Resaw woes

[Bas]

I'm having trouble resawing on my 14" Grizzly G0555 band saw (no riser block). I messed up some of Todd's (tv) pieces last week, and didn't fare any better slicing some of my own sycamore boards. I'm using a shop made fence (6") tall that I clamp to the stock fence. The blade is a 1/2" woodslicer. Fence and table are square to the blade.

The biggest problem is that the cuts are tapered. Let's say I'm resawing 1" board in half - the top of both halves is 1/2", but the bottom of one board is 3/4" and the other 1/4" (OK, maybe not quite that bad, but the difference is at least 1/8"). The other problem is that the blade seems to wander a bit. I wouldn't call it "drift", since it doesn't seem to be consistent. It's almost as though it oscilates.

I tried resawing using a tall (6") stack of feather boards. That did not work well at all. I tried a single featherboard (at the bottom), that worked better. I've tried feeding the stock at different rates, doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.

Any ideas? I'm pretty sure it's operatore error, the question is - how do I fix it before I run out of lumber? :help:

 

[BobcatBob]

OK, don't be offended, but let's start simple.
1. Is the table square to the blade?
2. Have you taken all the tension off the blade and then retension it the way the mfg says to tension the woodslicer blade.
3. Is the fence square to the table and blade?
4. Are the tires damaged?
5. Is the blade adjusted to the upper and lower guides?
6. Is it possible the blade is damaged/bent?

Can't think of anything else except maybe give the wood away to someone else (I am close by) :gar-Bi

Bob

 

[Bas]

OK, don't be offended, but let's start simple.

No offense taken whatsoever! Starting simple is good...if I knew what I was doing, I wouldn't be asking

1. Is the table square to the blade?

Yes. I checked this with a combination square. Found out last week I was off by about 1 degree, corrected that.

2. Have you taken all the tension off the blade and then retension it the way the mfg says to tension the woodslicer blade.

No, I did not - I'll try that. I've had issues with the blade wandering when the tension was incorrect, so it's worth a shot.

3. Is the fence square to the table and blade?

Yes - it's square to the table (checked front and back) and square to the blade

4. Are the tires damaged?

No, the tires look good, no major dust accumulation either.

5. Is the blade adjusted to the upper and lower guides?

Yes, adjusted using the dollar method

6. Is it possible the blade is damaged/bent?

Hmmm, that's a thought. I cleaned the blade before resawing Todd's pieces, to get rid of the pitch that had built up. When I folded the blade, I may have put a slight kink in it. I've had that happen before without any ill effects. Maybe it's time to try a different blade.

Can't think of anything else except maybe give the wood away to someone else (I am close by) :gar-Bi

That's an excellent idea. You can have all the mis-sawn pieces from this evening :rolf:

Thanks for all the suggestions Bob :icon_thum. I'll try re-tensioning, and if that doesn't help, I also have a Timberwolf blade that hasn't sawn more than a few feet so far. I'll give that a go later this week.

 

[striker]

Bas,

A couple of quick thoughts ... first I wouldn't worry about your fence being square (front to rear) to anything but rather bring the fence up to your work after you start your first cut. Mark out your first piece,start the cut, stop, bring the fence up to the work and lock it. Personally, I don't extend the fence much past the blade so it doesn't interfere with the piece if it takes a bow on the back side of the blade.

Lastly if everything is square top to bottom before you start, maybe your guides are allowing the blade to wonder too much causing your out of square cuts.

My Evil twin sayz: Flip the blade over - it cuts better!! :gar-La;

Good Luck!

 

[PeteQuad]

My first thought is that the blade is not tensioned enough. A kink in the blade might do something like that I guess also. Just some guesses here.

 

[Trent Mason]

Bas,

I have the GO-580 with riser block and the 1/2" Woodslicer blade. The last time I resawed anything was about 5 months ago and I was resawing 1" cuts off of a 4x4" of jatoba for my nightstand. I experienced a lot of the same problems you're having. I didn't pay much attention to the tension measurement (?) on the saw, I just tensioned it until it felt tight to the touch and the blade was in the center of both wheels. I used the factory fence and the pieces I needed were only about 5/8" thick, but because of blade lead, I would cut 1" pieces. It would usually start off fine, then, in the middle of the cut it would end up about 3/4" to 1" thick, then end at about 5/8". My table and fence were both square to the blade and I thought that if anything, the blade was over-tensioned. I don't know. I would just run them across the joiner a million times and get them square. It is a lot of wasted wood (and time) though.

My first thought was that if I have everything square and the blade is tensioned right, perhaps it might be the 3/4 HP motor. Maybe that isn't enough juice? I'm no expert on this, but I've seen enough videos online to know that my factory blade guards/guides are pretty terrible. I'm guessing it is a combination of both that produce that result. I'm interested to see some more replies on this.

Cheers, ccasion1

Trent

 

[tom hintz]

One of the first things I look at when I have these problems when resawing is if the blade is at all dull, particularly if it may have grazed a bit of metal or even a tough knot on one side. That little bit of dulling one side of the teeth can easily make it try to turn, or in your case, bow out, to make the tapered cut. If you can, I would try another blade known to be sharp.

 

[cliff56]

i have the same saw with riser block and resaw fence made for saw i use a resaw blade i ordered with the saw 3/4" wide have resawn good bit with it with no probs but as others have stated tension is very important , i found the wider resaw blade made a world of difference in the acuracy of my cuts.

 

[Larry Rose]

I have a 14" Jet with a 6" riser but it broke last weekend ( see earlier post). When I need to get better results in resawing such as sawing veneer I put on a new 1/2" Woodslicer. I've found that they work fine for general use for a longer time but they need to be fairly new for critical work. When cutting thicker pieces if my stock is thick enough, I make the cut on the fat side and run it thru the planer or belt sander.

 

[Joe Scharle]

Have you honed the sharp edges from the back of the blade?

 

[Gofor]

It sounds to me like you are fighting against the blade's natural drift. I had a similar problem. The blade will follow the drift at the top, but is constrained by the guides at the bottom

To check the blade drift, mark a straight line on a relatively thick piece of wood (2 x 4, etc) that has at least one straight edge, and hand push it through the cut trying to stay as close to the line as possible. When the piece is fully across the table, mark a line on the table along the straight edge. The difference in square front to back is the drift.

You now have two options.

One is to adjust your fence to the angle of the line, so anything going past the blade follows the drift.

Second is to try to minimize the drift by altering the blade tracking on the top wheel. Sometimes a small adjustment in tracking can have a significant effect.

I set up mine with a 1/2" blade and adjusted the tracking until I got it square to the table. When I put on a 3/8 blade, I get about a 3/16 drift to the right over the length of my table, so I adjust my fence, but could probably adjust it out with tracking. I did that once and the difference in tracking on the wheel was only about 1/16" difference on where it tracked.

I read that the drift can change with each blade. So far on mine, I have found it fairly constant dependent on blade width, whether i use T'Wolf blades or Lennox blades. I can really hear the difference in blade noise when I try to force it against the drift.


Hope this helps

Go

 

[Travis Porter]

Drift seems to be less of an issue (at least to me) with a bandsaw that does not use crowned tires.

 

[CarvedTones]

Hmmm...
I am surprised to be the first one to mention this, but I don't think most 14" saws can properly tension a 1/2" blade. You can get away with it slowly and carefully, but start feeding it as fast as it can cut and...

 

[DavidF]

Blade drift is only a problem if you use a straight fence. I have had very good results with a single point fence. A 1/2 dowel fixed to the end of a piece of wood 6" high and then a similar thing on the other side of the blade although not strickly necessary unless the piece is big and heavy. Mark a line down the center where you want to resaw and just guide it by eye, correcting for any drift as you go. Keep light pressure on the outside to keep it up against the point contact. Try it. Feed slowly so as not to force the blade to bend as it cuts.

 

[Bas]

Have you honed the sharp edges from the back of the blade?

Yes. The blade was actually in great shape to begin with (compared to some other ones I purchased). Roughness on the back would definitely cause havoc.

It sounds to me like you are fighting against the blade's natural drift.

I could see the drift being an issue left-right, it's the top/ bottom that is the puzzling part. My saw has exceedingly little drift, the standard 3/8" blade I use for curves is off by 1/16" over 4' and the drift on the woodslicer is (was?) practically zero (1/32" over 5' , if that). But, it's been a while since I checked that. I'll redo the test....

Hmmm...
I am surprised to be the first one to mention this, but I don't think most 14" saws can properly tension a 1/2" blade. You can get away with it slowly and carefully, but start feeding it as fast as it can cut and...

I haven't had any issues before, and some people even use a 3/4" blade on the same saw. Feed rate may be an issue. I have a tendency to push the boards a little hard.

I have had very good results with a single point fence.

I never really got excited over that kind of resaw fence, but I'm beginning to warm up to it. I like the idea of 'steering' the board to keep things straight. Maybe not ideal for thin veneers, but great for splitting a board in half.

I'll be busy for a few days - thanks everyone for the advice so far. :icon_thum

 

[CarvedTones]

I can't remember where I first saw the tension issue discussed but when I did a quick search just now I found a few posts at other forums. According to a lot of people, some using a bit of math to support their claim, you need a more rigid frame than the standard 14" casting that most of the vendors use (or have one varying only slightly from the "standard" one) to fully tension a 1/2" blade. I am repeating what I have read and don't know this to be absolute truth, but here goes anyway... That doesn't mean it won't work, but really hard wood and a fast feed rate might heat it enough to give you more stretch than your tension can take up and you can get wandering. Having had large blades work doesn't necessarily mean they were properly tensioned.

 

[DaveO]

I'm having trouble resawing on my 14" Grizzly G0555 band saw (no riser block). The blade is a 1/2" woodslicer.

:help:

Bas I have the same saw and run a 1/2" Timberwolf blade almost exclusively on it. I had a problem with the tensioning system awhile back and Tom Ferone came over and helped me solve it. I don't remember what we ended up changing but it works like a dream now. I think that Griz just added the quick release lever onto their normal tensioning system and didn't really change the way it functioned. There was some things that just didn't make sense :icon_scra That said, don't go by the tension indicators on the saw. I have mine almost maxed out with a 1/2" blade. I use the flutter test plus a 1/4 turn.
I do think that your problem is tension of the blade. It is bogging down as it passes through the wood and that is causing it to flex inside the cut. Another thing to check is your bottom guides. I have found that mine have "re-adjusted" themselves after a bit of sawing. Make sure they are still in-line and not applying any lateral pressure to the blade at the bottom.
MTCW,
Dave

 

[TV]

I wanted thank Bas for resawing the lumber although he believes he messed them up. Still able to use every piece I had planned on using which to me is success plus the time well spent hearing new ideas. Attempting to resaw lumber on a table saw is not my idea of fun.

tv

 

[BobcatBob]

Ok Bas, it's been over a week now and we still haven't heard how you fixed your resaw problem. After all, how busy can you be not to get out to your shop for some "quality time". :gar-Bi

Bob

 

[Bas]

Unfortunately, shop time has been scarce, been out on travel for work. They make computers portable, but the options for power tools are limited Especially for carry-on luggage.

But I promise I will post on my findings as soon as I have a chance to mangle some more wood :rolf: