Drift Problems with Resaw King

[David Weaver]

Does anyone else have trouble with drift with a laguna resaw king blade?

I don't have any issues with any other blades on my saw, from the really junk stock blade to timberwolf blades.

But my resaw king wants to drift like crazy.

Guides are set with a dollar bill, adjusted right up to the gullet top and bottom. The blade drifts like crazy to the right using a pivot fence (no matter how it's fed) or the fence without a pivot point. Saw is a jet 18x, blade is tensioned as recommended to the full 1" setting (this is the only blade I have to tension to the indicator on the saw, the others don't drift just tensioning by feel).

If you're just resawing something thick in half, it's not a big deal, you can cut it freehand, but it's obviously a problem with veneers - the blade will quickly just drift right out through the cut.

Any ideas? I'd like to use this blade for resawing given the finish level it leaves, but not at the cost of wasting a lot of wood and leaving myself a lot of work.

[Pete Bradley]

Is it possible you damaged the teeth on one side? Good ways to do this are to tag the table insert somehow, or to have the teeth hit the guide.

Pete

[jerry cousins]

hi pete - do you set the fence for the blade drift and it still wanders all over the place?
jerry

[David Weaver]

Jerry - I'm assuming that was directed at me.

I haven't set the fence for drift yet because I can't get it to feed straight at any angle with the pivot fence. Is it wrong-headed to think that makes it not worthwhile to set the fence for drift?

[Jamie Buxton]

I used Resaw Kings for years. When they were freshly sharpened, they'd cut straight ahead all the time. They were eerie that way. With steel blades, I was accustomed to adjusting for drift angle, and it was weird to just not have to do that. However, when they got dull, one of the characteristics was that they'd start getting a drift angle. That was when they'd go back to Laguna for sharpening. (IIRC, sharpening the 145" blade for my saw was about $40, including shipping.)

[David Weaver]

This one's not got a lot of miles on it. Probably cut less than 100 bf or so of wood since new, it's always been offputting to use it for veneers so I haven't used it for anything other than freehand cuts. The harder the woods, the worse the drift, IIRC.

As far as I can see, none of the teeth are dinked.

[Jamie Buxton]

I've never been able to judge the teeth on a bandsaw blade by looking at them or touching them. The only reliable test is how the blade cuts. If it misbehaves, it is dull or damaged.

[Neil Brooks]

If it misbehaves, it is dull or damaged.

Like my stepson.

Whoops.

Never mind. As you were

[Travis Porter]

I found after using my resaw king for awhile that I needed to readjust the blade tracking. When I initially set it up, I had it running correctly, but as I used it a bit, it got off and was constantly hitting the thrust bearings. You might want to check to see if you are having the same issue.

[bradley strong]

One of the best days of my life was when I sold my Jet BS. Band saws are probably the trickiest of the tools in the shop to get set up right. Using a pivot fence for resawing is problematic at best. I now have a Laguna 18LT. I set the fence for the drift angle of the blade once and do nothing but saw thereafter. I cut veneer as thin as I want with my resaw king and Laguna BS. I just run it on the rip fence like a TS.

It's the set up of your BS that is likely the issue. My guess would be that the wheels are not coplanar (Jets are bad for this) or one of the tires is worn to one side. All BS blades drift. The wider the blade and the thinner the kerf, the more you notice it. If the drift angle is more than a few degrees, there's something wrong with the saw or the blade is dull. The tires may be too crowned for that wide of a blade.

[David Weaver]

Maybe there is too much crown, don't know.

the other blade I use for resaw is just a standard timberwolf. I've really had no other issues with the bandsaw, this is not the generation of saws that has the aluminum wheels, etc, and I think the wheels are coplanar or at least close. It's the next one with cast wheels, etc.

I've resawed veneer down to about a sixteenth with the timberwolf on the pivot fence, I like it a lot actually, it affords more control and allows you to avoid screwing around with the fence to adjust for drift. You can get an idea of where it cuts true on the pivot pretty quickly and just run it from there, as long as the pivot is square to the table top and parallel to the blade.

I guess I'll play with the drift adjustment on the fence a little. I can't justify the cost of a laguna saw, not even a chinese one. I don't resaw often enough. Maybe I'd be wise to just go back to using the timberwolf to resaw, and save the resaw king for ripping (I don't have a TS as of a couple of weeks ago).

[bradley strong]

If the tires are too crowned, the blade will bind in the kerf. If it used to work well, and now it doesn't, it's dull. I just had mine resharpened. Mine dulled trying to resaw a piece of apple with a branch inclusion. It acted the way you're describing after that. I am now saving it only for veneer. While it was out, I found that the 3 tpi hook blade did a fine job on everything else. It just takes a little more clean up after the cut.

[David Weaver]

It's always worked well ripping stuff 8/4 and thinner because I can keep the guides in close. It's always behaved the way I'm describing (when resawing something of any width), since new.

I may just not be noticing its desire to pull on thin stuff because the guides are closer.

Doesn't bind in the kerf, though.

[David Weaver]

Thanks for the replies guys, that gives me a little to chew on at least other than sitting around hating power tools.

Tomorrow night when I'm not charged with watching the kids, I'll give it a go.

[bradley strong]

The problem is in the band saw then. The thinner the stock, the further away from the upper wheel the cut is. I assume you are centering the blade on the upper wheel? The Jet I had had cast iron wheels, etc. and it still wasn't right. Having the wheels coplanar is everything to a band saw. A properly tuned BS barely needs guides at all.

Cutting straight is the biggest challenge for the BS. The thicker the material, the more you exploit the weaknesses of it.

It doesn't need to bind hard to deflect the cut. If the back of the blade touches anywhere inside the kerf, it will throw the cut off. The other blades you use probably have a thicker kerf due to the set of the teeth. The resaw king doesn't have any set to the teeth. They are only a few thousandths wider than the body of the blade. I would think it would be very hard to use with a pivot fence.

I know it's frustrating, but once you figure it out, you'll be glad you did. Being a tool mechanic is half of woodworking and finishing is the other half.