Bandsaw resawing

[phil harold]

On my Delta 14" band saw I put in a resaw blade
Sweet, sawed oak like butter
Went to saw cherry and she goes very slow
Maybe the blade is dull now after resawing 1x4s?
only sawed 10 linear feet
are there carbide tipped blades?

thanks

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Laguna makes carbide tipped bandsaw blades but the price is up there. What blade are you using now?

[phil harold]

all pro PGT by olson
3/4" 3 tpi
hook
raker
olsonsaw.net/93-5ap.html

[Andrew Hughes]

On my 14 inch saw I use Olsen's .020 3/8 skip tooth blade.I like the thinner blades.
I think you should try a couple differant manufactures blades before you go Carbide tipped.

[Matthew Hills]

Some folks like to touch up the sharpening on their bandsaw blades:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UygEQ-079Ws


Matt

[Jebediah Eckert]

Does anyone think one board would dull the blade? I struggle with resawing sometimes as well but I find 3 different boards, of the same species, often feel different and require different feed rates.

[Rick Potter]

Happened to me once. Turned out I didn't have the back thrust bearing adjusted right, and the teeth hit the steel guide blocks. Instant bad blade.

[Allan Speers]

Re carbide blades:

Most 14" bandsaws are going to have a very hard time tensioning a carbide blade, as they are thicker & stiffer. Maybe there's an exception, but do a LOT of research first if you're really considering this.

[John TenEyck]

Something's wrong. What blade were you using? Either the blade was not the correct type, or the blade got dulled by hitting something in the wood or maybe hitting the guides, as already mentioned, or the cherry closed up and pinched the blade. A blade just doesn't dull in those woods after 10 feet, even a poor one, unless it was the wrong type.

I resaw a lot of wood on my 14" Delta with riser block, including slicing veneers 10"+ wide. A good 1/2" - 3 tpi blade will cut a lot of wood before it gets dull; hundreds of BF. A carbide blade will cut smoother than the Lennox bi-metal blades I use, but the cost difference is close to $100.

Was the blade a Woodslicer or another narrow kerf type? If the board springs shut in the cut, even by just a little bit, it will stop the blade dead in it's tracks. They are great in perfect wood, but the wood I use is rarely perfect.

John

[Tom M King]

Different boards of the same species feeling different, and requiring different feed rates is not unusual at all. The normal difference between Oak and Cherry shouldn't be from butter to slow though. Does the thrust bearing spin when cutting? I've seen a number of people who think it should never turn. First thing I always try if everything else looks good, is more tension.

[John TenEyck]

A 1/2" blade cannot be tensioned adequately on a 14" cast iron Delta BS. The max. you can safely get is about 12K psi, half of what most blade manufacturers recommend. Using a blade wider than 1/2", of course, will result in even lower tension. Try to add more tension results in more frame bending that throws the upper blade guide out of alignment and stress that will cause early failure of the upper wheel yoke. Because the tension is low, the thrust bearing will always turn if it's set as recommended. Nevertheless, you can get good resawing performance if the blade is sharp, has few enough teeth with enough set to clear the swarf from the cut, and enough power to pull the blade through the wood.

John

[Allan Speers]

^ John, when I had my 14" Delta X5, I ran a (very thin) 3/4" blade all the time, with no problems. The X5 is a little beefier than most other versions, but not massively so.

It's true though that adjustment was a (minor) problem, as it would change slightly depending on the height of the guides. However, this isn't a big deal when resawing, as the side guides don't even have to be close.

[Jim Finn]

I re-saw a lot of cedar oak and maple 6" mostly, on my Grizzly 14" band saw. I have found "Supercut" 1/2" carbide re-saw blades to work best for this. $25 per blade.

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

A 1/2" blade cannot be tensioned adequately on a 14" cast iron Delta BS. The max. you can safely get is about 12K psi, half of what most blade manufacturers recommend. Using a blade wider than 1/2", of course, will result in even lower tension. Try to add more tension results in more frame bending that throws the upper blade guide out of alignment and stress that will cause early failure of the upper wheel yoke. Because the tension is low, the thrust bearing will always turn if it's set as recommended. Nevertheless, you can get good resawing performance if the blade is sharp, has few enough teeth with enough set to clear the swarf from the cut, and enough power to pull the blade through the wood.

John


Just curious but how did you compile these findings?

[John TenEyck]

I measured it. It's not hard. You clamp a set of vernier calipers at say 5" jaw gap to the blade at zero tension, then measure the strain (elongation) of the blade as you increase force on the spring up to whatever spring force you like. You then calculate the stress in the blade from: E = Stress/Strain. E for steel is 30 million psi. Strain = the measured blade elongation / 5" jaw gap. So if you measured 0.003" blade elongation, Stress = 30 x 10^6 x 0.003/5 = 18,000 psi.

Here's a photo of the setup I used:

330687

And here's a copy of my calculations:

330688

I actually got to almost 19,000 psi on my saw, but the spring was nearly fully compressed and the frame was substantially out of alignment. Anything much over 12,000 psi is the danger zone on a Delta 14" cast iron BS.

One aside I found during all this was that the bolt holding the upper and lower frame castings together needs to be really, really tight. You need to preload that bolt as much as possible or it will stretch when the spring is loaded and magnify the frame deflection.

John

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

That is an interesting test you performed. Nice job! I have the same bandsaw as you and was very curious as to what blade would work best once tightened down to the point where it would work correctly. It's good to know the maximum applied force and the strain it puts the cast iron through plus the damage that one can incur if over doing it. Thank you!

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

One more question:

What blade do you recommend as a good candidate for resawing lumber on a 14" Delta bandsaw? I put a 1 1/2 HP motor in mine since the 3/4 HP motor that came with it was not enough IMO.

[Art Mann]

One more question:

What blade do you recommend as a good candidate for resawing lumber on a 14" Delta bandsaw? I put a 1 1/2 HP motor in mine since the 3/4 HP motor that came with it was not enough IMO.

I am coming to the thread a little late but I will tell you what worked well with my Rikon 14 inch bandsaw. I used a 1/2" Woodslicer resaw blade from Highland Woodworking in Atlanta. I started with a 3/4 inch Timber Wolf resaw blade but it was too thick and stiff and wouldn't tension properly. The Woodslicer is not only narrower but also thinner. This blade is much easier to tension and the narrow kerf creates less of a load on the saw going through thick wood. I have heard people claim you need a 3/4 or 1 inch blade to resaw but that was not my experience. I have recently acquired a heavier and more powerful Laguna bandsaw and I use a 3/4 inch Woodslicer on it. The cut quality is not any better or more consistent than my Rikon with the 1/2 inch blade. I do have both band saws very well tuned and that really makes a difference.

[Steve Kinnaird]

I purchased the Grizzly 17" Anniversary Edition band saw.
I purchased the resaw fence and this blade 131 1/2" X 1" X 0.035 X 2 HOOK
I have never done any resawing and want to make sure that I don't destroy the wood in the process.
Should I be looking at purchasing the Woodslicer? I need a 131 1/2" blade. I would presume that the 3/4" would be the better choice.

[phil harold]

I re-saw a lot of cedar oak and maple 6" mostly, on my Grizzly 14" band saw. I have found "Supercut" 1/2" carbide re-saw blades to work best for this. $25 per blade.
Where do we find this 25 dollar blade?
thanks!

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Where do we find this 25 dollar blade?
thanks!

Maybe this one?

http://www.amazon.com/SuperCut-B93-5H12T3-Resaw-Bandsaw-Blades/dp/B001J8R0SM/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1454248249&sr=1-2&keywords=supercut+resaw+93-1%2F2

[Art Mann]

I purchased the Grizzly 17" Anniversary Edition band saw.
I purchased the resaw fence and this blade 131 1/2" X 1" X 0.035 X 2 HOOK
I have never done any resawing and want to make sure that I don't destroy the wood in the process.
Should I be looking at purchasing the Woodslicer? I need a 131 1/2" blade. I would presume that the 3/4" would be the better choice.

If your saw will properly tension a 1 inch blade, then there is nothing wrong with using it. I don't own the Grizzly but it is very popular and I read about it a lot. I have read from some people that a 3/4 inch blade works better but I claim no personal knowledge. Two teeth per inch is a very coarse blade and may leave the cut surface rough. Just try it and see if the cut quality is acceptable to you. I have only used Woodslicer and Timber Wolf resaw blades. I like both brands but I prefer the Woodslicer because the band is thinner.

[Jim Finn]

Do search for "Supercut band saw blades" Find their site. They have a catalog there but to order you will need to call them.

[Rick Potter]

I just did the Supercut search. I believe the one in question is called the 'Premium Gold'. Only a few bucks more than the regular. Supposedly has carbide particles applied to the teeth.

[John TenEyck]

One more question:

What blade do you recommend as a good candidate for resawing lumber on a 14" Delta bandsaw? I put a 1 1/2 HP motor in mine since the 3/4 HP motor that came with it was not enough IMO.

I have a 1.5 HP motor on my Delta, too. I have a riser block on mine and the 3/4 HP motor was worthless for resawing thick stock. As I showed earlier, the 14" Delta can't adequately tension any blade that you would consider for resawing so any choice is a compromise. Like many others, I've found the best compromise to be a 1/2" wide blade with 3 tpi. It has enough beam strength at the tension the saw can comfortably put on it to cut well as long as you don't over feed it.

Unlike some others, my experience with the Woodslicer was poor. It cuts great if the wood is perfect, but I had consistent problems with wood pinching it and that would bring it to a dead stop. That is incredibly frustrating because you can't go forward and you can't go backward. You have to pry the kerf open enough to continue or retract the blade. I gave up on it after 4 or 5 of those episodes. Maybe they work OK on thinner stock, but on the 6" and wider stock I often resaw it did not. I tried it again when I needed to cut some 10" veneer thinking the veneer wouldn't be able to pinch the blade if it wanted to pinch. Wrong; same problem.

I've settled on bi-metal blades that have enough kerf so the blade doesn't bog down if the wood moves a little during the cut. I used Olson MVP blades for a couple of years and had good service out of them. More recently I've been using a Lennox Diemaster 2 blade and it cuts very well, too. I'm not sure it's going to last quite as long as the Olson blades, however, which is rather surprising. Neither cuts as smoothly as the Woodslicer but they don't bog down either. When I saw veneer, sometimes 10" wide, I cut it at about 0.090" and can easily end up at 0.0625 - 0.065" after drum sanding.

John

[Matthew Hills]

I just did the Supercut search. I believe the one in question is called the 'Premium Gold'. Only a few bucks more than the regular. Supposedly has carbide particles applied to the teeth.

To be clear, these blades are more like a standard blade than the "carbide blades" that you see mentioned elsewhere (Lenox trimaster, Laguna resaw king, etc.).

I had seen some strong reviews for these on another forum, and
ordered a couple for my old bandsaw as I gave it to my dad 2 years ago.
The reportedly work fine, but we've never done a critical side-by-side comparison for resawing. He is mostly using the 3/8" blade for general curved cuts, some plastics, etc.

http://www.supercutbandsaw.com
SuperCut Bandsaw Co., Inc.
800-356-9918

Matt

[Tom M King]

I have an old Delta/Milwaukee 14" with riser too, and tried both the Resaw King and Trimaster CT blades. They were about equal other than the trimaster being less finicky about tension. The saw resawed fine with either 1/2" blade. A Timberwolf 1/2" 3 tooth only stayed sharp for about 20 minutes of cutting. I bought a Centauro 24" and set it up for resawing with a Woodmaster CT 1" 1.3 TPI. The Delta would make the same cut in 20 seconds that the Centauro did in 3 seconds. All were running on fine tuned saws making very clean cuts with the same resaw sled. Now I keep a 3/8" blade on the Delta for general bandsaw use. For use up on scaffolding for a shingle job, I bought a Craftsman 10" (same as Rikon 10"), and it's a surprisingly decent little saw. I keep a 1/4" blade on it.

[Allan Speers]

I think a lot of folks use too MUCH tension on their blades. One reliable source on the net recommends tightening only to just past the point where the blade flutters, which is VERY low tension compared to many other recommendations & methods. That's what I do, (only for wide resaw blades, where there is little sideways stress) and have always have fine results.

[John TenEyck]

There's no such thing as too much tension until you exceed about 30K psi. Lots of people recommend lots of things, but I believe the band manufacturers like Lennox who recommend running at high tension because it maximizes the beam strength of the blade and that allows it to cut straighter and at higher feed rates. I believe them because simple mechanics tells you there will be less deflection the higher the tension in the blade. If you look at industrial bandsaws, they all run at high tension because that allows higher feed rates while maintaining dimensional tolerance. Many consumer saws can't put that much tension on the blade, the cast iron 14" ones being a poster child of that category. So you are forced to use lower tension, not because it's better, but because the saw simply can't achieve it. But you will still get better performance the higher you can tension the blade, up to the limit of the saw. I'm not saying the blade won't cut well at lower tension, only that it will cut better at higher tension.

John

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

How much of a difference would you notice if you tighten down the bandsaw blade to the max as opposed to a good enough setting? This in reference to cut quality and straightness. Saw marks are a part of resawing so it's to be expected but in a hobby shop where you won't be slicing down THAT much lumber is good enough acceptable?

[John TenEyck]

I don't know if your question was directed to me, but I'll give you my opinion. Cut quality is more related to blade design (number of teeth, style tooth, set) and feed rate than anything else. All higher tension does is allow you to run at higher feed rates. Higher tension might also keep the blade tracking straighter when it hits some new grain orientation in the board but that's more anecdotal info. on my part than factual evidence.

Straightness is related to many factors, some of them related again to the blade (equal set, equal sharpness), some to how the blade is set up on the saw, and also tension. But you can get the same straightness at many tension levels; the only difference is in how fast a given tension allows you to feed the stock into the blade. This is why you read some people report that they get good results at low blade tension. That's true as long as the feed rate does not cause blade deflection, just as it is at higher tension. For any tension there is a maximum allowable feed rate where the teeth can clear the swarf and the beam strength is not exceeded. If the blade can't clear the swarf it doesn't matter how much tension you put on it, it will load up and refuse to cut any faster. And even at maximum blade tension there is a maximum feed rate at which point the beam strength will be exceeded; going any faster will cause the blade to bend and make a scalloped cut.

John

[John K Jordan]

Does anyone think one board would dull the blade?

I dulled a bandsaw blade once with one several cuts in a 12/4 walnut board. It was a brand new Starrett bimetal blade, so sad. But the board was unusual - a walnut mantel that had was thought to have been in a house for over 100 years.

BTW, I generally sharpen bandsaw blades once or twice. I use a metal-cutting disk on a Dremel and briefly touch the front of each tooth with the flat of the little disk. I don't take the blade off the bandsaw. Been doing this for years and it works very well.

JKJ