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Came across this interesting little bandsaw video. I am impressed; some of the stuff said is totally contradictory to the Alex Snodgrass stuff that people cling to as gospel.
There is a product here that the man is promoting/selling, I'm not affiliated, and not advocating for it.
I think the rest of the stuff in the video is interesting.
Slick Bandsaw Video
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Thanks for the link. I have to admit the video was pretty interesting. Not sure why you wouldn't get the same result by setting the fence so that it ends just shy of the blade.
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Could it be that he is letting the blade do its job and not forcing the wood through that is preventing the drift? He doesn't seem to be feeding exceptionally fast so the blade is allowed to cut before more wood is forced into it. I'm no band saw expert, it just seemed reasonable to me.
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I don't know why he's getting this result. That's why I though it is interesting... seems to me the jig he is using woild be the same as using a fence, just on the other side... right?
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It seems so. That large of a piece would not bow as he describes just because you took off a veneer width piece.
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Sharp fixes a lot of problems. The most important thing for controllable bandsaw cuts is a sharp blade. Next is not to cut too fast for the blade, since it will deviate if you try to cut when the gullets are full of dust. (Yes Stav, I'm agreeing.) I think most bandsaw problems are caused by these.
After that, there are several things that matter in certain circumstances but not in others. Using narrow blades as he is, the lead angle is less important because the blade is able to cut at different attack angles, which is why such blades are good for curves. But a narrow blade can't support the large teeth that would be needed to cut more quickly. It is with wider blades that setting the tracking becomes more important, but even there if the blade is sharp and not overfed, you can cut nice and straight at a (narrow) range of feed angles. And only with wider blades under tension has it been suggested that making wheels closer to coplanar can be helpful.
The blade vibration he sees is one of the things people try to avoid, and the divot he gets on stopping is a reason. Michael Fortune advocates (in a fine woodworking article some years ago) cutting gentle curves at a slight angle to the blade so you can steady the back of the blade on the edge of the kerf to minimize vibration. He clearly shows you don't need to cut straight into even a wider blade to get good results.
If you use your saw in a particular way, consistently setting it up can allow consistent good results. But that does not mean deviating from that setup is always wrong.
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The first point he makes is to suggest that ALL offcuts will open up and that if you're using a fence, opening up will want to pull the piece away from the fence, dulling the fence side of the blade quicker than the other side. (He doesn't tell you that the cutting part of the blade is always in contact with BOTH sides of the wood. So, that's bogus logic. (He also claims that drift is always away from the fence - well you can't drift into the fence because the fence prevents that.) If the wood itself is clamped like his proprietary fence, then isn't the wood acting as a fence? It's a fixed point, just like if you're moving it along a conventional fence. I don't agree, however, that drift always happens. It doesn't. A properly tuned bandsaw shouldn't experience any drift. The only thing that would alter a cut at that point would be the grain of the wood, which, for very thin veneers, might have an influence. I can make 1/16" to 1/8" shop cut veneers all day long on my 14" bandsaw using a 3/8" blade without suffering drift.
Still Learning,
Allan Hill
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(05-03-2018, 01:15 PM)AHill Wrote: The first point he makes is to suggest that ALL offcuts will open up and that if you're using a fence, opening up will want to pull the piece away from the fence, dulling the fence side of the blade quicker than the other side. (He doesn't tell you that the cutting part of the blade is always in contact with BOTH sides of the wood. So, that's bogus logic. (He also claims that drift is always away from the fence - well you can't drift into the fence because the fence prevents that.) If the wood itself is clamped like his proprietary fence, then isn't the wood acting as a fence? It's a fixed point, just like if you're moving it along a conventional fence. I don't agree, however, that drift always happens. It doesn't. A properly tuned bandsaw shouldn't experience any drift. The only thing that would alter a cut at that point would be the grain of the wood, which, for very thin veneers, might have an influence. I can make 1/16" to 1/8" shop cut veneers all day long on my 14" bandsaw using a 3/8" blade without suffering drift.
Agreed. It looks like he came up with a rather expensive solution and then went searching for a “problem” to convince people that he solved.
A good blade, good setup, and good technique is all that is needed.
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(05-03-2018, 07:00 PM)jlanciani Wrote: A good blade, good setup, and good technique is all that is needed.
This is exactly why the product is created, because a lot of people don't possess all of the requirements you listed.
The jig is useless for me as I don't resaw stuff two feet long. Mine starts from 4 feet to just 8 feet in most the cases.
Simon
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(05-03-2018, 08:56 PM)Handplanesandmore Wrote: This is exactly why the product is created, because a lot of people don't possess all of the requirements you listed.
The jig is useless for me as I don't resaw stuff two feet long. Mine starts from 4 feet to just 8 feet in most the cases.
Simon
My take was the author was trying to explain his empirical outcome that seems contrary to other advice he'd seen on what was needed.
And I think his jigs are intended for resawing small logs, where his type of jig is useful, rather than to combat drift.
Carter makes a similar small one, and there are a lot of youtube videos with people trying various mechanisms.
He does have a larger jig for longer logs.
But, having tried some preliminary resawing, I've come to appreciate how heavy the logs are and why most mills do have the band and motor moving along the log.
I'm a little surprised nobody has come out with a minimax-sized bandsaw with sliding table.
Matt
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