I have resawn 6" oak on my 1/3 HP 1960's vintage 12" Sears BS. I have to go painfully slow, but it works. I use a top-quality (Suffolk Timberwolf) 3 tpi 1/2" blade. I'd love to have 3/4 HP on my saw!
When I got the saw, it was in pretty sorry shape, and I put some work into fixing it up. Nothing I did to it made as much difference as buying serious blades.
I have a 3/4 HP motor on my Grizzly G1019 band saw with the 6" riser kit. Although I's like a bigger motor with a sharp good blade I've resawn 11" red oak. It's slow but it can be done.
I've got a newer Craftsman BS (circa mid 1990's) and I burned out it's motor while resawing some birch boards. I belive it was a 3/4 hp. I wasn't watching the motor temp and it overheated and got the starting cap hot enought to melt something out of it and into the motor windings.
I upgraded to a 1.5 hp motor that I found at Fleet Farm for about $190 and now it saws like a dream. I can go through 6" White Oak about as fast as I want to push it into it. It's easily 3x faster to saw a given length of board.
I agree with Roy, use Timberwolf blades, they rock!
I'd jump at the chance to get one. I'm biased, since I also have one, but I think the quality is superior. Mine is 13 years old, and going strong. I bought it used as well, and really didn't have to any "tuning".. other than the obvious adjustments when you change the blade.
To get to your resaw question. I don't do much resawing. When I have, my BS (also has 3/4 HP motor) is adequate. I do a little turning. If I was making blanks on the bandsaw for the lathe on a regular basis, I'd probably drop the big money and get one of those 18" or 20" bandsaws. But I don't do enough turning to justify it. Maybe after I retire, I'll be able to justify it. Of course, by the time I retire, I'll have to figure out how to haul the big bandsaw home in my George Jetson flying car.
I resurrected a really old Craftsman BS a number of years ago-(made by yates, I think) 16" with aluminum wheels that had to be re-welded & balanced. I use it almost exclusively for resawing. The tires wore out on it and I never replaced them-- I also use a 3 tpi blade, but I think it is a starrett. (had it welded up a few years back) It has a 1/3 hp motor. The saw has a really heavy cast iron flywheel underneath-( I suspect this was once a variable speed saw, as it has a tensioning handle on the side which raises & lowers the motor mount) - Once it starts going, it's hard to slow down. I use it for Oak, locust, maple, walnut & some other softer woods. To answer your question --3/4 is most likely powerful enough for your needs. If not -- as in you have to go r e a l l y slow( & without the addition af a flywheel) larger used motors are available. I recently found a 3/4 hp for my resurrected jointer in Sherman, TX for around 50 bucks. Look in the yellow pages under motors- used.
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