BS resaw issues...

[Michael Dunn]

I was trying to resaw through 7" of Poplar with my Rikon 10-340. I was using a 3/4" Timber Wolf blade. I believe that I've tensioned it as they prescribe. I used the slower speed setting. I varied my feed rate to observe the performance. Everything was worse than everything. Nothing worked right.

I either stalled the motor or didn't have enough blade or belt tension. I put a V-Twist belt right before the cut.

Any tips? I'm new to this saw and resawing.

Please help...

[David Kumm]

Blade speed should be 4000 fpm or greater. Tension the blade to the point the wheel needs two hands to turn and make sure the spring isn't bottomed out. When you say V twist are talking about a link belt? Should not use a link but a regular v or VX belt. Dave

[Peter Aeschliman]

Michael,

I had a TW blade on my saw and was having tons of problems with wandering and super rough cuts. I spent tons of time try to adjust my saw.

On the recimmendation of fellow creekers, I tried a lenox die-master II. With no other adjustments to the saw, I suddenly had great resaw results.

I'll never buy a TW blade again. I know some love them, but I had a very poor experience.

It seems to me that bad blades are the most common cause of problems on the bandsaw.

[Phil Thien]

Ditch the TW blade.

Don't use the flutter mention for tensioning, use the scale on the saw.

[Michael Dunn]

Ditch the TW blade.

Don't use the flutter mention for tensioning, use the scale on the saw.

So should I tension the 3/4" blade to the 3/4" scale? I know that may sound stupid, but I've always been told that the scales are pretty much worthless.

I guess I'll return the TW. do you like the Wood Slicer blades?

[Michael Dunn]

Blade speed should be 4000 fpm or greater. Tension the blade to the point the wheel needs two hands to turn and make sure the spring isn't bottomed out. When you say V twist are talking about a link belt? Should not use a link but a regular v or VX belt. Dave

Yes. A link belt by Fenner Drives. What is a VX belt? Why shouldn't I use a link belt? I've always been told they're the best. I spoke with Lou Iturra. He said they were great. I put them on everything.

[Phil Thien]

So should I tension the 3/4" blade to the 3/4" scale? I know that may sound stupid, but I've always been told that the scales are pretty much worthless.

I guess I'll return the TW. do you like the Wood Slicer blades?

The WS blades cut fast, and dull faster. They are great for setting a benchmark by which to judge other blades.

I'd suggest getting a 1/2" or 3/4" 3-TPI bimetal blade. You can find these in .025" thick, which is what I use because I have an underpowered saw. They are also available in .035", which would require more tension and may be stiffer for deep resawing.

[glenn bradley]

Its interesting how there is so much voo-doo about bandsaws. I use Timberwolfs, Woodslicers and others. I use the flutter method on all of them. I have no drift; I just align the saws (blade parallel to miter slot) when I first set them up and use the fence.

I do use link belts, I do set my wheels co-planer, I do position the blade center on about the center of the wheel. I used to use a piece of paper to set the guide spacing but, now just eyeball it. I'd say it was the saw but, I treat 4 different saws (10", 14" and two 17") the same and have similar results.

Other than tension, I don't readjust a thing for the various blades I use on the saws. If its luck, this would explain my bad luck at everything else; I've used up all my good luck with my various bandsaws :D:D:D. I hope I didn't just jinx myself :).

[David Kumm]

Second what Phil says about bimetal blades. Stay with thinner band and tension tight. Use the scale only for reference and experiment by sawing at 3/4' , then turning 1/2 turn and sawing again, and again until you hit the sweet spot for your saw and your blade. Link belts are primarily fractional horsepower belts and noted for being smooth but not for transmitting power. VX belts are designed to transfer torque efficiently and are fairly recent developments- last 20 years of so. That is why old machines had three or four matched belts and new machines operate with only one. I don't think the belt is your problem but link belts are often improperly used so this is just general info. Dave

[John TenEyck]

If the blade is new it's likely not the blade's fault. I've used a 1/4" x 4 tpi TW blades to resaw 6" white oak w/o problems. Not my favorite choice but it worked fine. The drive belt is a separate issue, but certainly you need to be able to transmit power efficiently. Blade speed isn't all that important either, although you have to adjust your feed rate with blade speed. Let's back up. Can you saw a straight line in 4/4 stock with no drift? If not, you have a setup problem that you should deal with first before trying to resaw something. The biggest problem with resawing, IMHO, is improper setup of the BS, starting with the wheels not being coplaner. After that, you need a sharp blade appropriate for the task. Tension is no higher than third on the list, although many will tell you otherwise.

John

[Curt Harms]

With that saw I doubt there's a reason to use the lower speed. It seems like you'd need to feed pretty slow to not 'overfeed' with a blade speed of 1510 ft./min. I think the lower speed is primarily for non-ferrous metals. The higher speed of 3220 ft./min. is more typical, industrial saws can run 5000 ft./min. Yeah, Timberwolf blades seem to be one of those things where some swear by 'em and others swear at 'em. You're lucky in that if you want to go with a wider or thicker blade, your saw should tension it. Those of us with cast iron 14" saws may not have that luxury.

[Julie Moriarty]

Michael, don't know if you saw this thread, but maybe it can help: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?203341-A-Scientist-Explains-The-Physics-of-Resawing

As for blades, you could look into the Lenox Flex Back blade. I'd call them to verify but you may be able to put a fairly wide blade on that 14" wheel, something like a 1" with 2 TPI.

[Art Mann]

There is nothing wrong with Timberwolf bandsaw blades. I resaw with a 3/4" one on a 14" saw with a 1 HP motor and it works just fine. The speed of cut is faster than I expected on 6" white oak. I suspect your problem is blade speed. You need to be running at the faster speed with wood. The slower speed is generally used with non-ferrous metals.

[Joseph Tarantino]

There is nothing wrong with Timberwolf bandsaw blades. I resaw with a 3/4" one on a 14" saw with a 1 HP motor and it works just fine. The speed of cut is faster than I expected on 6" white oak. I suspect your problem is blade speed. You need to be running at the faster speed with wood. The slower speed is generally used with non-ferrous metals.

while i agree on the blade speed, i'll echo the sentiments to ditch the TW blades. like peter noted above, i also spent a lot of time trying to correct what i though twas a BS performance problem only to discover that the 4 new TW blades i was using all had misaligned welds. installation of a lenox promaster from iturra, AND NO OTHER CHANGES TO THE SAW, resulted in significantly improved performance. there's a reason TW runs 4 for the price of three sales promotions, and it's not because they are quality blades.

[Art Mann]

I can't say that all Timberewolf blades are made well and cut well but I can guarantee you that the ones bought do. I haven't bought any recently and their quality may have gone down hill.

[Don Jarvie]

I was watching Tommy Mac today and the were resawing hard maple and used the table saw and cut the bottom and top as high as the blade would go then resawed. The cuts helped makes it easier to resaw. The project was a shaker end table. Maybe worth a try.

[Donny Lawson]

My blades seem to cut fine but gum up fast on wet wood. Any advise on cleaning my blades after the resaw process?

[Myk Rian]

Ditch the TW blade.

Don't use the flutter mention for tensioning, use the scale on the saw.
Come on, Phil. There are too many people around here that use TW blades and the flutter method, successfully.
Myself included.

[Michael Dunn]

My blades seem to cut fine but gum up fast on wet wood. Any advise on cleaning my blades after the resaw process?

I'm told that using a dry lubricant will help prevent pitch and resin buildup on the blade. I just ordered some but haven't had the hence to use it yet.

[John Lanciani]

Come on, Phil. There are too many people around here that use TW blades and the flutter method, successfully.
Myself included.

And there are also a lot of us that think that TW and the flutter method are snakeoil. When I cut veneer (up to 16" wide no less) it goes directly from the saw to the vacuum bag, I've never seen anyone say they can do that repeatably with a Timberwolf blade tensioned per their directions.

[Phil Thien]

Come on, Phil. There are too many people around here that use TW blades and the flutter method, successfully.
Myself included.

Come-on yourself, there are also quite a few people here that found their TW blades had bad welds, and dull quickly.

[Peter Aeschliman]

All I can do is speak from my own experience with TW blades. The welds weren't bad on mine. They just cut really poorly. The set on the teeth really causes a rough cut. Even when the thing was cutting straight, it took many passes on the drum sander to clean up the faces, after which my book matches were not as good as they should have been. Not so with my lenox diemaster II.

So Michael, you very well might have a good TW blade, but I'd recommend trying a different blade before assuming something is wrong with your saw.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thats one of those tricks that always looks like a good idea, but the safety implications worry me. I dont really want to run a ts with the blade fully raised. Yeah, I know you can get hurt with it raised even 1/8" but raising it 2-3" just feels like a bad idea. (I usually avoid operations if they feel wrong.)
Fred

[Curt Harms]

All I can do is speak from my own experience with TW blades. The welds weren't bad on mine. They just cut really poorly. The set on the teeth really causes a rough cut. Even when the thing was cutting straight, it took many passes on the drum sander to clean up the faces, after which my book matches were not as good as they should have been. Not so with my lennox diemaster II.

So Michael, you very well might have a good TW blade, but I'd recommend trying a different blade before assuming something is wrong with your saw.

I have a Timberwolf 3/4" blade I got when I first got my Rikon 10-325. I used it a couple times then hung it up and used other blades. A couple days ago I got it down, reset the blade guides and gave it a whirl. My results are like Peter's, Rougher cut. Very little if any drift but a rougher finish.

[David Weaver]

I've never had any trouble with TW blades. I've had four, I guess. The last new one I opened up about a month ago and it was fine. They do dull fast compared to a bimetal blade, but that's not much of a problem if you can use a dremel tool and a diamond chainsaw bit.

[John Coloccia]

I suggest you start resawing with a Woodslicer and definitely use the flutter method to adjust tension. You can always increase tension later but the flutter method gets you in a good ballpark. It's NOT critical. You need to have enough tension that the blade won't flex too much. It's not rocket science. The Woodslicer is a great blade and is impractical only because it dulls very quickly, but it will cut through anything like butter for a while. I used those exclusively for a long time. They're cheap enough that it's not a deal breaker that they dull quickly.

Anyhow, that's how I would get started. It's an easy blade to setup and if your tension and tracking are reasonably well dialed in, it will cut straight. That will let you concentrate on the biomechanics of resawing. Where do you push...how much pressure...how do you feed without resawing your fingers, etc etc. It will also allow you to experiment with your setup a bit and still get good results. Then when you put a good blade on there, you'll tension it, track it and go without a second thought and everything will magically work perfectly.

IMHO, the scales are absolutely useless. All it measures is the compression of the spring, which tells you nothing at all about the blade composition, thickness or anything else. You try setting it to 3/4" with a Woodslicer, and then set it to 3/4" with a Lenox, and see if you get the proper tension on either blade. The only thing it's even remotely useful for is when you find a tension you like on a particular blade, you can write down the number as reference. It should just be a scale that reads "1,2,3,4,5,6" or something like that, so you don't have to write down goofy things like, "3/4" Woodslicer takes 3/8" tension".

[Art Mann]

I feel the real problem may be getting lost in the blade discussion. You are not going to get good performance resawing with the blade running at half speed no matter what blade you use. It might help if the saw is grossly underpowered but that is clearly not the case in this situation.

[Curt Harms]

John C.'s post above is spot on. I'd add that there are other vendors of the 'woodslicer' blade, just not using that name. Iturra sells one, bladerunner or something like that. Spectrum Supply sells a kerfmaster. There may be others. And as David Weaver says, people do resharpen bandsaw blades. I've never tried it.

[Gus Dundon]

I've had tried a carbide metal cutting blade for resawing , it wasn't that perfect. Same thing with my TW blade.

[Chris Padilla]

I never had good results with TW blades either. I gave 'em a shot...never went back. All I use now are Lenox blades. The Trimaster and the Diemaster2 are my favorites however I didn't get very good results with their Woodmaster CT blade. The Trimaster and Diemaster2 resawed much better than the CT. I also crank up the tension and use the < 1/4" deflection test at the table and it seems to work fine for me. I ignore the tension gauge.

Now I'm on a MM20 (Minimax 20") so YMMV...she takes a 14' blade. :)

The Trimaster is a 1" 2/3 var. pitch carbide blade. 1/16" (62.5 mil) kerf
The Diemaster2 is a 1/2" 6 tpi hook style bimetal blade. 35 mil kerf (I think)
The Woodmaster CT is a 1" 1.3 tpi carbide blade. 51 mil kerf.

It is a matter of cut finish and kerf for me in my endless search for the ultimate resaw blade that yields the most veneers from a slab.

[Alan Lightstone]

I've never understood this. Why not just set every BS blade for maximum tension. Outside of occasionally breaking a blade (which, I would think would be rare), wouldn't every blade work better at maximum tension?

[Phil Thien]

I've never understood this. Why not just set every BS blade for maximum tension. Outside of occasionally breaking a blade (which, I would think would be rare), wouldn't every blade work better at maximum tension?

Probably.

Of course, you don't want to fully compress the spring, or overstress other parts of a saw. Some (many/most/all?) bimetal blades call for 15k-PSI. I'd rather run it under-tensioned if my other choice was fully compressing the spring, or causing a lot of wear and tear on the saw otherwise.

[Michael Dunn]

Ok. I've removed the old rubber tires and cleaned ALL of the adhesive. (FYI, 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner worked wonders!!! Still used some elbow grease and a chisel but this stuff clearly did most of the work.

I also picked up a couple Grip-Tite Guides to use as feather boards.

I had new Carter urethane tires on and have just cleaned my 3/4" WS 3 TPI blade. I made in a piece of Maple. 11-1/2"x4"x3/4".

The cut is pretty clean I must say. I only have my other bother resaw attempts to compare to though. Light sanding would make it finish ready I think.

So here's the dims of the piece after the resaw.

Front top - .3035"
Front bot - .3195"
Rear top - .2880"
Rear bot - .3080"

To my understanding the front to back difference is most likely drift. But possibly poor technique. The top to bot difference could be the table or fence needing to be adjusted.

Front top to bot is off by .016"
Rear top to bot is off by .020"

Top front to rear is off by .0155"
Bot front to rear is off by .0115"

I'd certainly like for these numbers to be smaller, however, it doesn't seem all that bad to me.

Can someone with more resaw experience offer me some perspective on my results?

Thanx!!!