Bandsaw blade speed

[Jake Helmboldt]

Does anyone actually use their two speeds on their saws? When resawing is it better to go with lower speed to get more torque?

My manual says hardwoods shoudl be cut with a lower speed (1700), but I have not bothered to switch to the slower speed, but rather rely on blades to address the cutting needs.

Jake

[Jim Becker]

Your manual is wrong, IMHO. Wood cutting should be done at a higher band speed, not slower. And yes, choosing the correct blade configuration for the work makes for a more satisfying cut.

[Pete Bradley]

It's a figment of the Marketing department's imagination. That said, machines that get the 2 speeds out of pulley ratios will have more torque at the lower setting (or less torque at the normal setting, depending on how you look at it).

Pete

[Guy Germaine]

I looked at the manual for my G0513X the other day when this was brought up. It says that for "cleaner" cuts, you should have the saw set to the slower speed. Mine came set on the slower speed, so just for grins and giggles, I changes it to the faster speed and tried resawing a piece of 8" wide Oak I had laying around. It sliced a 1/16" piece off like Butta! There's a noticeable difference with the cut quality at the higher speed. It's much nicer than at the slower speed.

[Larry Leigh]

My band saw has 2 speeds. I only use the slow speed for cutting metal, everything else is on high speed, I've tried cutting wood on the low speed setting and I ended up breaking the blade, guess it couldn't keep up to the arc I was cutting.