Am I to Stupid for WW?

[Halfathumb]

After almost 30 years of putzzing around with ww, I still can't manage to re-saw on the bs. After many painstaking attempts and numerous fine tuning square of the blade & table, blade tension, Support & blade bearings etc. it still winds up cutting diagonally on a 1 X 7 board.

Am I the only one that's inept when it comes to this mystery?

Jim

[Cooler]

Am I to too Stupid for WW?

If you can't spell, how can you hope to do WW?

[Wipedout]

You need to do it with a single point contact fence then

[CLETUS]

Am I to Stupid for WW?

New Reply 

Yes. However, resawing on a BS has nothing to do with it.

[TomFromStLouis]

I struggled with resawing on a tricked out Delta 14" saw for years. A bigger saw with a wider carbide toothed blade was my salvation, along with slowing down my feed rate to a creep. I am still impressed when I see someone slicing off <1/16" veneers, but I can get what I need.

[gMike]

I solved this problem by giving the bandsaw away.  I am no longer constantly pissed off about whatever piece of wood was ruined on the band saw.  I haven't missed it, not even once, since it's been gone.  It was a Delta with riser block that never cut right despite countless days fooling with it and setting it up from scratch.  I think the only stupidity involved is continuing to spend time on a tool that doesn't do what it's supposed to do.

(Before the advocates for bandsaws jump all over me, yes, I did replace the guides, trued the wheels, tried a wider blade, read the books,etc.  None of it worked for me so I got rid of the aggravation.)

I now resaw on my table saw and use a Bosch barrel grip jig saw for everything else. It may not work for you, but it seems to meet my needs. YMMV

[opticsguy]

Nope, you are not stupid, you simply need to change from a fence to a single point contact and then match your cut angle to that of the blade.  Also a re-saw blade will provide good results.
I now re-saw with a Timberking 1220 bandsaw a purchase I have never regretted and has provided me with more production opportunities than any other equipment I own.  1/16" thick veneer is an easy cut and can be done in the same time as this posting.....or faster.
Unlike a previous poster who seems to hate BS, I have 5, use them all and want one more with a larger throat.  
All of this depends on the kind of work you do, some will never need a BS and many of us do.

[jteneyck]

You haven't been able to cut straight because something's wrong.  Obvious, but what is always the question.  First, forget the importance of the guides.  They play very little roll in being able to cut straight and the stock ones are fine.  Second, alignment is everything.  If the blade won't cut straight and parallel to the miter slot you are never going to be happy.  You might be able to saw a straight line by using a single point guide or by adjusting for drift, but those are band-aides.  Check the alignment of your wheels.  If they aren't coplaner you are headed for trouble.  It might be possible to get the saw to cut straight when the wheels aren't coplaner, but I've never heard anyone say they had to shift the wheels on their saw out of coplaner alignment to be successful.  So get the wheels coplaner.  After wheel alignment a sharp blade with equal set is critical.  Not all new blades are perfect, but most are, so start with a new blade.  Tension plays a huge role in sawing straight.  Unfortunately, a 14" Delta has little chance of applying much tension to the blade, but it can still work well enough by using a 1/2" x 3 tpi blade and sawing slowly.  For reference, I can't apply much more than 12K psi to a 1/2" blade on my Delta.  Manufacturers recommend 25K psi, even 30 K for carbide tipped ones.  In comparison, I can apply 25K psi with no problem on my Grizzly G0636X running a 1" x 1.3 tpi blade.  There's no comparison between the two except that they both cut straight and parallel with the miter slot and can both slice very nice veneers.  Lastly, you have to get the blade adjusted on the wheels so that it doesn't lead left or right.  Set your fence parallel with the miter slot and adjust the tracking on the top wheel until it cuts straight when you push a piece of wood along the fence. 

It really is that simple, and that difficult.  But a bandsaw that cuts straight is such a versatile machine that it's worth the effort.  

John

[Arlin Eastman]

I personally think it has to do with the bandsaw also.  I have the big grizzly 17" 5hp one and it does really good, but a friend of mine has a roybi that has a 3" blade and it is the cats meow on making VERY thing cuts everytime.

http://www.listlux.com/atlanta/a,41,1663...ville-.htm

[Rob Young]

I've got one of the 14" Grizzly's with riser block and have no problems getting (to me) acceptable resaw results.



Added my own tall fence, make sure it was parallel to the blade and ran a test on cherry.  Over the ~4" width, worst deviation was 0.008" after spending a few minutes messing with fence-to-blade parallelism.  Pushpad and feather board refer to experimenting with a couple different methods of keeping the stock flat to the fence.  Pushpad is easier.

Using el-cheapo 1/2" 3tpi blade also bought through Grizzly.  Kept the feed rate slow and steady (and undoubtedly slower than one would with a higher HP and higher tension capable saw).

It does cut better after sharpening though.  Below is trying for around 1/16" thickness.



Test on a >8" wide piece of cherry.  Don't have measurements on the photo but I believe I was trying for 1/4".



Time was spent on the following items when setting up the saw and when resawing:

Wheels are coplanar, or at least reasonably so (yep, close enough that I didn't feel the need to get out shims)

Proper crown on tire

Reasonable tension, ignoring what the gauge on the saw says.  I don't have a proper blade tension gauge.  Went with the "does it deflect about 1/16" when poked with little finger" test.  Also, instead of testing between the bearings/guides, I test on the other side, inside the blade guard as it comes back up from the lower wheel.

I have the blade so that the area just behind the gullet is riding on the crown.  Most of the time a 1/2" blade but I do have a 3/16" that I use sometimes.  My 1/2" is 3tpi, the 3/16" is 4tpi.  Fewer teeth seem to work better for me, seldom cutting thin material so chatter & bounce not an issue.
 
Are the guides set properly top and bottom?  Take off the table to set the lower guides.  Easier to see what you are doing!  Easy for a small table like this saw.  Maybe not so much for one with a 150# table.

Guide set close but not touching. I use the dollar bill trick so that should put them in the 0.004" to 0.010" range.

Keep the guides and thrust bearings clean and moving freely.

When putting table back on, now's a good time to check table is reasonably perpendicular to blade. 

Take a moment and check that my fence is parallel to blade.

Keep the blade sharp.

I don't seem to have fence drift issues.

PATIENCE with the saw, setup and feed rate.