Andy, just a comment here but I'm so far not having any trouble resawing 6 inch wide stock with my nice shiny new 14" Craftsman. Doesn't have any trouble shaving 1/16" veneer off of quina (Janka side hardness 2200, almost twice that of white oak, not quite in the concrete-with-leaves category but getting there) which is the hardest thing I've cut with it successfully so far--I did mess up a piece of cebil (well into concrete with leaves territory) but I screwed that up by the numbers--not the saw's fault. If it will handle that kind of stuff, ordinary temperate-zone woods shouldn't be giving it any trouble.
I wouldn't want to put _more_ than a half inch blade in it--but it handles the half-inch just fine.
If I was doing resawing all day every day I'd want more saw, but for me for now it's quite adequate.
IMO, considering the way Craftsman is regarded by the community as a whole and considering what I'm cutting with it, anybody having trouble resawing
6 inch wide stock with any decent quality 14" band saw needs to look more at his setup than at getting a bigger saw.
While it wasn't a very long piece, I can report now that it goes right through 5-1/2 inch wide lignum vitae. Taking 1/32 off in the planer cleaned it right up. Seemed to have less trouble with that than the quina in fact. Gonna have to rip another piece tomorrow though--the resaw wasn't any trouble at all but I cut the bloody piece too short--trust me to get the hard part right and screw up the easy one.
I bought one Timberwolf blade. I will never buy another. If a company can't even get the welded ends aligned properly, there is no point in continuing. I should just throw the blade away as I doubt I will ever use it.
What's the matter, Andy, forget your meds today? Wider blades work better for resawing than narrow blades do. Despite what you may think, having a narrow blade bow backwards is *not* a good thing.
Of course they do, so long as the saw frame's up to the job. Working with typical 14" machines, it isn't. The surprising thing is that going narrower can deliver a better performance. I'd like to claim credit for this innovation, but I can't -- I'm just lifting it straight out of Duginske. It works though.
Now go and try it before you give your sarcastic response. It's not perfect, but it "works" and it's certainly an improvement on typical performance.
Suffolk has .025 3/4 that works beautifully, and I've used a lot of different blades. It has a tooth pattern which differs from their normal, and the teeth do not appear to have been flame hardened. It's listed as an AS-S with a 5-raker set
Not to mention a 20% off sale until the end of the year on any five blades.
I've got the Laguna Tools LT16SEC bandsaw - 2.5 hp TEFC 220/240 V motor, originally with the Euro guides, now with LT's ceramic guides.
When I got the saw I also ordered a 1" and 1 1/4" wide blade for it, intending to do some resawing at or close to the saw's max throat capacity of a tad over 12". Figured, like Doug, that Wider Is Better.
Here's what I quickly discovered 1. unfolding a 130" one inch wide, or wider, bandsaw blade is FREAKIN' SCARY. I went with the Take It Out In the Yard, Throw It and Run Like Hell In The Opposite Direction unfolding method 2. getting a big wide blade on the bandsaw wheels and between the guides is not a whole lot of fun since it wants to stay round and you're trying to make it into sort of a tight oval while attempting to keep its teeth from removing parts of your skin. 3. some blade guides won't accomadate a wide blade 4. even with "low tension" blades, tensioning a 1 - 1 1/4" blade is not easy on the bandsaw tension spring, frame - or bearings. The tension spring is also supposed to be a shock absorber. If you bottom it out and hit a hard knot or the like, the impact goes right to your bearings which is not good for them or the shaft they are riding on. 5. though even an eighth of an inch blade can do a lot of damage in an instant, having the larger, nastier looking teeth on a 1 - 1 1/4" blade spin up is somehow a LOT SCARIER. 6. with twice as much blade area in the cut and the very little set of the teeth on a resaw blade, there's more surface area in the wood - getting gunked up and generating friction - the latter having to be overcome by pushing harder AND heating things up in the cut.
So, from my personal experience resawing, including slicing less than 1/16th inch thick veneer off of 6-8" cherry, walnut, spruce, redwood, elm, sycamore and ipe (don't bother with IPE)
- a 1/2" wide, 3 tpi, hook tooth blade works just fine - assuming a) it's sharp b) it's tensioned "just enough" (see Flutter Tensioning Method in my earlier post) c) your table is square to the blade d) your fence is square to the table e) your fence is set to the blade's drift/lead line f) you feed at the rate the blade will cut well, or just a little slower g) you're not cutting "reactive"/ "case hardened" wood
Michael Fortune, a great Canadian woodworker, uses his bandsaw a lot, preferring to use it to rip boards rather than use a table saw. He does a lot of thick veneer slicing and laminate work. He recomends inexpensive, 1/2", 3 tpi hook tooth blades and changes blades at the first hint of dullness or friction. And by inexpensive, he's talking $8-$10 blades, which he sends out for resharpening and buys them in 10 packs.
Now when you think about it, the teeth on the blade are getting the same wear, be they on a 1/2" blade or a 2" blade. they'll both dull at about the same rate. So when one gets dull, will you replace the $10 to $20 blade sooner than you would a $40-$60 blade?
In some cases, wider is better, or so one auto maker says. When it comes to resawing wood - It Ain't So!
charlie b waiting for Doug's response/ comments on my specific points
I had to laugh at this one. I had a friend who had a small metal fabrication shop with a heavy duty, cut off band saw that could cut through thick steel. And he unfolded his bandsaw blades the exact same way as you described above. He considered it the most dangerous job in his shop.
I always thought this would be a good video for AFV. Something about grown men fleeing in fear is funny to watch.
I didn't mean to appear to be suggesting that wider is better, without limit.
However, the OP was trying to resaw with a 3/8" blade, IIRC, and having problems -- and a certain individual's advice that he should try to fix those problems by going to a blade which is even narrower doesn't make any sense at all. Particularly on the grounds that he offered, namely that a narrower blade will deflect backward instead of barrelling -- the narrower the blade, the less its resistance to deflection in *all* directions. The objective should be to reduce deflection, not encourage it.
It's not "fleeing in fear", it's "taking all reasonable precautions" aka "due diligence". I adopted this wide bandsaw opening technique after watching a sawyer with a BIG WoodMizer type bandsaw do it as a matter of course. You really have to witness a bandsaw blade this size unfurl - the loud TWANG! noise sticks in your head - forever.
I forgot to specify that when using this method, you should take the normal precautions folks in the explosive field use including the siren and flashing red lights to warn anyone within range to clear the site or get in a bunker. Also recomend yelling Fire In The Hole, Fire In The Hole, Fire In The Hole rather than yelling Five, Four, Three, Two, One before hruling that sucker - wearing thick leather gloves of course. Found that going with The Count Down tended to attract accountants and other bean counters onto the range and they're hard to get rid of.
I had an old FWW out yesterday and there was an article that applied. Specifically, the bandsaw resaw blade test (M/A '04) Woodslicer came out on top with a 3-4 tpi hook blade. It was the *only* blade that scored an excellent in the smoothness test. The value blade was BC saw at $10. The Olson MVP was right behind the Woodslicer. FWIW, YMMV, etc, etc, etc....
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.