What are risers for a bandsaw?

I see a lot of references to riser kits for bandsaws, but I must confess my ignorance. I have no idea what they're talking about. Can someone clue me in?

Reply to
NoNameAtAll
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These are added to allow more vertical capacity to the saw. For my Jet 14" bandsaw and other similar ones, it is an extra cast iron piece that is added where the arm meets the base. It simply raises up the whole upper wheet housing 6" (IIRC). This doubled my resaw capacity from 6" to 12", which is a very useful thing, IMO.

Mike

Reply to
Mike in Mystic

Does that mean you'd need to buy a bigger blade since it essentially needs to be 12" longer?

Reply to
NoNameAtAll

yep.

Reply to
Mike in Mystic

Yes - although several riser kits come with one blade to get you going. IIRC, a common 14" bandsaw takes a 93 1/2" blade sans riser, and 105" with a riser.

You'll see many bandsaw buyers buy the riser kit with the bandsaw to avoid investing in several blades that will end up being too short.

Reply to
mttt

Mike, How often have you actually resawed something over 6"? When I bought my BS I initially thought about starting with the riser but figured if I was going to get into veneers and bookmatching, etc, I would probably want a more powerful machine (2-3hp) with a heavier table to boot. Are the 14" 1hp machines strong enough?

Thanks, Mike

Reply to
Mike in Idaho

I've done it on pieces up to about 10" wide on maybe a half dozen occasions. More often is the 6-8" dimensions. I haven't found the 1 HP machine to be too big of a liability - but I don't push it too hard and take my time. I also haven't been cutting extremely hard species, either. Mostly cherry and walnut, and even some ash and pine. I did use it with some hard maple, and that worked fine, too.

Mike

Reply to
Mike in Mystic

I have resawed 11" maple on my 1 hp G0555 with no problems using a 1/2" timberwolf blade. Moved though at a good pace with no slowing of the motor. If I were only cutting 4/4 wood; I would (do) just use a good jigsaw.

Reply to
Alan Bierbaum

Wow, that's nice to know. I guess if I find I start to need that I can always upgrade. Thanks for the info (Mike & Alan).

Mike

Reply to
Mike in Idaho

For comparison, I was at a buddies resawing 6" 8/4 walnut this weekend on his 18" Jet 1.5 HP. It was using a 1" with about 3 tpi and it would cut about an inch a second, but you could bog it if you pushed hard enough.

Reply to
Bruce

Out of curiosity, do you know if he was using a Timberwolf blade? My dealer swears by them and claims he quit carrying all other brands when he discovered who good they are. He says they take less power and cut faster than other brands.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Davis

The blade that I use is 3 TPI. I did not clock it, but I would say that 1" per second is about right without loading the motor. I could push hard/fast enough to bog the motor but was happy with the resaw speed without overloading the motor.

Reply to
Alan Bierbaum

Timberwolf is about all I use on my 14" bandsaw. I have a fairly new 1/2" 3 tpi Timberwolf that I use strictly for resawing. I rarely resaw anything over an 8" face width, but it does that very well with little or no drift. A friend has a WoodSlicer on his that does an excellent job also, but with decidely more drift ... however, drift is a property of each particular blade, and another blade of either make may show more or less.

What I like about the TW, besides cutting ability, is a 'proper tension' on their blades just happens to coincide within a turn or so of the factory tension marks on my bandsaw ... which, because these are supposedly "low tension" blades, doesn't say much for the ability to put proper tension on a blade with many of today's 14" band saws.

IOW, TW blades seem to be easier to tension properly on a 14" band saw than others I've tried.

Reply to
Swingman

Bob, I'll find out tomorrow what kind of blade it was and let you know.

Reply to
Bruce

Alan, that is great to hear because I'm ordering a Grizzly Ultimate any day now. Actually, our bonus is Feb 15th and that will be when I do it. I'm really excited about it.

Reply to
Bruce

Recently, I added a riser block to my Delta 14". I can saw 12" boards but I have lost 1". I now operate a Delta 13".The riser block makes the arm 1" bigger at the table's level. Claude

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Reply to
CLiver

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