Band Saw Resaw Fence

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jsburger
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Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by jsburger »

The SS band saw is GREAT! Being able to skew the fence to adjust for blade drift during resawing is a great feature. I don't know why other manufactures offer this feature instead of a "resaw fence" with a point next to the blade so you can move the wood to compensate. I can consistently resaw pieces 1/32" thick with the SS fence that are dead on from end to end.

Anyhow, we needed a larger resaw capacity for my wife's scroll saw work so I bought a Powermatic 14" bandsaw from a friend that bought it new about 5 years ago. It has the mobile base and the riser block. He only used it less than 12 times. Needless to say it is virtually brand new. $750.

As you know it comes with a fence and that funky resaw point attached to it. No way to skew the fence. Here is my solution to skew the fence in the SS way. I used the resaw point as the pivot point. See the attached pictures.
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John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
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rjent
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by rjent »

jsburger wrote:The SS band saw is GREAT! Being able to skew the fence to adjust for blade drift during resawing is a great feature. I don't know why other manufactures offer this feature instead of a "resaw fence" with a point next to the blade so you can move the wood to compensate. I can consistently resaw pieces 1/32" thick with the SS fence that are dead on from end to end.

Anyhow, we needed a larger resaw capacity for my wife's scroll saw work so I bought a Powermatic 14" bandsaw from a friend that bought it new about 5 years ago. It has the mobile base and the riser block. He only used it less than 12 times. Needless to say it is virtually brand new. $750.

As you know it comes with a fence and that funky resaw point attached to it. No way to skew the fence. Here is my solution to skew the fence in the SS way. I used the resaw point as the pivot point. See the attached pictures.
That is an outstanding idea! Well done!
Dick
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jsburger
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by jsburger »

Well, I haven't tried it yet. I just got my Timber Wolf blades today. I have a 3/4" blade for resawing. Absolutely no reason it won't work. I will let you know this weekend.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
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reible
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by reible »

From some bragging friends you will not need anything more then the standard fence with that saw.

Keep us informed on how the saw does, I've always wanted one but never had the room or the money to get one. Your posts will be about as close as I ever get owning one.

Ed
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mbcabinetmaker
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by mbcabinetmaker »

Dick that is genius!

These are the best resaw blades I have used.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/wood ... lades.aspx
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algale
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by algale »

Took me a while to process what you did, but I got agree with mbcabinetmaker: that is a brilliant, simple adjustable fence design!
Gale's Law: The bigger the woodworking project, the less the mistakes show in any photo taken far enough away to show the entire project!

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jsburger
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by jsburger »

reible wrote:From some bragging friends you will not need anything more then the standard fence with that saw.

Keep us informed on how the saw does, I've always wanted one but never had the room or the money to get one. Your posts will be about as close as I ever get owning one.

Ed


Hi Ed,

Well, your friends might be right since the fence comes with the resaw attachment. However the fence alone without the resaw attachment and without being skewed probably won't work very well for resawing. After all that is why they supply the resaw attachment for it. Remember, blade drift is a function of the blade and not the saw or fence itself regardless of the quality of the saw. All blades drift although by different amounts. However, for any individual blade the drift is pretty consistent. Whenever I set up my SS band saw for resawing and set the fence the angle is always very close to the same for the same blade.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
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jsburger
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by jsburger »

mbcabinetmaker wrote:Dick that is genius!

These are the best resaw blades I have used.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/wood ... lades.aspx

Mark,

You said Dick but I assume the above was directed at me. When I first started resawing with my SS band saw I bought a 5/8" Timber Wolf blade. After reading all the hype about Highlands wood slicer blades I bought one. To be honest, I can not see any difference between the two blades. I paid $29.08 for the 3/4" X 105" Timber Wolf blade for the Powermatic directly from Suffolk Machinery. The same size wood slicer blade from Highland Woodworking is $36.99. So in this case I would let price be my guide since cut quality is the same in my experience.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
mbcabinetmaker
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by mbcabinetmaker »

Yes sorry John and Mary. I pulled the name from the first reply as I am still getting used to this new format. I will give the Timber Wolf a try. I am always a fan of saving a few bucks. :)
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jsburger
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Re: Band Saw Resaw Fence

Post by jsburger »

jsburger wrote:Well, I haven't tried it yet. I just got my Timber Wolf blades today. I have a 3/4" blade for resawing. Absolutely no reason it won't work. I will let you know this weekend.

Hi All,

Well, I tried the fence yesterday using a 3/4" Timber Wolf blade and it works just as expected. The first piece I cut was a a piece of popular about 7" wide and 3/4" thick. The cut was perfectly straight and very smooth. However, I noticed toward the end of the cut I was not holding the top of the board tight against the fence. As a result the two pieces were not uniform thickness top to bottom- about 1/32" difference. They were uniform end to end. Chock it up to operator error. I cut a second board about 10" wide and the results were much better. A very smooth strait cut with variations in thickness side to side and end to end of less than 1/64".

I have no idea if the results on the second board are typical when resawing material that wide since I have no experience doing it. I do however think it is acceptable (at least for me) since a resaw cut is not a finish cut.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
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