Resawing technique

[Cary Swoveland]

I'd be interested in what others have found to be the most effective technique for resawing on a bandsaw, particularly thin veneers. Here are some questions that come to mind:

1. Do you hold the material against the fence, or against a "point" (i.e., a thin vertical edge)?

The following questions apply only if you hold the material against the fence.

2. Do you adjust the saw so there is no "drift" or do you adjust the fence to compensate for "drift"?

3. Do you cut the veneer off the edge against the fence or off the outside edge? If the latter, do you move the fence for each cut by moving the outside edge against a stop, or do you move the fence a set amount?

4. Do you face-joint the board from which veneer is being cut after cutting each piece of veneer?

Cary

[sascha gast]

personally I prefer to have the fence set to the thickness of the veneer I cut, but no matter how much I tried, I always ended up having to joint the face again and lets face it, it's a pita.
since I have a Laguna saw, I was very happy when I got my now fence, the driftmaster as they call it. so now I put the jointed side against the fence and use the dial wheel to adjust the thickness of veneer I wanna cut. So now it takes the veneer from the outside edge of the piece and I can keep using the same jointed side against the fence and never have to joint the wood. it aslo adjusts for drift very good
since then it's been a pleasure to cut veneers, just finished my humidor cabinet and I did have to cut plenty of it.

[Doug Shepard]

I've done the single point fence thing a few times, usually when something is too wide for my jointer and/or too bowed that flattening would waste most of the thickness. But getting costistent thickness with that method has always been difficult for me. So it's usually against a tall shopmade fence - currently that's just a 10" tall melamine coated shelf piece hooked to my factory fence. Since getting my MM16 with a Lenox TriMaster I've been able to totally ignore blade drift but used to have fits getting the angle set right on my old 14" BS. I'm usually moving the fence for each cut and going off the outer face but I've done both. The thickness isn't quite as consistent that way but in the long run I think less wood gets wasted by drum sanding afterwards than face jointing the side against the fence each time.

[Cary Swoveland]

Sascha,

You made some interesting points. I figured one of the main reasons to face-joint after every cut is to have one good side on each slice of veneer. Are you saying that you get a smoother face on the veneer by cutting it off the outside of the board? By doing so you have to clean up both sides of the venner. Do you do that on a wide-belt or drum sander? Also, after having watched Laguna's video on the Driftmaster, I was wondering if it makes any difference whether you crank the fence out a given distance or simply move the fence out until the piece reaches a stop that you've set.

Cary

[sascha gast]

I have a 24" dual drumsander so yeah, I clean up both sides, but the resaw king leaves a great finish.
I can't prove it's a smoother cut this way, but my results have been amazing.
and I love using the crank to set the thickness of the veneer

[Brian Hale]

I set the fence to the thickness i want, slice off a piece, joint the block, slice, joint, slice, etc. I like having one smooth face on each slice and they're all a very consistant thickness.

Brian :)

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Hi Cary,
I don't often respond to posts but I have struggled with exactly the same questions you asked. Here is what I found works best for me.
I set the angle on my fence to allow for the drift. I'm not sure you can adjust the drift of a bandsaw because it comes from the particular blade. I find I have to adjust for the drift with every blade change. The drift remains pretty much fixed until the blade begins to dull. That usually tells me it is time to change blades.
I set my fence to cut the desired thickness of veneer. That way I don't have to move the fence and can trust each piece is the same thickness.
I built an auxiliary fence for boards wider than 6". The auxiliary fence fits over the stock fence. I find it important to make all the veneer very close to the same thickness and it can take too much time to surface sand them to uniform uniform thickness later.
I own a 1" carbide blade but rarely use it any more. I find a three tooth per inch 1/2" blade with a minumal tooth set gives me a wonderful cut with almost no kerf. (I'm a bit if a wood mizer.) I crank in a lot of tension. I don't measure it. I merely tighten it until it has too much tension to bow inside the cut.
By the way, in a pinch I have successfully re-sawn 8" hardwood with a blade as narrow as a 1/4" but applying the necessary tension shortens the life of the blade.
After I make a cut, I run the original stock through a planer set to remove only enough to clean up the sawn side. You can argue the same effect can be achieved by jointing but I like the stock to have parallel sides. My cuts are usually clean and accurate enough very little need be removed.
I am fortunate enough to have a 24" wide belt sander so I re-saw at 1/8" to 3/32" and run the cut side of the veneer through a couple times. I've been happy with the results.
I hope the note helps you.

[Peter Quinn]

I use a 14" Powermatic bandsaw, an 8" high shop made MDF "L" fence, timberwolf 1/2" 3TPI blades. I try to get out as much drift as possible when I set up for resaw, then set the fence for the drift. I set the distance from the fence to the blade to equal my veneer thickness. I keep taking passes as long as the stock remains flat, I don't worry about blade set marks on both sides of the veneer. I slice the veneer thick enough to allow 2-4 passes (two per face) through the drum sander. I will rejoint if the board springs a bit and is no longer flat enough to provide a reference against the fence, which I suppose would be neccessary regardless of which face you were slicing from eventually.

The Laguna driftmaster fence setup looks like a much better way to do things to me, but I work with what I have for now, and this seems to work for me.

[Mark Singer]

I have no drift on the Aggazani... I set a consistent thickness. I use a couple of "Grip Tites" to push the bottom of the piece against the fence. Then I drum sand on my 24" drum sander. I ususally go about 1/8" thick finish

[Cary Swoveland]

Faust,

I've been resawing much the way you do, though I've not had a problem with drift on my Minimax MM16. A normally use a 1/2" Lennox Trimaster (3 tpi) for resawing, and have been pleased with the results. One advantage of the 1/2" blade is that it is quite a bit thinner than the wider blades, meaning less loss from cutting (though maybe more jointing, planing or sanding makes up for that).

I did have a bad tracking problem with a Woodslicer, but only after it had worked beautifully for some time. It seemed like one cut was great and the next was awful. I first thought it was the grain of the board I was cutting, but the problem only got worse. I suspected it was because the blade was getting dull, but didn't know why that would be the case. I was glad to read your confirmation of my suspicions.

I think I'll try slicing off the outside edge of the board to see how the results compare with what I've been doing.

Cary

[Jack Briggs]

I set the fence to the thickness i want, slice off a piece, joint the block, slice, joint, slice, etc. I like having one smooth face on each slice and they're all a very consistant thickness.

Brian :)

This is the way I do it, too. I am cutting ebonies and rosewoods at about .080" thick most often, so very dense woods.

[bob hertle]

I tend to joint an edge and face at 90 deg, and take all my resaw cuts from the outside using an indicator to move the fence. No drift adjustment necessary, pretty near perfect resawn veneers using two plastic featherboards near the bottom. Resaw capacity of the saw is 11 inches.
I use both carbon steel, bimetal (Olson 1/2-3t), and trimaster (1/2-3t). Best bang for the buck for me is bimetal, but then I don't do a lot of exotics which would favor the carbide.

Regards
Bob