Not sure if this should be under “General Discussion” or here, but anyway.
Question: I would like to resaw from 10″ – 12″ wide maple, walnut, oak, and some of the exotics, 1/16″ thick sheets (after some block sanding/smoothing) for use in segmented bowls, vases, etc. How do most of you go about resawing such thin sheets, running the bulk stock against the BS fence and using featherboards to hold the wood against the fence, which also pinches the resawn sheets against the blade on the outfeed end and, of course, resetting your fence after every cut, or utilizing some type of “carrier” to clamp or hold the wood, either on the inside of the blade or the outside of the blade. I have seen pictures/articles of various carriers/slides but I have never seen anyone use one and I don’t think these were designed for such thin cuts of resawing. I need to achieve consistent thicknesses on the resawn sheets in order to minimize block sanding since I do not yet own a drum sander.
Replies
I have resawn to 3/32 and then sanded to 1/16. You will find it difficult to maintain the even cut-density changes in wood, blade heating/dulling, slight changes in feed pressure or attitude. I usually make my first cut on a flat board on a table saw with a thin kerf blade rotating the board to leave 4-6 inches to bandsaw after cutting both sides. My favorite trick is to mount a pin on the table in front of the BS blade to ride in the table saw kerf then all I have to do is make sure the the BS blade is riding properly in the the kerf I can see from the top. A screw in a piece of plywood mounted on the BS table makes a great pin if you grind it flate. A little hand planing after cutting will remove any small misses after band sawing. Unless you want the material rough you will need to sand it and a widebelt is good for that. Good luck on it. Aloha, Mike
aloha back at ya,
great idea, that pin.
eef
You might consider buying commercial sliced veneer. You'd probably get more-consistent thickness, which would be useful if you're laminating these wide slices. 1/16" sliced veneer isn't super-common, but it does exist. For instance, http://www.certainlywood.com shows ten species.
Edited 6/13/2005 9:31 am ET by JAMIE_BUXTON
Resaw to a fat eighth (at the thinnest point) and drum sand the rest of the way.
You can resaw and handplane to finished thickness as well but I would not want this to be my debut operation with a hand plane.
Pain in the Butt.. BUT! I send the stick through the planner... Put the good end to the fence... Set fence.. Cut...
I put what is left back through the planner.. Same as above.. I cut till I run out of wood ...
My 18 Ricon will cut to the blade thickness OK.. But I use a 1 inch 3 tooth per inch LENOX blade.. Saw cut edge of stick needs some saw tooth removal! If ya don't cut to thin works good...
I've attached a snapshot of a set up that works well and doesn't require a power feeder.
The "feather board" consists of two pieces of scrap plywood glued and screwed together at right angles: one leg of the resulting ell is clamped to the table, the other is kerfed to accept two pieces of plastic laminate, which bends and applies pressure to hold the work against the fence.
Note the position of the feather board relative to the blade. The pictured installation is on a 24" Laguna bandsaw using a 1"-wide carbide-tipped resaw blade.
Edited to add: I've used this setup to resaw stock to 90/1000" for use in oval Shaker-style boxes (later taken to final thickness of around .065" using a finishing sander). After assuring the saw is properly set up, the most important consideration required to achieve good results is an appropriate and consistent rate of feed.
Good luck,
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Edited 6/14/2005 2:38 pm ET by jazzdogg
ardmore,
I watched a bandsaw demo over at Woodcraft a few months ago, he was using a 14" Delta. I noticed he used a couple of paddles (like the ones used on jointers) and always cut such that the fense never needed adjustment.
I went home and made some paddles of wood with a half a mouse pad glued to the bottom (approx. size 3.5"x8"). dramatically improved the outcome and consistency.
the most important consideration required to achieve good results is an appropriate and consistent rate of feed...
You bet!... Now if I could figgure how to do that..... By hand that is...
Could you post a couple of more photo's showing the set-up that you described?
Don
I secnd ardmore's request!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
FG,
Have you built one for yourself yet?
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Don & Forestgirl,
Here are two more snapshots: one that shows the relative placement of the Formica featherboard relative to the saw blade, and another that provides more of an overview.
Edited to add: the push stick pictured in the second photo is the version I prefer to use in almost all bandsaw and tablesaw operations. We cut several from scrap plywood at a time, clean up the sawn edges using an edge belt sander and oscillating spindle sander, use a round over bit to soften the corners, and glue on a hardwood sole with integral heel. We make thinner versions for thin rips, and thicker versions with more surface area for face-jointing.
-Jazzdogg-Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Edited 6/15/2005 2:47 pm ET by jazzdogg
Effective looking featherboard, think I'll make something similar. Those push sticks look like they would work especially well on the TS and jointer.
Laguna BS? What size?
Don
Edited 6/15/2005 10:08 pm ET by ardmore
"Laguna BS? What size?"
Don, It's a 24" Laguna; we've since upgraded to a 28" with a power feeder.-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
upgraded to a 28" with a power feeder..
Damn ya sure know how to hurt a guy
I can't think why the BS fence would ever need adjusting ... joint/plane one face flat, that face contacts the BS fence with the blade at 3/32 - 1/8" away, cut one slice. Resurface the new face, repeat until you have enough slices or the wood is gone. Am I missing something?
I have used a 'featherboard' held down by a built-in pair of the Enco switchable magnetic bases, and have seen really good veneers resawn using a 'point contact' fence instead of a flat fence - the stock only contacted the fence at the fence's 'nose,' which was dead even with the BS teeth. Required careful attention to the blade's drift, but it gave a great result.
Clay
Can you post a couple of photo's also?
Thanks,
Don
Ardmore,Can't get you pics of mine (it's in Miami, I'm in NorCal for a while, escaping the steamy, almost malarial Miami summer), but I got the idea from the plans at the link below ... One nice thing is that, once the 'base' is built, I can swap in different 'feather' parts, of different lengths, shapes, stiffnesses, etc. (As well as other jigs - I love these switchable magnetic bases - it is such an advantage, when you want THIS bit to stay right HERE [dammit], to be able to flip a switch rather than attach 2 or 3 clamps - and the advantage multiplies when [inevitably] you need to adjust it just a smidge - repeatedly re-fixing 2 or 3 F clamps under the table is no fun.)ClayURL for the magnetic featherboard - http://www.sfwg.org/pdf%20files/Fethrbrd.pdf
I agree with the advice that's been given here and I would like to add a little of my own. I have found that there is a considerable range of feed rate over which a band saw can give absolutely superb results. One the saw is set up properly, it is amazing how hard it is to get bad results.I used to use only Timberwolf blades from Suffolk machine company. They recommend much lower tension than is nornally recommended for band saw setup, and their "flutter test" has been discussed in these forums before. Everything they recommend about lower tension with their blades I find to be right on the money.A few months ago, there was an article in FWW describing a number of fine details of band saw set up. The author recommended blades from BC blade co. in Canada. These blades are about US$8 vs the Timberwolf blades which are about $18.The article also recommended lower blade tension then usual.But the 3 main points of the article were:1. The importance of getting the blade properly positioned on the upper wheel so that the blade runs absolutely at a right angle to the direction of feed. This eliminates the infamous and mythical "drift" that is supposed to plague all bandsaws and which authors have recommended for years that appropriate compensation be made by offsetting the fence at an angle to the blade. Getting the blade up on the highest point of the upper wheel tire (tyre ?) so that it runs parallel to the fence not only completely eliminates drift, it allows the band to cut properly.2. Use of a sharp blade. A new blade cuts so much better than a worn blade. We all try to get as much use out of blades for any machine, that we often use them far beyond the point where they can do the job. Fortunately, setting up the saw properly allows any blade to stay sharper for an incredibly long time compared to a poor set up. More importantly, a correct setup prevents uneven blade wear. Once one side or the other wears firest, bandsaw blades are useless.3. low tension and the use of a blade with a low number of teeth per inch. The article's advice flies in the face of all traditional recommendations that 3 teeth always be buried in the wood. The author recommends blades with 3 tpi period for ALL kinds of work.I have been running my lowly Grizzly 14" saw set up with either Timberwolf or BC blades at low tension, using nothing but 3 tpi blades. I can resaw 8-10" sugar maple with 1/4 and 1/8 inch blades all day long. There is so little tooth mark on the sawn surfaces that I can't believe a bandsaw did the cuts. Those surfaces are not glue joints by any means, but thay require just a minimum of clean up. I also find the author's advice that a 3 tpi blade suffices for almost anything one wants to do on the saw.Feeding a properly set up saw is a joy. There is almost no resistance. If there is, something is wrong with the set up or the blade. Of course, I can overfeed the blade if I really feed hard. The machine tells you when you are going too fast. But from a very slow feed rate, up to a rate where the blade just perceptibly starts to slow, the cut is beautiful. The blades don't scream or burn the wood at all when running right.I use 3 tpi blades for everything now. One bit of advice that I used to heed from Timberwolf is to spray the blade periodically with PAM cooking spary or similar. I have not had to do that at all since getting the machine properly running.Sorry, I don't have access to the article as we are all packed up getting ready to move. Maybe someone can supply the issue number.Rich
"I used to heed from Timberwolf is to spray the blade periodically with PAM cooking spary or similar. "
Rich,
A friend used butter flavored cooking spray to lubricate a router bit before trimming edge banding - people started coming in to the shop because they thought someone had made popcorn!-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
LOL.Yeah, Pam is great on the blades. Now eggs wash right off without sticking!Rich
Rich14,
I'm quite sure the article your refering to is by Michael Fortune, "Five Tips for Better Bandsawing" from Dec. 2004, # 173. I agree with just about everything you mentioned, however, I'd also give credit to John White in an earlier article teaches how to do the rest of the fine tuning. My sense is using the 'Featherboard' discussed earlier in this thread may just be the final piece to the puzzle (keeping fingers crossed)
I do have one question. How do you know when your blade is dull? On Wednesday I resawed a board where the blade bowed badly....it turned out the board was quite wet in the middle..was that the board or the blade dulling? I've been using an Olson for 6 months or so..
BG,"I do have one question. How do you know when your blade is dull?"When it doesn't cut well. If you think it's dull, change it. The new blade will tell you immediately if the change was needed!I have cut freshly-felled wood (kiawe and jaquaranda) with a new 1/4" Timberland and there was no problem at all. And THAT blade was 6 tpi. That was before I learned that fewer tpi is better.Rich
Edited 6/19/2005 8:11 pm ET by Rich14
Thanks everyone, for sharing your methods, suggestions, and what you have experienced. Looks like a consistent feed rate is the big factor. Since I originally posted and poised the "outfeed pinching" problem, with its related roughing up of the veener, I just read the article on page 96 of "Fine Woodworking" magazine, June 2005 issue. They show what looks look an excellent jig to eliminate outfeed pinching.
Now, if I can just learn the "consistent feed rate" procedure!
Don
eliminate outfeed pinching.. Jam a wooden door shim in there!
Metod,
Wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that I originated the idea for the push stick or the feather board, as they were both in play, so to speak, long before I arrived on campus.
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
You can see if someone there wants to take credit for the idea and send it in, or you can send it in and say where you got the idea. If it's a woodworking school, the publicity will be worth plenty to them as advertising.
I'm Curious, why is "constant feed rate" so important when re-sawing?
Thanks,
Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
Mark,
A consistent rate of feed generally leaves a smoother and more consistent surface; the thinner you're resawing, the more significant deviations from smooth and flat become. When I'm resawing 8" - 12" wide hardwood, I find optimum results are usually acheived at a rate of about a minute to a minute-and-a-half per foot.
Changes in the rate of feed are reflected by the artifacts left by the blade in the form of small (or not-so-small) vertical lines (kerf remnants); in some cases, these artifacts are significant enough to affect yield and the amount of work required to make the work flat & smooth. In some species, like cherry, hesitations will show up as burn marks.
Of course, all of this talk about the feed rate presumes you've selected an appropriate blade, set up the saw properly,cleaned the blade, jointed one face and one edge of the board being resawn, etc.
Like finishing, getting great results while resawing is all about preparation - both physical and mental.
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Thanks, Now that I think about your explanation and physics It makes perfect sense... Seems that the physics of the situation suggest that if you are not constant, then you are changing pressure on the blade (and tension). The changes in tension will affect blade drift. If drift increases or decreases then you get kerf marks and uneven thickness stock...Best,
Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
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