Resaw Advice

[Braden Todd]

I may be heading down a rabbit hole with this, but I’m looking into adding Resaw capabilities to my shop. Curious if anyone has experience using the Grizzly G0503 or if there is advice on a better option. Looking to be able to go from veneer thickness to 1/4” mostly. Thought about vertical bandsaw initially, but worried about users/employees keeping things accurate and all their fingers.

Thank you!

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-12-20-hp-horizontal-resaw-bandsaw/g0503

[Jamie Buxton]

Cutting veneer with that beast?! Wow, that's like bringing a tank to a knife fight! :D

[Mark Bolton]

You could look for one of the old Hitachi resaws at auction. If I ever wanted a dedicated small footprint resaw I figured that's the way I'd go.

Depending on what volume and size of material you could likely dedicate a modest vertical and a feeder and once setup it'd be no fingers. You obviously have the space for that machine but im never too hopeful for those machines regardless of others experience with one.

[Alan Lightstone]

Cutting veneer with that beast?! Wow, that's like bringing a tank to a knife fight! :D

OMG!!! Nuclear weapons. Amazing.

[Braden Todd]

Cutting veneer with that beast?! Wow, that's like bringing a tank to a knife fight! :D

So you’re saying it’d be efficient? Lol

[Braden Todd]

Have you heard that they’re not reliable, or worth the cost? We would need to run boards daily and as smoothly as possible. Machine concept seems to be a great solution, unless it never performs as needed.
If you were trying to run these daily, what would your ideal setup be?

Thank you

[Richard Coers]

You could look for one of the old Hitachi resaws at auction. If I ever wanted a dedicated small footprint resaw I figured that's the way I'd go.

Depending on what volume and size of material you could likely dedicate a modest vertical and a feeder and once setup it'd be no fingers. You obviously have the space for that machine but im never too hopeful for those machines regardless of others experience with one.
Have you used one of those? Horribly underpowered! They had a universal motor on them, not much different than a router motor. Purely a hobby machine, but I'm sure some people love them. Only good in business if you build a 2' bench under them, and then hang a 5hp motor off the back!

[Richard Coers]

Looks like the perfect machine for a business. It will also let you resaw 5/4 stock into drawer stock quite efficiently. The power feed will be the biggest labor savings you will get. You can put your unskilled help feeding that instead of some having them waste stock on a regular bandsaw with feeding too fast or too slow. It'll pay for itself in labor savings. Great choice!

[Mark Bolton]

Have you used one of those? Horribly underpowered! They had a universal motor on them, not much different than a router motor. Purely a hobby machine, but I'm sure some people love them. Only good in business if you build a 2' bench under them, and then hang a 5hp motor off the back!

Most anyone who runs one of the CB75F's swaps out the motor. A resaw with a 3" blade capacity is anything but a hobby level machine. Not a heavy production resaw by any means, at that level your in the big iron world. If you havent seen one run you'd likely be suprised at the resaw speed for a small machine. That said they are not a horizontal production resaw either. It depends on what your throughput, material size, and demand is. Without pointing it out, my point was I dont care if you find five people that have had decent results with the machine posted there is an extremely high potential for a painful experience/boat anchor for 9K which was why I suggested an alternate.

[Mark Bolton]

Have you used one of those? Horribly underpowered! They had a universal motor on them, not much different than a router motor. Purely a hobby machine, but I'm sure some people love them. Only good in business if you build a 2' bench under them, and then hang a 5hp motor off the back!

Funny how google works and popping up stuff you've recently typed... but maybe your talking about the big brother to the CB75 and the CB100 being a hobby level machine? As you can see, motor swap is still pretty much typical.

https://youtu.be/We26vZYuG58

[Mark Bolton]

Have you heard that they’re not reliable, or worth the cost? We would need to run boards daily and as smoothly as possible. Machine concept seems to be a great solution, unless it never performs as needed.
If you were trying to run these daily, what would your ideal setup be?

Thank you

No I have no direct knowledge of the machine was only posting with regards to your "other options". My portable sawmill runs a 1.25" blade (wider) and a 144" length (only slightly shorter) than the Grizzly on a 15HP motor (gas) so the 20HP spec'd is far and away more power. As I mentioned in another reply Im just alway very cautious with regards to what will actually land on the floor with that option. Worst case in the end you may wind up with heft credit to keep your lips zipped and work your way through it. Best case its plug and play.

It will be hard to beat a conveyor fed horizontal resaw if it runs non stop from the instant it hits the floor. If it doesnt.. who knows.

[John TenEyck]

That doesn't look like a veneer sawing machine to me. Those two narrow top rollers are all that's holding down the wood and that's insufficient if you want to cut veneer off the top. If you are trying to cut the veneer off the bottom then you'll have to put the board on top of a spacer because the minimum depth of cut is 1/4" if I understand the specs. correctly. Also, the max. cut width is 12", which might be enough but many vertical bandsaws come with more. I would have thought it would take a blade wider than 1", too, to better take advantage of the 20 hp motor.

John

[Bradley Gray]

Some used horizontal resaws:

https://www.sawmillexchange.com/view_products/71/

and these:

https://www.exfactory.com/Equipment.aspx?type=cat&what=RB

[Kevin L. Waldron]

I've got two different re-saws made by Northtech...one vertical and one Horizontal...... both work great. The Vertical saw is probably priced in the $6,000-$8,000 range and the Horizontal is probably in the $18,000 to $24,000 range...... I no longer am in the Instrument building business and have possible interest in selling. Both saws were used on a small level contact me by private email if interested..... TN is the location

445640445637445641

[Richard Coers]

Most anyone who runs one of the CB75F's swaps out the motor. A resaw with a 3" blade capacity is anything but a hobby level machine. Not a heavy production resaw by any means, at that level your in the big iron world. If you havent seen one run you'd likely be suprised at the resaw speed for a small machine. That said they are not a horizontal production resaw either. It depends on what your throughput, material size, and demand is. Without pointing it out, my point was I dont care if you find five people that have had decent results with the machine posted there is an extremely high potential for a painful experience/boat anchor for 9K which was why I suggested an alternate.
You didn't tell the OP that he would have to repower it, so I had to assume you had no experience with it. That's why I came in. Just because it can handle a 3" blade, that doesn't make it an industrial machine. Reinventing machines is not usually the best method for a production shop. Unless there is a maintenance shop on site. A production shop is depending on output and bringing in a machine to set on the floor and make money is far better than looking at auctions for a discontinued machine that has to be rebuilt before use. Buy the right machine and it makes money the day it shows up. Might take the OP months to find a used Hitachi. Meanwhile he's making money on the new machine.

[Kevin L. Waldron]

Failed to mention that we have two of the Hitachi CB75F saws..... Great saw but if you go this route you will need to upsize the motor as well as a make or purchase roller bearing guides for top and bottom of the saw..... it has some kind of machine plastic material stock as guides and they want last long....

Other negative is the table is somewhat short for large re-saws without roller tables. 445638

We also rigged a Powermatic 24" bandsaw to saw re-saw with a 1 1/2" blade and bandsaw stock feeder and it works great for short material.
445639

[Mark Bolton]

You didn't tell the OP that he would have to repower it, so I had to assume you had no experience with it. That's why I came in. Just because it can handle a 3" blade, that doesn't make it an industrial machine. Reinventing machines is not usually the best method for a production shop. Unless there is a maintenance shop on site. A production shop is depending on output and bringing in a machine to set on the floor and make money is far better than looking at auctions for a discontinued machine that has to be rebuilt before use. Buy the right machine and it makes money the day it shows up. Might take the OP months to find a used Hitachi. Meanwhile he's making money on the new machine.
Swapping a motor is not reinventing a machine. Ive done it a dozen times in my own shop and I have no on-site fab department though there is mig, tig, oxygen fuel, 250a stick, metal lathe. And or course cnc, in the shop. Swapping a single phase for three phase or stepping up the hp ain't rocket science but im with ya. If it's out of your league best to step aside.

As shown in the video I posted and the cost of the machines in the comment that follows.. a large vertical if it can be found at auction cab be pretty lucrative. Those CB machines can often be had very attractively priced

[Richard Coers]

Swapping a motor is not reinventing a machine. Ive done it a dozen times in my own shop and I have no on-site fab department though there is mig, tig, oxygen fuel, 250a stick, metal lathe. And or course cnc, in the shop. Swapping a single phase for three phase or stepping up the hp ain't rocket science but im with ya. If it's out of your league best to step aside.

As shown in the video I posted and the cost of the machines in the comment that follows.. a large vertical if it can be found at auction cab be pretty lucrative. Those CB machines can often be had very attractively priced
You're hilarious Mark, you have no idea of my skills, but yet you think that making that kind of comment will bother me? Even funnier. You're the expert, you win. LOL

[Mark Bolton]

I am far from an expert at anything other than back pain and not trying to bother but I never suggested reinventing a machine, rehabbing a machine, or a business having to rehab/build a resaw from scratch. ;-) Happy Thanksgiving

[Braden Todd]

Hi Kevin,
Sorry for the delay getting back to this. Holiday rush has been crazy this year. Would you mind shooting me an email? Tried to find yours and failed lol Braden@glassmith2.com

Thank you!

[Scott T Smith]

I may be heading down a rabbit hole with this, but I’m looking into adding Resaw capabilities to my shop. Curious if anyone has experience using the Grizzly G0503 or if there is advice on a better option. Looking to be able to go from veneer thickness to 1/4” mostly. Thought about vertical bandsaw initially, but worried about users/employees keeping things accurate and all their fingers.

Thank you!

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-12-20-hp-horizontal-resaw-bandsaw/g0503

Braden, I have Grizzly's big brother to that saw, the G0504. We have used it to make literally tens of thousands of linear feet of veneer, and I have been very pleased with it. Our saw has operated for 6 - 7 hours straight daily for weeks on end w/o any problems.

Tolerances per sheet are usually within .003, give or take. The quality of the bands makes a tremendous difference in the results; Grizzly recommends the Lenox Trimaster's, but up until recently we've had the best results from the Laguna Resaw Kings. Be advised that Laguna moved their band production from California to South Carolina earlier this year, and they are still working though some quality issues. Hopefully they have them resolved by now.

I can't speak to the smaller saw, but can say that the G0504 has met or exceeded all of my expectations.