Resawing on the band saw

[HerHusband]

I have a Grizzly G0555 band saw. I bought the tall resaw fence and have tried a few different blades including the 1/2" Woodslicer blade. I'm currently using a 3/8" wet-wood blade for resawing logs.

I installed new polyurethane tires, got the saw as coplaner as possible, and have readjusted the guides many times.

Anyway, I have just about given up trying to resaw with a parallel fence. No matter how many times I adjust the fence for drift the piece binds or the blade bows in the cut. I can get it working fine once, but the next time I use it the fence doesn't match the drift angle.

I have tried different blade tensions, from the mark on the saw indicator, to looser, to much tighter. I haven't seen that it makes much difference.

I can resaw "relatively" straight by just drawing a line and following it freehand. Are there any advantages to using a pivot fence instead of just cutting freehand?

Of course, I can't really draw a line on a log to resaw it freehand. I kind of need the fence for that.

Is it just the saw?

Thanks,

Anthony Watson

[Electric Comet]

how long you had it

i would check the basic assembly of the saw to make sure it was done with the right amount of TLC

just like buying any low priced chinese equpiments you have to check it all out fo ryour self

[John Grossbohlin]

It could be the saw but I'd try a couple things first....

One, for sawing small logs I found that a sled generally works better. I use a piece of sacrificial plywood, screw the log to the plywood, and run the plywood up against the saw's fence. I seem to have a knack for setting up the blade such that blade drift is almost never an issue. However, with some blades the teeth don't seem to be set correctly/evenly and in those cases I do make allowances in setting up the fence for the drift.

For re-sawing boards, I made up what amounts to a post fence out of wood. A plywood base with a T shaped board that serves as the fence. The bottom of the T is rounded off a bit and the top of the T serves to keep the fence vertical. The plywood base is clamped to the saw table in use and the board to be re-sawn rides against the bottom of the T.

If the blade is bowing despite the tension setting that suggests that the feed rate is too fast for the saw and blade. With some boards I've had to feed at a painfully slow rate on my 18" Jet... This is where big, rigid saws with big motors and wide blades having high beam strength and low tooth counts shine... Towards that end I've got a slow going project to expand my lumber shed and set up the 36" Crescent saw with a 5 HP Baldor motor that I've had in storage... Then again, I know so many guys with bandsaw mills that I may never finish the project!

[Larry Blanchard]

You're probably right. It took me a long time to learn to slow down on my 14" saw :-).

[HerHusband]

I bought it about 7 years ago. I have checked and double-checked everything I can think of. I even took everything apart a couple times to make sure it was put together correctly.

Unfortunately, I have had ongoing issues with the saw since I bought it. This is the only bandsaw I have ever used, so I figured I just wasn't setting it up right. I have researched and readjusted numerous times and still have problems. It doesn't seem like it should be this difficult.

That said, I have resawn a lot of wood and have just learned to cut it fairly oversize and spend more time with a planer. :)

Anthony Watson

[HerHusband]

John,

Yep, that's basically the technique I have used too. But I run into problems if the fence doesn't match the blade drift.

Perhaps, but I do have bowing issues when cutting freehand. I only encounter the bowing when using the fence. The saw isn't slowing or bogging down while cutting, at least until the bow gets too severe binding the blade in the workpiece.

Anthony Watson

[Doug Winterburn]

I have the same saw with a 6" riser and the griz resaw fence. I use the

1/2" woodslicer blade and have no issues resawing. I had to spend some time getting the tension set up when I add the riser, but other than that, I'm a happy camper. I do make sure the blade tracks in the center of the tires.

[dadiOH]

I agree with John about using a sled for the logs. You may be getting bow because the "verticality" of what you are cutting varies.

I prefer a pivot for the little bit of resawing I do...the pivot is one point, my left thumb is another. I have also used a short fence, worked pretty well. By "short fence" I mean a fence only on the infeed side.

[HerHusband]

Doug,

Yep, that's the same setup I have.

The woodslicer worked nicely for dry wood, but it wasn't working well with green wood (logs) for me. The 3/8" green wood blade from Highland Woodworking has been performing very well with fresh cut logs.

I cut a few logs from a holly tree and a plum tree last October. The plum wood is dry nice and flat, but the holly is really cupping badly. I will be lucky to get 1/2" finished boards out of the 1" thick rough cuts. I don't know what I'll do with it anyway, it was mostly an experiment to try something new.

What tension do you use with your Woodslicer? I have mine set to roughly the 3/4" mark on the indicator for the 3/8" blade and it still seems like it flexes a lot. I didn't want to compress the spring completely.

I have had a lot of issues with that. I could get the blade to track in the center of the top wheel, but it was almost ready to fall off the bottom wheel. I've shimmed the lower wheel a couple of times but was afraid to shim it out too far. I installed the polyurethane tires and added one more shim yesterday and finally got it to track in the center of both wheels. I'm not crazy about having the lower wheel shimmed out 3/8", but it seems to work OK.

Anthony Watson

[Leon]

Probably way way to narrow of a blade. The more the blade twists the more it will go off track of a straight line. Logs tend to be inconstant with moisture content, dryer in some spots and wetter in others. This can cause the blade to want to wander. A wider blade is less likely. If I resaw 6" or more I go with at least a 1" blade.

If you are taxing the saw/blade nothing is going to give you a good cut.

[Electric Comet]

i would look more closely at the bottom wheel and drive train something sounds wrong there

[Doug Winterburn]

I adjusted the tension so much to account for the 1/2" difference in blade length because of the riser, I'm not sure the indicator has much meaning. I followed the Highland article suggestions on tensioning.

[Puckdropper]

Electric Comet wrote in news:mibd0e$n96$1 @dont-email.me:

That's my thought as well. Are the two wheels lined up in all 3 axis? If you've got a riser block, they can sometimes make it difficult to get the two halves of the saw aligned properly because of the pin.

Puckdropper

[Larry Blanchard]

But a 14" saw won't take a 1" blade (1/8" to 3/4" according to Grizzly). And from what I've read, even a 3/4" blade can bend the frame of a 14" bandsaw. A riser makes the problem worse.

I used to cut a lot of green wood for turning. I wound up spraying Dri- Cote on the blade to minimize the sap buildup. That helped some.

[HerHusband]

The lower wheel sits about 1/2" or so farther back then the top wheel. The only way I have been able to get the upper and lower wheels close to coplaner is to shim out the lower wheel. I currently have three shims behind the lower wheel, for a total thickness of about 3/8". The blade now tracks in the center of both wheels, the first time since I bought the saw.

Grizzly suggested shimming the riser block, or removing the alignment pin and shifting the upper half. I thought shimming might tilt the blade and guards at another angle, front to back. Right now they're perfectly vertical.

If I removed the alignment pin I was worried it might be difficult to line up the upper and lower half and keep them there over time. The only thing holding the two halves together is a single big bolt. It would also be odd to have the riser block shifted from the lower half of the saw.

I just installed the poly tires and the third shim this last weekend, so maybe I'll try adjusting the fence for drift again.

Anthony Watson

[Doug Winterburn]

My wheels were perfectly co-planer after installing the riser block?

[Doug Winterburn]

Were you wheels co-planer before installing the riser?

[Leon]

Right. He may be trying to cut way too much log for the blade and saw.

Right. Well trying to tension a 3/4" blade might bend the frame. And of the blade gets hot it is going to stretch and throw the tension off again....

Humm I bet that did/does... I now have ceramic guides and those tend to keep the blade clean.

[HerHusband]

I bought the riser at the same time I bought the saw, and installed the riser as I was assembling the saw. I never used the saw without the riser.

As I mentioned, this is my first bandsaw. I didn't use the saw much during the first year or two, so I only checked if the wheels were coplaner when I started having so many problems with the saw.

It didn't help that the first blade I ordered with the saw was damaged somehow and would not track or cut a straight line. It was a brand new blade so it never crossed my mind that it could be defective. I was reluctant to spend money on another blade, but the saw was unusable with that blade.

Needless to say, I have not had the best experience with this bandsaw... :)

I keep trying to tune it up so it will work better, buying better blades, shimming the wheels, installing polyurethane tires, etc. It is usable now, but still not what I would consider a precision woodworking tool.

Anthony Watson

[HerHusband]

Last fall I ripped a well dried 6"x8" beam into boards with a 1/2" Timberwolf blade. I eventually got several usable boards from it, but had lots of problems with the blade bowing in the wood. I was cutting very slowly too, so I doubt the feed rate was an issue.

I have only used 1/2" blades, except for the 3/8" green wood blade I have on the saw now.

Anthony Watson