My first attempt at resaw

[Eric Einsmann]

Greeting!

I spent some time over the weekend with my powermatic bs resawing some cedar. It worked out pretty well. I was proud of myself for changing the blade and not screwing anything up and no bandages were needed!

A couple of questions..

there was some build up on the tires from the wood I had been cutting (mostly pine). What is the best way to clean that off? The BS does have a brush on the lower tire.

I was thinking about the carter magfence... any thoughts?

Thanks

[Jason Neal]

Mean Green works well, it just melts the pitch away. Same with Formula 409 I'm told. Neither of these is caustic like oven cleaner.

[John Tallyn]

You can spend a lot of money on resaw fences, and some of them are very good. Personally I use an 8" high fence made from MDF, positioned at 90 degrees from the blade, with the tip of the fence cut to an angle so my "fence" is only about 1/8" wide at most where it points at the front of the teeth of my BS blade. This allows me to adjust for drift as I move the wood thru the cut. My "fence" cost about $1, and this technique has always worked well for me. As far as removing the pitch, as Jason mentioned, Mean Green works, Simple Green works, any "pitch" remover that wont damage the rubber works. Most brushes will only remove the sawdust, but wont' remove the pitch. I usually take the time to clean the bandsaw tires every time I change blades if there is any kind of buildup from pitch or sawdust. Resawing is mostly a matter of having the correct blade, and taking your time moving the wood thru the cut, most problems associated with resawing are caused by moving the wood thru the cut too fast. Enjoy yourself, and keep the bandaids in the box.
John

[Richard Coers]

The Carter Magfence would almost be the last after market fence I would buy. There is nothing on it to make a repeatable cut. If you needed to move the fence a 1/32, you will loose the relationship to the blade. So if you had it set at one cut, and you lucked out on having it correct for blade drift, you would loose the setting when you moved it a 1/32. You need something that runs on rails to be repeatable.

[Lee Schierer]

I found on my bandsaw that I got much less build up on the wheels if I vacuumed the saw dust away directly under the table. Allowing it to accumulate down in the bottom of the saw it will get picked up and carried to both wheels.

[Mike Harrison]

I agree with john, you can spend a lot of money on fences but I don't think they're worth it. I also made a simple MDF fence and faced it with some scrap formica.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/mikeinkcmo/WW%20tools/Band%20Saw/Bandsaw5.jpg

[Eric Einsmann]

Thanks for the input guys... Maybe I'll wait awhile on the magfence.... But for my first shot at resaw, it went pretty well I think.

Thanks,

Eric

[ken gibbs]

SPEAKING OF RESAWING!

A month ago I bought my first icon bandsaw blade for my year-old Grizzly G0555X, a 1/2 inch Timberwolf from WoodCraft. I set the saw up using the Grizzly instructions and advice from Timberwolf. That blade resawed a 3/4" piece of ipe perfectly. I took the tension off of the saw for a week and seven days later started a second resaw of the same ipe. Damn thing wondered all over the wood and destroyed the piece. I called Timberwolf and asked them what was happening. They sent me a new blade and that blade would not resaw either. So what am I doing wrong?

[bob hertle]

Ken,

I think that your problem is that Timberwolf's silicon steel does not have the hardenabilty or edge holding quality of either plain carbon, or bi-metal blades. If I was doing a lot of Ipe, (janka 3684!!!!) my starting point would be bi-metal--try an Olson MVP 1/2-3, .025 band. Next step up is carbide. That Ipe will eat Timberwolf blades 'til you run out of money!

Regards
Bob

[ken gibbs]

Bob,

That ipe has already taken a bite out of my posterior and caused me to not think about resawing for at least 45 days. Thanks.

[Eric Einsmann]

Ok, I got the Mean Green and that seems to help, but the bottom tire still has some pitch on it after rubbing it with a shop towel. Would using a non scratch scrubber sponge help? Spray some of the mean green on the sponge and gently rub the tire with it? Would this harm the tire??

Oh, we ran the new power line out to my work shop.. It had been running on ONE single pole, 20 amp breaker. (the lights would dim real bad). Now, it's on a 2 pole 60 amp with room for expansion to 220 if I choose and the lights don't flicker at all!

[Jerome Hanby]

I wonder, has everyone that has any scrap MDF made that same fence? Looks exactly like mine except I had the dado blade setup so I cut slots for my angle braces to sit in. Comes in hand for all sorts of things. My last use was with a vertical piece on the edge of the face for use as the push block for the upright cuts for lock miters.

I agree with john, you can spend a lot of money on fences but I don't think they're worth it. I also made a simple MDF fence and faced it with some scrap formica.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/mikeinkcmo/WW%20tools/Band%20Saw/Bandsaw5.jpg

[Myk Rian]

SPEAKING OF RESAWING!

A month ago I bought my first icon bandsaw blade for my year-old Grizzly G0555X, a 1/2 inch Timberwolf from WoodCraft. I set the saw up using the Grizzly instructions and advice from Timberwolf. That blade resawed a 3/4" piece of ipe perfectly. I took the tension off of the saw for a week and seven days later started a second resaw of the same ipe. Damn thing wondered all over the wood and destroyed the piece. I called Timberwolf and asked them what was happening. They sent me a new blade and that blade would not resaw either. So what am I doing wrong?
I don't de-tension. Never have, don't intend on starting. I can re-saw one week, use the blade to cut up scrap, and re-saw the next week.
Are you using the flutter method to set the tension?