resawing with 12" bandsaw

[Stephen Pereira]

I need to resaw 2-2 1/4" wide by 1/8" thick strips of walnut to make a chess board. I have a 12" Jet bandsaw and the results of my previous attempts at resawing have not been good.

I've read that a premium blade.. TimberWolf or WoodSlicer.. will make a world of difference. Has anyone had success resawing with a 12"bandsaw and if so what brand blade did you use?

[Mike Cutler]

Stephen

Yes you can resaw with a 12" bandsaw.

Woodslicer and T-Wolf both make an excellent blade. You're looking to purchase a 2-4 teeth per inch blade, no bigger than 1/2" wide at max 3/8" would probably be very good on your saw. I would have reservations that a stock 12" Jet could properly tension a blade wider than 1/2"
People, and I include myself in this group, believe that a wider blade is more stable for resawing. This is not true. Blade setup and tooth configuration are the determining factors to successfully resaw. Lou Sansone has a 36" bandsaw that he uses a 3/8" blade for resaw successfully.
Using a 3/8" blade on your saw should ensure that you have pl;enty of spring left when tensioned. No Spring, No bandsaw.

Set up a single point resaw fence, or set you're existing fence up to compensate for the drift. Make sure you're blade guides and thrust bearing are set up properly . Mark a line on the edge of the material so that you cann clearly see if the blade begins to go off. Mark this line on both edges, so that you can analyze if the blade is barreling, or leading in at a slope.
I always had trouble with my jet if I tried to set it up in such a manner that the "keeper piece" was between the fence and the blade. If I set my saw up so that the keeper piece became the off cast piece. It would much better for taking thin slices.
Give the saw a break in between cuts to let the blade cool a bit. Resawing builds up a lot of heat.

[Peter Quinn]

Properly set up with the right blade you should have no problem making those cuts with a 12" BS.

I resaw with my PM 14" using a Timberwolf 1/2" 3 tooth skip configuration blade. These are 'Low Tension Silicone Carbon" blades that my machine can handle. I recently added a Cobra Coil Spring which improved performance further.

I set up a fence made of two pieces of mdf at right angles with blocking screwed in for support. This is clamped to the table at an angle to compensate for the drift, set using a test piece and bevel square. Learn to set your blade for the drift angle as this is critical for thin veneers.

I only use a single point fence for resawing curved pieces.

The machine must have proper drive belt tension, proper blade tension (I set this using the timberwolf Flutter test), and blade guides set properly. Keep the guides as close to the top of the work as possible. Only use very sharp blades for resaw.

I always have my "keeper" between the fence and the blade. Infeed/outfeed support is critical on a small bandsw and a good featherboard to maintain allignment with the fence is helpful. It is neccessary to rejoint the board after each pass where accuracy is needed.

I can resonably resaw 6-8" wide boards at 3/32" thickness using this setup. Checked with dial calipers the veneer is within .005" thickness over its length. Feed rate is determined by the material being cut by listening to the machine. It sort of hums when its happy and whines a bit when feed rate is too high!

[Stephen Pereira]

Mike and Pete,

Thanks for the information and your timely replies.. I just got off the phone with the Suffolk folks and ordered a few bands.

Steve