I would try running the center of the blade on the center of the wheel, crown, so the blade is tensioned it evenly. Running the gullet on the center puts more tension on the front of the blade and leave the rear at less tension. I have run my saws that way for years before all of the advice has become available. One more thing to try.
[OP]
Member
Wow, I love this community already. Thanks for all the great info, gentlemen, provided for this newbie guitar luthier, (hartsguitars dot com), playing on his 1 year-old bandsaw. All the help is much-appreciated.
Contributor
Next to a dull blade, the biggest mistake made on resawing is pushing too fast. If you have sawdust left in the kerf, the blade gullets are full. They you push harder and the blade deflects.
[OP]
Member
It's pulling to the left, never weaving back and forth. The guides have been set properly above and below, sides and backs. I check to make sure there is just enough gap (paper thin) to not touch the guides when it's freewheeling. I'm feeding the stock into the blade ever so slowly. It must just be a dull blade like everyone says. I was having a hard time believing the blades were going dull so quickly, which is the reason I came and joined this community. I need to become more knowledgeable about the bandsaw. I have a book, have watched videos galore. But nothing beats talking to people who work with these machines a lot. Thanks everyone. I'm going to try a new type of blade.
Contributor
Always pulling to the left implies that the teeth on one side of the blade have been dulled by contact with something, at least to my way of thinking. If nothing else about how you set up your saw has changed and now the performance has changed a lot I can't think how else to account for it, but I may be overlooking something obvious.
Zach
My experience is the same. I don't get it when people claim very short life for Timberwolf, Woodslicer or Bi-Metal blades. During one thread I did a quick comparison for a few blades that were hanging on the peg. None new and all did fine.Originally Posted by John TenEyck
To the OP, bandsaw setup and use is presented as one of the most overly complicated, shrouded in mystery topics that get discussed on woodworking forums. Don't get lost in the noise. The often touted Alex Snodgrass method (Love ya Alex) focuses on narrower blades on crowned tires. That being said, I run a 1/2" carbide blade for resaw without issue but, I digress.
If your blade is tracking in the same position on each wheel you are probably coplaner so I am somewhat confused by the conflicting info. I guess I should throw out a disclaimer that I prefer to run the bandsaw as designed, with coplaner wheels. I will repeat (ad nauseam I'm sure to long-time members) that setting my wheels coplaner and doing a good alignment on my saw was a life-changing event in my bandsawing career. I was suddenly able to change blades with impunity, banish drift from my shop and enjoy a smoother and quieter running machine.
So, let's skip the whole "wheels don't need to be coplaner" argument and look at your blade. As mentioned, I get pretty decent life out of nominally priced blades. If you buy a new blade and suddenly everything is wonderful your blade was obviously the culprit. The question is why. As mentioned I was demonstrating that I could change blades without accounting for drift and in doing so used a variety of blades that all had a fair amount of wear on them. Granted this was not a resaw of any great height as that was not the object at the time.
BS Align (11).jpg
I did get consistent results off the blank when changing blades while only adjusting the guides as required for the blade in use; no fence adjustments or other voodoo.
BS Align (12).jpg
I also run the keeper next to the fence although some people go through a lot of effort to prove that this is the cause of all your troubles.
resaw veneer (1).jpg . resaw veneer (2).jpg
I decided to just keep doing is "wrong".Just to focus a little more on your subject, here's a piece of cherry resawn to about 1/8". Not being a luthier I am only guessing that this is closer to what you may be doing.
cherry resaw TW-75 (2).jpg
At any rate, your blade wear (if that proves to be the issue) is concerning. If you are not resawing pecan or ipe you should get a few hundred lineal feet out of a decent metal tooth blade. Too much empirical proof of early failures of carbide blades on 14" wheels here and on other forums for me to recommend a carbide blade although . . . that would be a life-altering experience, trust me.
The things that will kill your blade, other than obviously mineral-rich material, can usually be controlled with feed rate. Listed to your machine, you will "feel" a sweet spot during a cut; that is your feed-speed. If all else fails you can go to a knife-fence which you can whip up out of scrap in a few minutes.
resaw-guide-3.jpg
I would not want to have to focus that much of my attention for the amount of time required to get through a production batch of resawing with a knife-fence but, they can get you through a tough spot.
The other easy fix is to just run one of these blades.
sawandmill (7).jpg
OK, just kidding. Please let us know what you find out with the new cutter.
Last edited by glenn bradley; 09-25-2019 at 3:46 PM.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Contributor
Johnny, after much practice I nailed resawing on the Rikon 10-326 deluxe. Started with new Woodslicer blade. As most comments stated, this may be most of the equation. Checked for drift on blade: NONE. Blade centered on top wheel, not gullets. Blade looked close to centered on bottom wheel, so I did not pursue co-planer any further. Table adjusted to make sure miter gauge slot is parallel to the side of saw blade. Blade side square to table, back of blade square to table. Fence square to table ( no drift, no correction needed ) and almost perfectly square from surface of table to top of fence. Blade guides a hair away from blade, occasionally spinning during manual push on wheel. Guides 1/8 inch above board. Dust collector on. Started cut and blade began to wander inwards. Yikes. Forgot to lock blade guard! When you lock the blade guard it shifts the guides forward. Reset guides with blade guards in position. Started cut very slowly. A nice 1/8 inch cherry board! Feeling confident, I went for a 1/16 inch board. Perfect!
I forgot my boring "crowned tire blade position" visual aid ;-)
Blade Track 2.JPGBlade Track 1.JPGBlade Track 3.JPG
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Contributor
Contributor
Richard I think you are right, a slow feed is important
Contributor
I know the Rikon 10-326 deluxe is a popular mid range bandsaw, so I am interested in others experience with this saw. I have seen some information that 14 inch saws cannot tension 3/4 inch blades even though the manufacture says it can. I have some pitchy pine to resaw, and decided to try out the Lennox flex back carbon 2 points per inch with raker tooth at 3/4 inch and .032 inch thickness of blade. I put the blade on, tensioned to 3/4 inch on the tension gauge, and checked it for flutter. There was minimal to none. I did not asses for drift, my bandsaw had been tuned up as described earlier in this post. I needed to resaw an 11 inch piece of poplar today and the blade cut perfectly. It was a lot louder and "rumblier" than the wood slicer, and the kerf was noticeable larger. My dust collection system was OK, there was more sawdust than the wood slicer. I will try it out on my pitchy pine soon.
Member
Try moving the thrust bearing back. I was very frustrated with my saw, trying all the online advice. In desperation I eventually backed off all the guides and was getting great results. Eventually found that a thrust bearing set close to the blade caused a LOT of drift and a cut that pulled to the side. The side guides are now set normally, but I don't sweat the thrust bearing and keep it well back.
Member
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....33#post2640833
The basic calculation is Young's Modulus = Stress/Strain, where:
1) The Young's Modulus of steel is about 30 x 10^6 psi.
2) Stress, the value you are after - the tension in the blade in psi.
3) Strain = Deflection / gage length. The vernier measures deflection, and the gage length is the starting distance between the jaws under zero load.
So, you rewrite the equation as Stress = Young's Modulus x Strain = 30 X 10^6 x deflection/gage length
The gage length I started with was 4.768", so when I measured a deflection of 0.003" that was equal to a blade tension of 30 X 10^ x 0.003/4.768 = 18,876 psi.
the math in this post made it look hard to me, if I am rite then 10^6 is 10,000,000
so I think it works like this 30 x 10,000,000 x how much the caliper moved then divide buy the starting length on the caliper = tension psi
Member
I always rip 1/16" wide and finish on my planer. It is perfect every time.
https://www.google.com/search?q=lowe...hrome&ie=UTF-8
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=...d65BHsQ4dUDCAs
Maybe it is time for a new toy.
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