Resaw oak

[Brian Keith]

Today I was trying to resaw some 1" x 5"tall oak in half on my 14" craftsman bs and it came out terrible. The piece came out very wavvy. I used a feather board and the stock fence which I know isnt very good. Can any one tell me what I was doing wrong and is there any other way to cut these boards in half from 1" to 1/2". Thanks

[Tim Sproul]

Today I was trying to resaw some 1" x 5"tall oak in half on my 14" craftsman bs and it came out terrible. The piece came out very wavvy. I used a feather board and the stock fence which I know isnt very good. Can any one tell me what I was doing wrong and is there any other way to cut these boards in half from 1" to 1/2". Thanks

You need to take it slow. REALLY REALLY REALLY slow.

I mean slow like it takes you 2+ minutes to resaw 1 foot length of 5 inch wide stock.

I have to assume all other things are ok. tension. appropriate blade. good dust collection. table is really square to the blade. Stock is 4-square. Etc.

[Rick Gooden]

Brian,

I recently got a new Rikon 14" Delux and was having a heck of a time with 6" oak. After going to a 1/2" timberwolf blade, using a resaw fence ,and playing with the tension, my resaws are now very good.

[Brian Keith]

It had to of been trying to go to fast. I did notice as I was feeding it(this was my first resaw with oak) how hard it was to cut. Maybe the speed explains why I spun the lower, rear blade bearing off and found it on the floor.

[Jim Becker]

Brian...tell us the specifications of the blade you were running... ;) ...and it's age/usage. Was it ever used to cut curves? (always resaw with a blade dedicated to straight cutting...and one with fewer teeth; typically 2-3 TPI)

[Paul Joynes]

Brian,

I am not sure whether you are able to adjust your fence for drift but on my Laguna you would first take a trial cut in some thin stock and confirm that the blade is centered in the kerf of the cut (you only need to cut about 1.5 inches into the end of the board to check this). If the blade is not in the center of the kerf, you adjust the angle of the fence and perform this trial cut again. Iterate until the blade is centered.

For fences that can't be adjusted for drift, a pivot point can be attached to the fence at the blade location and you have to adjust for the drift manually. by feeding the board at a slight angle to the fence. (see image)

http://www.woodcraft.com/images/products/146051_230.jpg

The wider the blade that you use, the better your cut should be. I use a 1.25 inch wide resaw blade but you will likely max out your saw at .5 or .75 inches. I once heard that if you want to resaw lumber, you should never use that blade for curve work. Supposedly it is much harder to cut straight with a blade once it has been used for cutting curves.

Hope you have better luck in the future.

Paul

[keith ouellette]

I have been told you need a very heavy blade to resaw on a band saw. I guess it has to do with blade flexing. The whole saw can flex (in the case of smaller saws) from what i have read. The there is the whole issue about the thrust bearings needing to be adjusted just right. It isn't a simple task.

[Robert Mahon]

I have the 14" Craftsman saw and have used it to resaw 6" White Oak for Bookmatching. Before I did this I installed the "T" slot addition I had from my old Ryobi BT3000 saw as tall a guide.

I also 1st jointed the edge and ran a pencil line along it to indicate the path I wanted the blade to follow before I pushed the board through the saw slow enough to stay on the line.

Even with the 1/4" blade it came out pretty darn straight and, all-in-all, worked quite well.

[Dixon Peer]

Something's wrong if you're getting those kind of results. Is the blade good and sharp? Do you have it tensioned as much as possible? With a good blade like an Olson, you can tension to the max. ability of your saw and they won't come apart, and that's what you need to do. Additionally, the blade should be running in the middle of the tires.

I resaw white oak and other hardwoods six and more inches high on a Griggio 18" (actually a little bigger...it's metric) saw, a 3/8" three tooth per inch skip pattern blade with no discernable drift or waviness as you say.

[Al Willits]

I have the 14" Delta with a 6" rider and just got done with a bunch of white oak, I tried the set up that Paul has pictured in his post and didn't care for it, what I did was tale a piece of plywood about 16" long and 4" high (I have one about 6.5" high for taller boards) and mounted it to the same fence Paul has, this gives more support and keeps the board straight, you just have to make sure your fence is set to cut straight.

I first used the Timber wolf 3/4" 3 tpi blade and it for as long as it stayed sharp it worked pretty well, I'm now using their 1/2 blade and it seems to cut well too, but I'll be looking into a bi metal blade as they are suppose to stay sharp longer.

I think I'll try splitting the difference next time and get one of the 5/8" bi metal blades and see what happens.

More of that learning curve.
Being a newbie sucks...imho :D

Al

[John Thompson]

Ditto Jim Becker on 2-3 TPI... sharp blade.. very slow feed and you might crank up the tension a tad. BTW.. I wouldn't run over a 1/2" blade on the 14".

Good luck...

Sarge..

[Thom Sturgill]

I have the new 14" craftsman and it only allows 1/2" max blade width. I bought a third-part (Olsen?) 1/2" blade that I dedicate to re-sawing and use the general purpose 1/4" blade that came with it for everything else. Several sources either have or will fab blades for the Craftsman.

Make sure the tension and guide bearings are set right, they may need readjusting when you raise the top set for resawing.

[Lee Schierer]

Grain has a dramatic influnence when resawing oak. The blade will tend to take the path of least resistance and follow the grain. Wavy grain can be particularly hard to resaw. Use a wide blade, for a 14" saw 1/2" is about as wide as the saw can tension with stock springs. 3 TPI is a good choice. I also draw a line on the edge of stock and adjust the feed angle to stay on the line. It is important that you upper and lower blade guides and thrust bearings are adjusted properly so the blade can't twist. You also have to let the blade cut at its own rate. Forcing the cut where the saw stalls or slows down will cause problems.

Make sure your motor drive belt is tensioned correctly so it delivers full motor HP to the saw, a slipping belt will look like a poor performing saw.

[Pete Bradley]

This should be a simple task and there's no magic to it. Some of this summarizes good advise given above, but likely culprits are:
- a dull and/or poor quality band (for example, the band that came with the saw)
- too many teeth (3-4TPI would be right)
- insufficient tension (doesn't have to be ridiculous, just sufficient)
- poor fence or poor technique holding the work against the fence

If wavy means big waves, I'd bet on dull band or wrong TPI. If the surface has a sawtooth pattern with ridges less than 1/2" apart, the band is vibrating in the cut. A dull band, insufficient tension and/or too big a band for the saw will cause this.

You should be able to do this resaw with a 3/8" or 1/2" band no problem. There's no need for a monster band and it may make matters worse. I recommend a 1/2"X3TPI thin-kerf band. Most people get 'em from Suffolk Machinery.

Pete

[Bill Wilson]

I've found bandsaws to be one of the fussier and least forgiving tools when it comes to proper adjustment & setup for resawing operations. If any one of several factors are even slightly out of whack, it will yield poor results. Many factors have already bene mentioned, such as proper blade, sharp blade, blade tension, blade tracking, feed rate, fence adjustment, technique, guide and thrust bearing adjustment.

I was resawing some cherry last weekend and really getting frustrated at my poor results. I ruined several "test" pieces due to blade drift. I thought I had the set-up close enough, but I did it all from memory and wasn't really all that attentive to details. I had gotten good results in the past and thought I could wing it. I don't resaw all that often, and my sloppiness caused me a lot of grief.

Once I realized I was getting nowhere, I started from the beginning, to the point of removing the blade from the saw and reinstalling it. I dug out my manual and followed the set-up steps in order and as close to the "T" as possible. Once I did this, my results improved dramatically. The two biggest factors for me was the blade tension and the thrust bearing adjustment. If the manual says the thrust bearing should be 016" from the back of the blade, then that is what it should be. I simply eyeballed it before and it was too far away, allowing the blade to run out under load.

The top & bottom guide bearings should just kiss the blade when running under no load and should be just behind the gullet. I had mine too far back and one side closer than the other.

The tension gage in the back of the saw is only a starting point. Follow blade tensioning protocols and don't just set it to what the gage says it should be.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

[Brian Keith]

Thanks for all the help so far. The blade being used is a month old Craftsman 1/2" 3-4tpi and tension is set at 1/2 on the tensioner. I have cut some slight curves with it. Fence could be part of the problem also. Other Craftsman owners how did you set the stock fence for drift? Board was squared up prior. Blade rides in the middle of the tires. As far as the lower rear bearing falling out I think was do to the fact that the stocks suck.It wont spin so blade running on it spun the bearing and bolt right out of the housing.