Bandsaw Blade Overhang Your Experience?

[Tom Lang]

483684

This morning, I was trying to resaw and I was getting significant drift on a blade with some hours on it. I learned to install blades with overhang up to the gullets, so just the teeth are good exposed. I’ve never gotten the life out of a blade I thought I should.

I resaw hardwood to about 1/16 veneers about 4 to 6 inches in height using 1/2” and 3/4” blade The blade in the photo is a fresh blade I put on a few min. ago. I probably won’t adjust until I have some feedback.


This photo is of the upper wheel on my MM16 bandsaw, showing significantly more (for me) overhang. I usually bury the blade right up to the gullet, but as you can see, there is more than that exposed. I ran a few test pieces and they came out fine. Someone along the way, wrote in a forum that if you run blades down the center on flat wheels you will chew up the wheels. If that’s true, and you overhang the teeth,
isn’t it possible with high tension you could make the blade concave as the teeth are not supported? Even if the teeth don’t overhang as much as above? FYI the bottom wheel pretty much sets itself mimicking the top when I adjust.

So, flat wheel bandsaw owners, what do you run and what location on the upper wheel do you ace the teeeth relative to the wheel? Overhang? Center , flush with the front? ThanKs ahead of time!

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Tom, I have the set portion of the blade overhanging the tire...........Regards, Rod.

[bob cohen]

Are you sure your wheels are flat? I assumed the wheels on my Felder were flat until I put a square across them. They have just enough crown to align the gullets with the center of the wheel (except on my 1 inch blade), without fear of damaging the tires. I have had virtually no drift since switching to that method, provided, of course, that the teeth are sharp.

[Jim Becker]

Bob, yes, the MM16 has flat wheels.

I run with the teeth off the wheel at about "gullet depth". That "should" preserve the teeth set to my mind.

[John Lanciani]

483684

This morning, I was trying to resaw and I was getting significant drift on a blade with some hours on it. I learned to install blades with overhang up to the gullets, so just the teeth are good exposed. I’ve never gotten the life out of a blade I thought I should.



Let's start here; what blade are you using and can you quantify "some hours"? The answer to your tracking problem may very well be contained in the answer to these two items. As for your pic, when I had my MM20 that is pretty much how I ran blades, maybe just a bit farther back on the wheel.

[John TenEyck]

Hard to tell for sure but that blade looks to have a high tpi count, far more than I would use for sawing veneer.

John

[Richard Coers]

I have never run any part of the blade off the tire for the last 45 years. Feed speed is a major issue with resawing. If you see sawdust inside the kerf on the wood, the gullets are full and you are not going slow enough for the blade to remove all the sawdust. If you see no sawdust on the wood, then you are moving the wood just right.

[Mike King]

I agree with John; I think the issue is your blade. You are using a blade with too many teeth per inch. When you use a blade with a high tooth count, the blade doesn't have enough space (gullet) to exhaust the chips and sawdust. Michael Fortune uses a ½" 3TPI blade on a 14 inch bandsaw for his resawing. I have a 1" 1.2 TPI blade on a Felder FB510 I use for resawing. I get excellent results (quite smooth faces) with that blade.

It's easy to think that a finer toothed blade will yield a smoother face, but the reality is that the lack of space to expel the sawdust creates greater resistance, heats the blade, shortens blade life, and yields a rougher cut. A blade with a tooth count above 3 TPI isn't really a blade for woodworking, but is probably more appropriate for metal work.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

^^^ This for sure.