Bandsaw cut

[Mark Rainey]

Got a 3/4 inch Resaw King for my Rikon 10-326. Was cutting a lot of 1/8 inch laminations. Lenox 1/2 inch 3TPI was getting the job done, but wanted to try out Resaw King. Cranked up tension to max and cut was significantly better, although still needed to use planer to smooth face of board afterwards. The problem was that when I began cut the blade would shift perhaps 1/32 of an inch and then follow a perfect straight line the rest of the cut. I thought my blade guide bearings were not the exact same distance from the blade so I adjusted them both to where they were barely touching and rotating a bit when turning the wheels by hand. I thought my bottom guides were properly adjusted also. Maybe I could do better with adjusting the guides. Here is a picture of the cut. 452063 Any thoughts on the problem? Thanks

[Brian Tymchak]

I have the 10-325 and have fits getting a 1/2" blade tensioned enough. I can't imagine it being possible to get a 3/4" blade to tension on that machine.

[Doug Garson]

One comment, the guides should not touch the blade when cutting in a straight line, if they do something is wrong. Have you adjusted your saw to eliminate or compensate for drift?

[Andy Fox]

Things to try which might help:

1. Adjust tracking so that the gullets are as close to the center of the wheel as possible with the rear of the blade contacting the wheel. Not much wiggle room with a 3/4" blade though.

2. Steady, even feed pressure is ideal, sometimes maybe a bit more aggressive pushing.

[Mark Rainey]

I have the 10-325 and have fits getting a 1/2" blade tensioned enough. I can't imagine it being possible to get a 3/4" blade to tension on that machine.

This is a real concern Brian. Although Laguna markets the blade for a 14inch bandsaw. And Van Huskey has recommended this blade for a steel spine 14inch bandsaw blade and I have seen some members having great success with it. The cut was significantly better than my Lenox. It just is that little shift when starting the cut, the blade moved away from the fence and then tracks perfectly.

[Mark Rainey]

One comment, the guides should not touch the blade when cutting in a straight line, if they do something is wrong. Have you adjusted your saw to eliminate or compensate for drift?

Perhaps Doug. But I have seen on occasion a resaw expert say get your roller bearings as close to the blade as possible, so that when turning the wheel manually they occasionally kiss the blade. I have adjusted my bandsaw with table square to blade in both planes and have no drift with new Resaw King blade.

[Mark Rainey]

Things to try which might help:

1. Adjust tracking so that the gullets are as close to the center of the wheel as possible with the rear of the blade contacting the wheel. Not much wiggle room with a 3/4" blade though.

2. Steady, even feed pressure is ideal, sometimes maybe a bit more aggressive pushing.

Thanks Andy, I will keep trying.

[Prashun Patel]

Could it be your fence alignment? You may try resawing with a point fence to see if that cures it.

Next please confirm that you are feeding at a slow enough rate.

[Mark Rainey]

Could it be your fence alignment? You may try resawing with a point fence to see if that cures it.

Next please confirm that you are feeding at a slow enough rate.

I have been trying to start my feed really slow, I will look at your other suggestions.


452077

My guide post holding my roller bearings seems a little to the right of the blade axis - but adjusting the rollers should take care of this. I don't know if this has anything to do with the problem?

[John TenEyck]

A blade that initially pulls then cuts straight suggests either the blade isn't tracking parallel with the miter slot or the fence isn't aligned correctly. If you use a featherboard to hold the board against the fence, however, it likely will cut straight and true, just a little inefficiently and with a finish less perfect than it could be.

As long as you don't change its height, it doesn't matter if the upper guide is out of alignment as long as the bearings sit an equal amount from both sides of the blade. FWIW, guides make little difference in whether the blade cuts straight. It's all about alignment and tension. If you have to rely on the guides to keep the blade cutting straight something else is wrong.

John

[Bill Carey]

When I first got the resaw king 3/4" blade I forgot to lower the upper guides and had a similar thing happen. But if I lower the post so the work has just enough clearance, I have no problems with that blade, which I use all the time for great results. Very curious - I'll be watching this thread for more info. Sorry I can't help - got nothin.

[Matthew Hills]

Could it be your fence alignment? You may try resawing with a point fence to see if that cures it.

Next please confirm that you are feeding at a slow enough rate.

Fence alignment would be my bet, as well.
(This looks like what I get if my fence is not aligned)

I'd recommend keeping the tension high, backing off your blade guides, and doing a straight rip with low feed pressure to get your cut tracking reference, and then aligning your fence to that. (you can then get your guides tuned as desired)

Matt


Matt

[Mark Rainey]

Thanks for the good information! I will focus on the fence alignment.

[Brian Tymchak]

This is a real concern Brian. Although Laguna markets the blade for a 14inch bandsaw. And Van Huskey has recommended this blade for a steel spine 14inch bandsaw blade and I have seen some members having great success with it. The cut was significantly better than my Lenox. It just is that little shift when starting the cut, the blade moved away from the fence and then tracks perfectly.

Hmm. Since you mention others doing this, I rechecked specs on my 10-325 and sure enough they indicate the saw should handle a 3/4" blade. I do have a hard time getting the tension cranked up on a 1/2" blade so I think maybe I need to inspect my saw for a problem.

[Mark Rainey]

Hmm. Since you mention others doing this, I rechecked specs on my 10-325 and sure enough they indicate the saw should handle a 3/4" blade. I do have a hard time getting the tension cranked up on a 1/2" blade so I think maybe I need to inspect my saw for a problem.

I think the Rikon 10-326 can handle a 3/4 inch blade, but I think it should be thin. I did resaw with a Lenox 2TPI 3/4 inch blade but it was .032 inches and it got the job done but it was sort of ugly - weird sounds and a blade that wavered. My roller bearings harnessed it and with tension up I was able to get my 1/8 laminations but the cut was very rough. I was waiting for my 1/2 Lenox blades to arrive and got impatient and used the 3/4 inch Lenox.

[Mark Rainey]

Got another Resaw King 3/4 inch. Laguna gave me a new one. Excellent customer service. Needed to do some heavy resawing. Put it on - blade length was a bit too long so I had to adjust my Rikon to raise the upper wheel which helped. Cranked up tension. Miter slot and fence square to blade, blade at 90 degrees to table. Guides just kissing blade at times. Pretty good cuts, but with initial shifting of blade again exactly as in first pic. Cut 56 laminates 30 inches long and 6 inches wide. Near end of work the blade began to wander more. Checked blade for drift and it did have a few degrees drift. Corrected fence for drift but cut got worse. Enough of this. I just can't figure out how to best utilize the RK on my Rikon 10-326. I am just guessing, but the band at 3/4 inch just seems too wide for my wheels - if it is centered on the top, it is off center on the bottom. I tossed on a new Lennox Flexback 1/2 inch 3TPI and was easily cutting 50 inch laminates 5 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick. The half inch blade was easy to center on the top wheel and naturally centered on the bottom. Probably the end of my adventures with a 3/4 inch blade.

[Christopher Charles]

Bummer to hear Mark. I have a 18" saw and use a carbide 1" blade (Ag B-18 and lenox trimaster(?)). Here's my set up procedure:

-aligning the teeth to overhang the front of the top wheel when tensioned
-setting the guides to 'kiss' both top and bottom (as you mentioned)
-striking a line parallel to the edge of a piece of 2' or 3' piece of scrap
-freehand cutting to the line 1/2 way through the scrap with the blade fully tensioned
-aligning the fence to the edge of the board

When changing blades, this often results in the fence moving a couple degrees. I have never checked alignment to the miter slot. Not sure if any of that is different than what you've been trying.

Looking forward to seeing the fruits of your efforts.

Best,
Chris

[Mark Rainey]

Bummer to hear Mark. I have a 18" saw and use a carbide 1" blade (Ag B-18 and lenox trimaster(?)). Here's my set up procedure:

-aligning the teeth to overhang the front of the top wheel when tensioned
-setting the guides to 'kiss' both top and bottom (as you mentioned)
-striking a line parallel to the edge of a piece of 2' or 3' piece of scrap
-freehand cutting to the line 1/2 way through the scrap with the blade fully tensioned
-aligning the fence to the edge of the board

When changing blades, this often results in the fence moving a couple degrees. I have never checked alignment to the miter slot. Not sure if any of that is different than what you've been trying.

Looking forward to seeing the fruits of your efforts.

Best,
Chris



Thanks for the advice Chris.

[John K Jordan]

Assuming the blade is sharp, my experience with that type of behavior is the tension is not high enough. I didn't read all the posts - did you tension with a tension meter? If not, perhaps you could borrow one. I bought one years ago and found that with proper tension the indicator on bandsaws is almost always way off. Some manufacturers claim their saws will work with a blade size that can't realistically be tensioned with that saw. I tension a 1/2" 3tpi blade the indicator on my 18" Rikon 10-345 is pointing almost to the 1" mark.

I bought a Starrett tension gauge but Iturra Design sells one that is a lot cheaper.

I set the blade guides as recommended so they are very close but not touching the blade.

JKJ



Got a 3/4 inch Resaw King for my Rikon 10-326. Was cutting a lot of 1/8 inch laminations. Lenox 1/2 inch 3TPI was getting the job done, but wanted to try out Resaw King. Cranked up tension to max and cut was significantly better, although still needed to use planer to smooth face of board afterwards. The problem was that when I began cut the blade would shift perhaps 1/32 of an inch and then follow a perfect straight line the rest of the cut. I thought my blade guide bearings were not the exact same distance from the blade so I adjusted them both to where they were barely touching and rotating a bit when turning the wheels by hand. I thought my bottom guides were properly adjusted also. Maybe I could do better with adjusting the guides. Here is a picture of the cut. 452063 Any thoughts on the problem? Thanks

[Mark Rainey]

Thanks for the info John. I tried to get the max tension my Rikon 14 inch could give. Maybe it is just not enough. I futzed around with John White's method for measuring tension from a fine woodworking article in 2001. It looked promising but then I was getting unreliable results. John T has posted good information on measuring bandsaw tension. I should try that or buy a gauge. It just seems like the 3/4 inch blade ends up in different positions on the top wheel ( centered ) and bottom wheel ( at the very front). When I use a half inch blade I do not have this problem. I have not addressed the "co-planer" issue with the wheels, and am hesitant to go further into that area.

[David M Peters]

Mark - it has been a while but I had a similar tensioning experience with my Laguna 1412 - it is unable to properly tension a 3/4" x 0.032" blade (Timberwolf PC series). I stick to 1/2" blades now, although I haven't ever tried a 3/4" x 0.025" blade in it.

But our machines likely have very similar construction and similar tensioning abilities.

[Mark Rainey]

Mark - it has been a while but I had a similar tensioning experience with my Laguna 1412 - it is unable to properly tension a 3/4" x 0.032" blade (Timberwolf PC series). I stick to 1/2" blades now, although I haven't ever tried a 3/4" x 0.025" blade in it.

But our machines likely have very similar construction and similar tensioning abilities.

Yes David, I think our machines are very similar. It just seems when I put full tension on the 3/4 inch blade it seems like it is different positions on the upper and lower wheels, and looks odd to me. I would like to hear from anyone with my Rikon 10-326 or your Laguna 1412 that is doing reliable volume resawing of veneers/laminates of 1/8 inch or less.

[John K Jordan]

Yes David, I think our machines are very similar. It just seems when I put full tension on the 3/4 inch blade it seems like it is different positions on the upper and lower wheels, and looks odd to me. I would like to hear from anyone with my Rikon 10-326 or your Laguna 1412 that is doing reliable volume resawing of veneers/laminates of 1/8 inch or less.

I wonder if that might indicates some structural deformation of the frame. Years ago I damaged parts on my old 14" Delta trying to tension a blade that was too big for the saw even though Delta said it would work. This was before I learned differently.

The tensioning bracket in the saw was bent to the point that I couldn't tension any blade properly. The spring was also fully compressed which should have been a huge red flag (spring should never be fully compressed.) I bought new and stronger parts from Iturra Design and everything worked well again.

JKJ

[Mark Rainey]

It is possible John. The same problem happened with both new 3/4 inch Resaw King blades.