Is It The Bandsaw, The Wood, The Blade or...?

[glenn bradley]

Just to add more data to your decision-engine . . . I use the 1/2" Resaw King on a relatively inexpensive Grizzly 17" bandsaw with good result. I have run it for a couple of years through leopardwood, shedua, white oak, maple, walnut and the usual suspects. It is far from "new" and still performs well. Your fingernail test makes me wonder if between the PBW and the Zebra wood some of the odd-jobs led to a fouled blade? Obviously we have to watch our guide setup when changing blades but a carbide tipped blade with a bad guide setup would be pretty obvious when hand turning the wheels to check prior to applying power to the machine. The point being, that blade should not be in that shape after the period of use you have. I do keep a few Timberwolf 2-3 VPC bands on hand which do well for the first 100 feet or so in tough material. I consider them very disposable blades but, having a couple on hand could save you from a work stoppage.

[Mark Rainey]

I use the 1/2" Resaw King on a relatively inexpensive Grizzly

Glenn, do they still make a 1/2 Resaw King? I have not see that available. Did they stop making them?

[Julie Moriarty]

Just to add more data to your decision-engine . . . I use the 1/2" Resaw King on a relatively inexpensive Grizzly 17" bandsaw with good result. I have run it for a couple of years through leopardwood, shedua, white oak, maple, walnut and the usual suspects. It is far from "new" and still performs well. Your fingernail test makes me wonder if between the PBW and the Zebra wood some of the odd-jobs led to a fouled blade? Obviously we have to watch our guide setup when changing blades but a carbide tipped blade with a bad guide setup would be pretty obvious when hand turning the wheels to check prior to applying power to the machine. The point being, that blade should not be in that shape after the period of use you have. I do keep a few Timberwolf 2-3 VPC bands on hand which do well for the first 100 feet or so in tough material. I consider them very disposable blades but, having a couple on hand could save you from a work stoppage.

I, too, hand turn the wheels every time I do a blade change or make changes in the guide setup. Something learned over the years. There was no sign of anything being out of whack. Just the usual slight scraping noise that only goes away if all the guides are clear of the blade.

After I reset the wheels and cleaned the tires, I ran some other woods to see how they performed and to see if the changes in setup had any noticeable effect. So I started with a piece of 6" wide zebrawood. No noticeable changes in feed difficulty but there was no drift. It was, however, only 12" long.

Next up was an 18" piece of 9" wide figured cherry. I was surprised at how difficult it was to feed through. Easily as hard as zebrawood. But again, no sign of drift. After that was a 9" wide piece of eucalyptus. It fed like butter! Wow! No drift but it was only a couple of feet long.

After that I ran some 6" wide pieces, all pretty short - QS maple was easy. Sapele a bit harder. But the bloodwood was surprisingly easy.

Then came the enlightenment.

I sprayed a paper towel with Felder Supergleit and ran a coat on both sides of the blade. Then I took out the 9" wide curly cherry to sample first. WOW! I'd say it took 1/3 to 1/4 the pressure feeding it through.

From there I cleaned the blade thoroughly with Supergleit. It works much better than mineral spirits for cleaning the blade, and it lubricates. From this point on, I'm using Supergleit for any tough resaw jobs.

[Julie Moriarty]

This entire exercise has been pretty educational. After the blade was cleaned up and lubed, I resawed the rest of the eucalyptus slab to a total of 8 flitches. By the time I was done, the blade was starting to get pretty gunked up again. Since the dust was making it into the top section of the saw, I knew the problem was collecting it under the table.

I found a vacuum attachment that set well into the area directly in front of the teeth and right under the table and connected it to the shop vac, connected to a Dust Deputy. Then I ran a short piece of 8/4 Bolivian walnut through. Not a speck of dust buildup under the table or in either wheel compartment. And the blade stayed clean.

We'll see how well this works on longer pieces later...

[Julie Moriarty]

Rather than guessing at the tension buy or build a tension meter and find out what it really is. I'd bet money that saw cannot put 25 ksi on a 1-1/2" blade, and seriously doubt it can do it on a 1-1/4" one. But the only way to know is to measure it.

John

Just finished a tension gauge. And I made an Excel spreadsheet for easy calculations.

Before starting the design, I put a couple of rare earth magnets on the blade and attached a caliper spaced at 4" on center. Then I began applying tension. Based on Young's Law, the blade needs around .002" of stretch to achieve 15K PSI in tension. All I could get was .0005. But the magnets could have slipped.

But if that was accurate, that means the blade was only at around 3,600 PSI. If that turns out to be the case, I'm more than a little disappointed that Jet would claim that bandsaw can accept blades up to 1-1/2".

[Jim Becker]

But if that was accurate, that means the blade was only at around 3,600 PSI. If that turns out to be the case, I'm more than a little disappointed that Jet would claim that bandsaw can accept blades up to 1-1/2".

Well, that's marketing for you. The definition of "accept" may merely mean that you can fit the wider band on the saw which is true. But in the real world, it takes a MAJOR heavy saw to be able to tension a band like that. The 1" TriMaster was touch and go with my MM16...I would have been better with a 3/4" version relative to tension for sure.

[Julie Moriarty]

Well, that's marketing for you. The definition of "accept" may merely mean that you can fit the wider band on the saw which is true. But in the real world, it takes a MAJOR heavy saw to be able to tension a band like that. The 1" TriMaster was touch and go with my MM16...I would have been better with a 3/4" version relative to tension for sure.

I hear you, Jim. Expensive lesson to buy a blade the bandsaw can't effectively use.

Anyway, I set up the DIY tension gauge, spaced at 5" OC.


This is close to maximum tension. I could crank the tension wheel more but it doesn't seem to move the needle.


If I'm reading the gauge right, it's .00135" of stretch. Based on that number, the PSI is 7,830. Don't know how that translates in the blade's ability to resaw though.

[John TenEyck]

Julie, get two little C clamps to clamp the calipers to the back half of the blade. Set the calipers for as close to their max. opening as possible. It doesn't matter what the value is as long as you record it and use that value to determine strain. (L1 - L2) / L1

Let's make sure your readings are correct before jumping to conclusions.

John

[John Lanciani]

I had to replace the tension spring in the MM20 I used to own with a spring almost twice as robust to be able to reliably put 30kpsi on a 1” Trimaster; the stock spring collapsed. There is absolutely no way your JET is going to get anywhere close on a 1”- 1.5” blade. I’d honestly be surprised if it will tension a ¾” carbide blade properly.

[Tom Trees]

I had to replace the tension spring in the MM20 I used to own with a spring almost twice as robust to be able to reliably put 30kpsi on a 1” Trimaster; the stock spring collapsed. There is absolutely no way your JET is going to get anywhere close on a 1”- 1.5” blade. I’d honestly be surprised if it will tension a ¾” carbide blade properly.

What sort of a spring did you get for your saw John..a standard spring from something else?
Is it roughly the same OD dimension?
Did you have a fight to install it?
Would you notice the difference turning the handwheel?
I had a look to see if I could find any articles about your experience,
but couldn't find anything anywhere

Would love to see if you have a link somewhere
Thanks
Tom

[les winter]

Hello Julie. Where did you buy the Supergleit?

[Alan Lightstone]

For kicks, I looked up the MSDS for Supergleit.

It is listed as 50-100% aliphatic hydrocarbons and 25-50% white mineral oil.

I have no clue how this helps anybody, but I'm 150% sure that the sum of the numbers defies logic.

It can be purchased on UK Feldershop. Doesn't come up in the US Feldershop search, although Erik might know if it's available. I'm thinking that lots of lubricants could accomplish the same thing. The lesson may be to clean the blade and make sure it's lubricated. Julie's results sure seem to pan that out.

I can get over 25K on my Felder FB710 on a 1" blade, but never tried larger. I have thought that is my saw's practical limit.

The thickest I have tried is 12" sapele which it resawed quite well, but it also has a 5.5HP 3-phase motor, so a different kind of beast.

I also think there is no way that your saw could get to 25K on a 1-1/4" blade. Ah, advertising...

[Dave Cav]

Supergleit seems to translate to Super Glide. It came up on the Felder website for $29 for a 1 liter bottle.

I read on another thread where someone uses Ballistol as a lubricant for their sliding table saw ways, primarily because it doesn't flash off. (Ballistol is a coal tar derivative that's been around for over 100 years and is pretty well known in the shooting community.) I tried it on my slider and it worked great. I may try it on the WM CT on my MM20 next. I have also used a Lennox lube tube/stick; it seems to work fine but doesn't seem to last long.

[Tom Trees]

I have some more questions about the Minimax upgrade what John done.
Wondering if anyone else done the same or similar work to their saw.

I am making at least two new washers for the tension system on my Italian 24" machine, and was about to start cutting some steel plate, but decided it might be a bit flimsy,
so scrapped that idea to use some harder steel instead, as guessing the originals were that way for a reason.
Found an old lawnmower blade so that will do the job nicely.
The stock is far and beyond the thickness of the original very thin washers which cracked, at least 4 times, or maybe 5 times as thick.
So at least a pair of them (not sure if there was more originally) might be a fight getting the carriage together.
Wondering if anyone done similar whilst doing an upgrade.

Thanks
Tom

[John TenEyck]

Unless you are cutting resinous or wet wood, why would stuff build up on a blade? If you are cutting wood of that ilk then, sure, do whatever is needed to keep it clean; otherwise, I don't see the point. Anytime I've tried some such super lube it lasted for what seemed like a seconds.

If blade lube is needed in clean wood the saw is underpowered.

John