I just bought a 1hp Delta 14" band saw. I got a 1/2" 4tpi blade for it and have been playing with it. It resaws 6" of mahogany easily enough, but bogs down on 6" of oak. I made lumber out of black locust firewood, but it struggled. It would be great to install a riser and be able to deal with larger pieces, but since it doesn't do 6" all that well, I can't see doing bigger pieces.
I would appreciate some advice on this from someone experienced. Will installing a riser block change it's performance on smaller pieces, or will that be pretty much the same as it is now?
The black locust lumber is pretty neat; any reason it is not used?
It might not be happy about 12", but what about 8" or that 6 3/8" piece that makes you go "Doh!" when it just hits the guide.
Keep in mind you do lose about an inch of width between the blade and the saw frame with the block. So it becomes more a question of which limitation do you think you're going to hit more often. From what I understand it doesn't affect the cutting perfomance for thinner stuff, and the longer blade will last longer.
Hi, I had similar issues with my saw before some adjustments were made. As other people have said, the blade is everything. A 1/2" blade with 3 TPI seems to work the best, and it should be of good quality. The motor which came with my saw was a little weak for resawing to I made a new mounting bracket and installed a full 1 hp motor, boy what a difference. Finally, all adjustments and settings were checked and minor tuning was done. Things like the blade guide adjustment, wheels being coplanar, etc. The saw will now resaw anything that fits between the upper guide and table. Incidentally, adding the riser block will only make your problem worse if things are not adjusted correctly and the motor is weak.
I cut some pretty thick bowl blanks with my 14" 3/4 hp ridgid.. The riser kit was good for several reasons, I'll try to think of a few on what little caffeine I've had so far:
Raises the top wheel and case of the saw... since my saw is near the garage door, higher wheel and more clearance over the table means better light..
Lets me cut up to 11" or so, if I want to..
Lets me not worry if my new table that I'm building is an inch thick..
lets me cut something that might only be an inch or so thick but is maybe branching out from or attached to something taller, like standing up a 10" high log and cutting a branch stub off..
As to the actual cutting... slow and easy, like any power tool that you care about... I tried resawing with a 3/4" blade and all it did IMHO is add drag and friction to an already underpowered saw.. I do most everything now with 3/8 blades.. I'm doing a lot of pens at the moment, so I have an 8tpi on it.. When resawing, I use the blade recommended by my saw shop.. it's 3 tpi and something rake or no-rake?? have to ask the techies on that one.. In my limited (less than 2 yrs) experience, a well tuned bandsaw with a sharp blade and proper blade tension should cut whatever will fit in the opening... some things just take longer.. *g*
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