I bought recently my first ever band saw. I had never used band saw before. It is Grizzly 17" 2 HP model. I assembled it and set according to manual. Plain ripping/crosscutting is OK but I tried to resaw some
2 X 4 and cut turned very wavy. I tried to slower feed rate but no luck either. The cut is at least 1/2 " wavy.I use default 1/2" blade that came with the saw. I know I should use wider blade for resawing and I did order 3/4" blade too.
Any help would be appreciated.
A half-inch blade should be adequate for resawing, as long as it's a decent blade. Even the blade that came with the saw should do better than "1/2-inch wavy". I think the key to the problem is in your second sentence: "never used a band saw before." Make sure you have the saw guides set up correctly, in accordance with the instructions in the manual. Then practice! practice! practice! with a slow feed rate. You can't get good results from resawing, trying to push the wood through as fast as you can when ripping.
Better blades help immensely, too. I like the Olson blades -- lots of folks speak very highly of Timberwolf blades, but I get better results with Olson, at less than half the price.
When I first got my Grizzly 14" bands I was very disappointed in it's performance. Changing the blade to a "Timberwolf" made a world of difference. Unless Grizzly has improved their blades I would suspect it's the problem.
Since it's your first bands I strongly suggest getting the book "The bands handbook" by Mark Duginske. Your local library should have it.
Above should read "The Bandsaw Handbook" by Mark Duginske.
Also blade tension as a noob you might think under tightening is good but it isn't. So tighten the blade to speck or arrow indicator what ever the saw has for tension?
Good luck, Rich
The bandsaw, like the jointer takes some practice and has a few techniques.
First for resaw, the blade is critical. TPI and hook is more important width. 3 or 4 tpi and 5 or 10 degree hook. You really want to clear the debris out of the cut as soon as possible so this setup does that.
Second, make a tall fence. Some people like just a standing point or bar so you have a single contact point just next to the blade. Then you can twist the board to make it track on line.
Draw a line to follow on every piece you want to resaw.
One trick you learn about bandsawing is to have the back of the blade in contact with one side of the cut. Sort of twisting the material. This gives you something to ride on and makes scroll cutting way easier. For resaw, you do the same but less dramatic.
Read a 3-4 page article by Michael Fortune in FWW a few years back....
Best bit of info I ever read re bandsaw.
I think the #1 thing is good blade. He suggested BC Saw in Canada. Reasonable prices.
He suggested 1 or 2 blades... 1/2" for 14" saw..
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