence, though, genuinely do not have drift, and use my Wood Slicer 1/2".

I've upgraded my Grizzly G0555X with Carter King Coil and Ratchet Rod, and guide block holders with Olson Cool Blocks. I've bought -- but not installed -- ceramic thrust bearings and guide blocks.

I also just tried my MagSwitch ReSaw Fence for the first time last night [see note, below]. I found it exceptionally easy to use, and would have made it easy to compensate for drift, in mid-cut.

Last night, I resawed a 6' board of nearly 10" wide, 3/4" thick red oak. All it took was one pass on my Jet 16-32 drum sander, to clean them up.

[I'm starting to _love_ my drum sander :cool:]

But ... yeah ... if your method works, then you're doing it right !

--

NOTE: My brother's the product rep for MagSwitch, but ... I'm honest (or I'm silent) :)

[glenn bradley]

I joint the face and the perpendicular edge that will ride the table and the fence. I plane the opposite face. I have stacked featherboards that hold the work against the fence as I push it through. I then use one of the prepared faces as the reference surface and plane the saw marks off.

[Dan Karachio]

Thanks Glen, I think I will start doing all of this. On some practice boards I had slight difference in thickness between top and bottom and I think this was due to a warped board AND maybe not using a feather board.

Neil, I can see why you love your drum sander.

[Van Huskey]

Tall shop built fence extension added to a Laguna Driftmaster, stacked featherboards and a 1 1/4" Laguna RK or Lenox TM blade. I want to add a power feeder at some point.


In the end, if you are getting good results, great. But, there are tons of things to experiment with.

[John Coloccia]

Driftmaster is on my list of things to pick up. I usually just resaw freehand because I change blades a lot and resetting for drift is just a pain. I found the resaw "pin" thing to be all but useless for me, though many people swear by it.

I've been getting better at setting my tracking/tension more consistently so the drift is getting pretty consistent, and sometimes I use my fence now (I'm a recent convert). If I had a Driftmaster and could easily set the fence in a second or two, I think I'd use the fence all the time.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I joint the bottom of the plank that rides on the table, as well as the face that is going to ride the fence. Then I resaw, usually with the fence to the right of the blade, but I can do it either way.. Right now I'm using a 1/2" 3-4 tpi woodslicer on a 16" Walker Turner bandsaw with the original fence and a 3 horsepower repulsion start motor.

When the resawn piece comes off the saw I run it through the planer with the jointed side down. If the piece came out pretty straight I resaw another slice off of the main chunk, if its wavy I run it through the jointer again unless I want it bookmatched.

If I want a bookmatched piece I first resaw a blank twice as thick+ extra for the kerf, and S4S that with the jointer and planer. That relieves most of the stress so when you saw out the bookmatch it is less likely to warp than trying to saw slices off a big chunk, and it gives you a reference on all the other faces.