Resawing Purple Heart

[Rich Torino]

I could use some help.... Last nite I tried to cut an 1/8" thick piece of veneer from a 4' long 8" wide piece of purple heart that ended in a mess. It went form 1/8" to 0" in the middle to 1/8" at the end. Let me give you the details.. I have a Grizzly G0555 with a new woodslicer blade. I went through the saw set up for table/blade squareness etc.
I also set the tension up by the flutter method and just about had it maxed out.
I've been able to resaw in the past with good results but never purple heart and never an 8" x 4' wide board.
Is that past the capability of the saw/blade combination? or just past the capability of the operator?

[Matt Lentzner]

I could use some help.... Last nite I tried to cut an 1/8" thick piece of veneer from a 4' long 8" wide piece of purple heart that ended in a mess. It went form 1/8" to 0" in the middle to 1/8" at the end. Let me give you the details.. I have a Grizzly G0555 with a new woodslicer blade. I went through the saw set up for table/blade squareness etc.
I also set the tension up by the flutter method and just about had it maxed out.
I've been able to resaw in the past with good results but never purple heart and never an 8" x 4' wide board.
Is that past the capability of the saw/blade combination? or just past the capability of the operator?

Were you sawing against a post or a fence?

[Rich Torino]

Matt I was using a 8" high fence that I made.....

[Dan Forman]

Did you set the fence to compensate for blade drift, and did you use a featherboard directly before the blade to keep the workpiece against the fence?

Dan

[Rich Person]

I don't have a high capacity bandsaw (yet), but split a 10" 4/4 purpleheart board into quarters on the TS, then planed and reglued them into 10" 1/4" boards. This is not what you are doing, but I mention that my 3hp TS had a difficult time fighting through the dense purpleheart. That stuff is really thick. If anything was going to cause your blade to wander, that would be the test.

[Rich Torino]

Dan,
I did set the fence up to compensate for drift. However I didn't use a feather board but would swear that I kept the board solid against the fence. I might try cutting another piece tonite using a feaather board.
I'm really starting to think that the purple heart is just to hard and dense...

[Jerry Strojny]

I have that exact same bandsaw. I have not tried to resaw 8" purpleheart yet, but I have done some harder woods. I have not gotten perfectly vertical cuts, but good enough to work with. My only suggestion would be to slow down your feed rate. I mean reeeaaalllllyy slow. That seems to help my cuts. Try to make that 4 feet take 15 minutes to cut. Don't know what else to suggest.
Jerry

[Tom Cowie]

Rich
I have worked with purpleheat for a few years now ( got a pickup load from a local sawmill that was having trouble selling large purple boards :p )

Very dense and oily. I have had a good deal of sucess when I saw very slow with a consistant pressure after making sure that my saw was setup correct...

good luck and please post some of your projects .

I'm running out of ideas for the stuff :) :)

Tom

[John Terefenko]

I resaw lots of exotics and I use a Lennox carbide 3/4" tipped blade and have no problem whatsoever. But having said that because you are not going out and spend big bucks on a blade like that. My suggestion is as others have said you need to slow the feed rate down and make sure you are using infeed and outfeed rollers. The two important aspects of resawing is more tension is better than not enough. Keep the guides as close to the top as possible. Make sure your table is 90 degrees to the blade. You said you made a fence. That fence has to be 90 degrees to the table also at all points on the fence. Adjust fence for drift. Last but not least the board must not have any bows in it and the edge must be 90 degrees to the face you have riding against the fence. Good luck and by the way the purple heart when cut will look brownish but will return to purple when air hits it.

[Rich Torino]

Thanks everyone for all the input. I'm going to give it another try this weekend and I will definitley watch the feed rate. Mine was probably a little too agressive.
I'll post some pics when I finish the project..

[Pete Bradley]

Rich,

I hate to ask the obvious, but how flat and parallel was the board before it went into the saw? It's *really* easy to make a wavy resaw in a board with a little twist or bend to it. A longer and/or more rigid board accentuates this.

A strong featherboard will help to keep the board under control. Having the feather push against the middle of the width just ahead of the band helps to avoid situations where a little twist pulls the top away from the fence. Once you get the 1/8 off it of course it will flex any way you want.

Make sure also that your fence is rigid enough.

Pete

[Rich Person]

After reading this thread, I found some 10.5" wide purpleheart sitting around from an old project and I took it to a dealer to test out on the Agazzani B-20. He sent me a picture of the final product so I thought I would post it here for reference. It was cut on a 20" saw with standard fence only, no featherboard and standard feed rate. The blade was a Lenox Woodmaster carbide. The board was also slightly twisted (1-2mm up per corner). Here is the picture:

http://person.smugmug.com/photos/137333174-M.jpg
There were a couple minor rough spots on the ends, but the middle was almost indistiguisable from the reference face. I was impressed (future gloat in process).

[Rich Torino]

Pete,
The boad was flatened with the help of a jointer and drum sander and the edge was jointed. There were no twists in the board. I'm going to pick up a couple more pieces of purple heart this week and try it again and pay close attention to the feed rate.
Rich,
If I had that saw I probably wouldn't have had to ask for help.. That's a real piece of iron...

[Ted Miller]

Rich, I have the same BS you do but I have the neck extension installed and I have cut some tall PH. As Jerry said its tough to cut and I go very slow. I also used a brand new blade and my fence is homemade. I used a 3/4" blade to make the cuts, and I planned a jointed the board prior to resaw. I did not want to waste this stock...

[Rich Torino]

Ted,
I have the 6" extension on mine but I'm using a 1/2" wood slicer blade.. It gives good results on the PH if you knock it down to maybe a 5-6" width. I might try a 3/4" blade along with an Iturra tension spring...