Resaw drifts to the right

[Ben Beckham]

I got a chance to use my freshly sharpened 5.5 pt thumbhole D-8 to rip something over 3/4" wide over the weekend. I was re-sawing a 5" board of 4/4 cherry to get out stock to make a few boxes.

I can keep the front of the cut right on line, but the back of the cut drifts to the right. I haven't had a problem with side-to-side drift in any normal ripping. I used a plow to put an 1/8" groove down the center of the front and back of the board to help guide the rip, but it didn't seem to help. If I'd had a bandsaw, I would've used it. Instead I ended up hogging off more than I wanted after the rip with a scrub and ending up with two pieces between 1/4 and 3/8. Not ideal, but acceptable for what I was doing.

How can I correct this problem? Would stoning the side toward the drift fix it or screw up regular operation?

[Chris Griggs]

I would wait to hear other responses before adjusting the set by stoning.

My advice, try alternating the side you work from as many do when sawing a tenon. As you switch sides keep the saw tilted up and then go back and saw the material from the middle (also like sawing a tenon). This allows you to control the kerf very well on both sides.

However, if there is an extreme variance in density/hardness in the wood you can run into issues. This only happened to me once, I was resawing an ~8" wide piece of cherry that had a very hard area in the center where a branch had probably been growing. I worked from both sides so the kerf was perfect on the edges but in the very center the saw had drifted and sawed around the harder area. Of course, I couldn't see this unitl the resaw was complete - it was pretty bizzarre.

I'll also add, that if you want to resaw and end up with 3/8-1/2 material, I would start with 5/4 or more stock - Even with a perfect resaw you can get a lot of twist when you open a board up like that so you often have to plane a good bit off during flattening.

[john brenton]

If you were ripping something thinner it would be easier to answer, but so much can go wrong in resawing something 5" wide. Unless it's something like a tenon, if I'm cutting through anything wider than 4" I'll cut kerfs on all four corners as far as I can go. When I get the cut going I'll alternate between sawing with the saw flat and all the teeth engaged in the wood to follow a line, then back to aggressive cutting through the board.

It's really hard to say if it's the saw or the technique.

[Jim Koepke]

For something like this, my method is to use a piece of scrap held vertically in a vise. Then saw to a line drawn on the piece and see if the saw follows the line or if it drifts.

Once it can be seen that the saw is consistently drifting to one side, that side be treated to a swipe of a stone.

This is repeated as much as needed until the saw cuts true.


I'll alternate between sawing with the saw flat and all the teeth engaged in the wood to follow a line, then back to aggressive cutting through the board.

+1 on what John says about using the full length of the say to establish the kerf.

jtk

[Mike Siemsen]

One problem is that your saw does not have big enough teeth for that job. A 5.5 ppi saw is really for something in the 1 inch range. Most of these saws have 4 to 8 degrees of rake and you might benefit from 0 degrees of rake. 8 teeth in 3 inches would be better. It should still work though. Keep in mind that you cannot steer the cut once you have started. It is possible that you are curving the saw. A lot of problems are cured by sharpening the saw again, maybe it is not as sharp as you think it is. The prior suggestions are valid as well. Good Luck!
Mike

[Jim Matthews]

More teeth would slow your progress, but should keep more "in the track".
Was this done upright, or at a sawbench? I saw upright when I'm trying to resaw, down on on knee to rip for speed.

Is the plate straight? Any normal deviation will be magnified by gnarly grain.

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[David Weaver]

I'm guessing it's user error. No offense, of course, I recall having some issues like that even with a machine stamped ryoba the first time I cut something. If it was a matter of set, it should drift on both sides of the cut, though it's not impossible that it's a small matter of set, and not a large enough one to get that much drift.

It's possible to apply torque to the saw such that it would drift slowly on the back side of the cut and not on the front.

I would do what others are suggesting here, and saw some from each side of the cut to keep the thing on track.

You could also try different grips to see if the problem is the same every time. The fact that you can rip with it suggests that it is not a lot of stoning needed if it does turn out to be set.

[Ben Beckham]

If it was a matter of set, it should drift on both sides of the cut

See, that's kind of what I was thinking. Maybe it is user-error. I've got no problem admitting that.

Since the board was only about 2' long, I clamped it at a angle leaning away from me in my twin-screw at the bench and went at it, like you would for a tenon.

My saw has 0* of rake. A bit rough to run sometimes, but it is aggressive when it's going. I've got another 5 pt that needs refurbishing that I'll sharpen with maybe 4* and see what happens.

I'll try sawing from both sides on the angle to see if I can keep it straight that way. Since I can keep it straight on my side of the cut, I don't see what that wouldn't work.

[Ben Beckham]

Of course, also, I guess all of this just means I ought to get a band-saw blade and spend some time making a frame saw. :D

[David Weaver]

I think you'll find a carpenter's saw easier to steer unless you can get two people to run the frame saw. The resawing I've seen done well (like when george does it in the CW video) is done with a veneer saw that has a deep plate with teeth that have very little set. A bandsaw blade, unless it is a very deep resaw blade, will likely want to wander.

You need the whole bandsaw, then the bandsaw blade works well :)

I like saws with little or no rake for resawing, they get much better bite, and you can get slivers instead of crumbled dust.

But I like using a bandsaw for it much better - the results are more accurate and I don't have a jamming saw in a cut anywhere.

It is very good exercise to do it by hand, though, esp. if you have a saw that has room for two hands on it somewhere.

[Andrae Covington]

I got a chance to use my freshly sharpened 5.5 pt thumbhole D-8 to rip something over 3/4" wide over the weekend. I was re-sawing a 5" board of 4/4 cherry to get out stock to make a few boxes.

I can keep the front of the cut right on line, but the back of the cut drifts to the right. I haven't had a problem with side-to-side drift in any normal ripping. I used a plow to put an 1/8" groove down the center of the front and back of the board to help guide the rip, but it didn't seem to help. If I'd had a bandsaw, I would've used it. Instead I ended up hogging off more than I wanted after the rip with a scrub and ending up with two pieces between 1/4 and 3/8. Not ideal, but acceptable for what I was doing.

How can I correct this problem? Would stoning the side toward the drift fix it or screw up regular operation?

I've been resawing lately, also cherry as it happens. I had never resawn by hand before, and I had exactly the same problem... following the line on top but wandering on the bottom. I made a lot of firewood practicing in pine, oak, and cherry. :(

Advice from an amateur:

1) Don't force the saw by pushing hard. Sawing is like driving on ice, you can easily over-correct and end up in the ditch. Impatience is my biggest enemy when it comes to sawing, I want to be done with it yesterday.

2) Frequently flip the board around to saw from the other edge. Every three or four strokes if that's what it takes.

3) Putting oil or wax on the sawplate reduces friction, which makes it easier to push the saw, which makes you less likely to be a gorilla.

4) After there's enough room, wedges in the kerf above the saw also reduce friction.

I'm using a 7tpi panel saw, which is certainly less than ideal, but it does work. After some cleanup with a jointer plane, they've turned out fine. So far everything I've resawn has ended up about 1/2". I still need to do some 1/4" so will have to see how that goes.

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[Jim Matthews]

+1 on recommendations mentioned above.

I like the idea of tipping the workpiece away from the saw, so the kerf is at 45 degrees to your direction of cut. I cut 45s on both sides, then saw through the "peak" in the middle.

PS - LOVE the pile of hamster bedding in photo left, I never really trust shop guides where there isn't any dust, let alone rusty tools. (Like mine.)
It's a woodshop, not a surgical suite.

[Andrae Covington]

PS - LOVE the pile of hamster bedding in photo left, I never really trust shop guides where there isn't any dust, let alone rusty tools. (Like mine.)
It's a woodshop, not a surgical suite.

:D In the fall and winter my compost bin is overflowing with leaves, so the shavings just build up in the shop until late spring or summer. There's a little metal can at the end of the bench that's supposed to hold the chips and shavings, but it just slowly disappears. I think this was last winter's pile:

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[Jack Curtis]

Not to be too discouraging, but the set can be different on both sides since they're done separately.

Jack

[Russell Sansom]

I think you're lucky to have this problem. For me, once I've iterated on a problem like this, I feel confident about it forever after. It was mentioned above, but I'll emphasize it with my own advice: Grab enough pieces of stock from your bone yard to solve the riddle and keep going until you have it figured out. Woodworking discovery is the gift that keeps on giving.