Resaw woes...

[MG1977]

Hi Guys and Gals!

I've been trying to resaw some old mahogany (? I think) bench pews on my kity 613 and I'm having a nightmare trying to get it to cut straight.

I've played around with the tension, tracking, guide alignment and nothing seems to help.

I'm using a new 3/4" - SuperTuff Fastcut from Tuffsaws so I'm fairly sure it's not the blade that's the issue.

I've even tried with a point fence but still the blade pulls into the piece as shown in pic.

I'm starting to rip my hair out...and I can't afford that really!!

Any suggestions? I'm fairly new to this and feel I'm maybe missing something obvious!!

Many thanks

Michael

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Is your fence parallel to the blade or the table?

 

[Baldhead]

Google bandsaw drift or search YouTube for bandsaw drift, better still click on this link and buy Steve's DVD's on bandsaw's, I have numbers 4, 5 & 6 (The Complete Bandsaw) they are well worth the money.

I have just purchased a BS400 bandsaw, I was surprised just how much off 90 degrees the fence had to be set at to give me a straight cut when re sawing!

Baldhead

 

[MG1977]

I'm pretty sure I've compensated for drift, I do this each time I move the fence...maybe I'm not doing it right?!?

I have Steve's excellent dvd's on my Christmas list...as I'm currently 'between jobs' I can't afford to splash on them just yet!

I will try alignment again...one thing I did think was that it could be to do with the kity 613 requiring the blade to have its gullet on the edge of the wheel. This is where I have it though, so maybe I should try it centred as recommended on other machines?

 

[Baldhead]

I'm pretty sure I've compensated for drift, I do this each time I move the fence...maybe I'm not doing it right?!?

I have Steve's excellent dvd's on my Christmas list...as I'm currently 'between jobs' I can't afford to splash on them just yet!

I will try alignment again...one thing I did think was that it could be to do with the kity 613 requiring the blade to have its gullet on the edge of the wheel. This is where I have it though, so maybe I should try it centred as recommended on other machines?

That may be the reason, Steve uses a beer barrel to explain why the blade should be centred!, obviously I'm no where near as experienced as Steve about workshop machines, so the advice I'm giving is based on my own experience.

If Santa's good to you I can guarantee you won't be disappointed with The Complete Bandsaw by Steve.

Baldhead

Edit: Good luck on the job front.

 

[MG1977]

Cheers...I'll give it a try later when I can get back at it!

 

[JakeS]

Also check this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK9m5PadmiI

His advice gels with my own experience; to successfully resaw, you need:

- As much tension as you can [un]reasonably put on the blade
- A wide enough blade
- A blade with sharp teeth and big gullets
- A slowish feed rate

Fence and drift alignment and so on is almost a secondary concern, because you're presumably going to clean up the cut edge after the cut anyway (thicknesser or hand-planing or whatever) and you can even get away with following a drawn line by hand if you can keep the piece vertical enough.

 

[woodfarmer]

I just wondered if the new blade might be significantly wider than the previous one? On my fox crapomatic you have to do all the guide adjustments from scratch every time you change the width of the blade, about 1/2 to 3/4 an hour as you have to dismantle everything. The reason for this is too much blade sticks out in front of the side guides thus allowing the front edge (cutting edge) to turn away from straight. You need (in my very limited experience) to have the rollers just short of where the teeth begin to offset.
It is also surprising how much tension a 3/4inch blade needs.

 

[MG1977]

just wondering if it is possible to over tension?

what would the symptoms be?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A very loud bang?

 

[deema]

Looking at the photo, the blade appears to be pushed over to the right by the top LHS blade support. If it is the blade will wander in the cut. The blade supports should Not be touching the blade. Use a piece of photocopier paper or similar to check that the blade is not being contacted by any of the blade supports.

 

[Steve Maskery]

His advice gels with my own experience; to successfully resaw, you need:

- As much tension as you can [un]reasonably put on the blade
- A wide enough blade
- A blade with sharp teeth and big gullets
- A slowish feed rate

Fence and drift alignment and so on is almost a secondary concern,

I have to say that I agree with some of that and disagree with other parts.

Certainly the tension has to be right and that is generally a matter of experience. That's not much help to a novice, I know, but it doesn't stop it from being true.

Certainly a wider blade helps, but if it is set up properly, there is no reason why you cannot rip or even resaw with 1/4" blade.

Big gullets, yes, certainly.

Feed rate as it feels right.

BUT.

Fence and blade alignment, as determined by the tracking, is the single most important thing, after sharpness, I guess, that will deliver satisfactory and pleasing results.

S

 

[brianhabby]

His advice gels with my own experience; to successfully resaw, you need:

- As much tension as you can [un]reasonably put on the blade
- A wide enough blade
- A blade with sharp teeth and big gullets
- A slowish feed rate

Fence and drift alignment and so on is almost a secondary concern, because you're presumably going to clean up the cut edge after the cut anyway (thicknesser or hand-planing or whatever) and you can even get away with following a drawn line by hand if you can keep the piece vertical enough.

Whenever I experience drift like this (and it's usually with harder timbers) I tend to do away with the fence altogether and just follow a drawn line. Make sure you have the edge that is on the table planed square with the side and you should have no trouble keeping the piece upright.

That's my experience anyway

regards

Brian

 

[Alexam]

Hi Michael, sorry to hear your problems. This should solve your problems ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU

I have watched this several times and tuned my new BS400 exactly as the video suggests and can resaw without any problems whatsoever. The deepest part of the blade gullet should be in the center of the top wheel. Don't think about co-planer, as it is not relavent and the blade will not be in the centre of the bottom wheel. It doesn't matter.

The guides and thrust bearings are the key. Back everything off until the blade is correctly centred on top and tentioned correctly, check several times before setting the guides and bearings and once everything is set up, let the bandsaw run and check the guides and bearings again as the blade may have moved again.

I use a 3" engineers square that I have marked against the top wheel with the centre. It's then easy to double check each time rather than guess it. It's also essential to use a square to check the blade is veritcle in both directons to the table. Use the square to also check the fence.
It really does work if you follow the instructions.

All the best

Alex

I also got the same results on an old DeWalt bandsaw, but changed the bandsaw for a deeper cut.

 

[CHJ]

Certainly a wider blade helps, but if it is set up properly, there is no reason why you cannot rip or even resaw with 1/4" blade.
S

I've never found the need to use wider blades for the slicing and slabbing that I do.

What I do find important is to have a blade with a good set giving a wide kerf to aid the deep gullets to clear the dust, fraction of wood thickness lost is nothing to that wasted if blade wanders.

 

[Ed Bray]

Hi MG1977, sorry to hear your problems. This should solve your problems ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU

I have watched this several times and tuned my new BS400 exactly as the video suggests and can resaw without any problems whatsoever. The deepest part of the blade gullet should be in the center of the top wheel. Don't think about co-planer, as it is not relavent and the blade will not be in the centre of the bottom wheel. It doesn't matter.

The guides and thrust bearings are the key. Back everything off until the blade is correctly centred on top and tentioned correctly, check several times before setting the guides and bearings and once everything is set up, let the bandsaw run and check the guides and bearings again as the blade may have moved again.

I use a 3" engineers square that I have marked against the top wheel with the centre. It's then easy to double check each time rather than guess it.

It really does work.

All the best

Alex

After watching multitudes of videos on bandsaw setup and having various degrees of limited success I followed the instructions by Alex Snodgrass to the letter and am now able to resaw beautifully on my 14" Taiwanese bandsaw. I just wish they imported that maglock fence into the UK so I could then buy it.

 

[MG1977]

Thank you guys. Daddy duties have kept me from replying, but the feedback is hugely appreciated by a novice like me!!

I've been having a bit of a play today and I believe I've found the culprit to be a combination of blade position, tension and drifting thrust bearing.

The thrust bearing somehow rotates backwards with the vibration of the blade against it. This only really happens with the thicker stock and may be a result of too much feed pressure, but either way I'm fairly sure it shouldn't twist itself out backwards!!

I spent a while this morning experimenting with blade position and tension and found that by marking the adjustment knobs with tape I could gauge how many turns I had made which has made adjustment a whole lot easier.

Basically I put the blade so that the gullet is just past the front of the wheel (as indicated in the manual) tensioned then span the wheel...adjusted the tracking and span again...tweeked tracking until top and bottom wheel to blade relationship was about the same (not sure why, this just felt logical). This left me with the blade forward of the wheel by too much so I de-tensioned, noting how many turns I'd made of the tension knob, repositioned the blade so the gullet was correctly positioned then re-tensioned by the same amount. Then when I span the wheels the blade stayed put because the tracking was right.

Adjusting the side guides is much more tricky on this saw as the upper guides are discs and have significant lateral movement, they can only get to within 3/16" before some part of them touches the blade.

Anyway, the upshot of this and the replacement of the blade with a tuffsaws 1.3tpi premium 1" ripper!! seems to be that my woes are over.

I've just resawn some 1x7" mahogany into 2x10mm boards and some European Capri Oak 2x6" into 3x12mm boards which also need planning are pretty flat and square.

The tension I'm going to wind back a bit over night and re-tighten in the morning, but hopefully I'll get more of a feel for it with more practice!

Oh and one other thing, I noticed with the oak that it closed up a little after it passed the blade. Is that normal or does than mean my stock is too wet?

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions...I may just now have to make a wooden snake as a toy for Christmas!!

Cheers
Michael

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Your timber will close up or spring apart if you've released any tension. Just stick a little wedge in the end if it closes badly - it shouldn't matter much with a narrow blade like a bandsaw's. Some woods like iroko or elm have grain that is all over the place - I've ripped a ten foot piece of iroko and had one side stay straight edge straight and the other have a three inch bow.

 

[andersonec]

If your timber has one squares edge and all else fails. draw a straight line where you want to cut, get rid of the fence and do it freehand.

Andy

 

[woodbrains]

I'm pretty sure I've compensated for drift, I do this each time I move the fence...maybe I'm not doing it right?!?

I have Steve's excellent dvd's on my Christmas list...as I'm currently 'between jobs' I can't afford to splash on them just yet!

I will try alignment again...one thing I did think was that it could be to do with the kity 613 requiring the blade to have its gullet on the edge of the wheel. This is where I have it though, so maybe I should try it centred as recommended on other machines?

That may be the reason, Steve uses a beer barrel to explain why the blade should be centred!, obviously I'm no where near as experienced as Steve about workshop machines, so the advice I'm giving is based on my own experience.

If Santa's good to you I can guarantee you won't be disappointed with The Complete Bandsaw by Steve.

Baldhead

Edit: Good luck on the job front.

Hello,

The Kity does not have crowned tyres, so the blade should not be centred on the wheel, but ran with the gullets off the front. Had one of these saws for years and never had drift problems running like that. I suggest you have too much blade tension, or the blade is worn on one side due to curve cutting, if you have used it for that.


Mike.