Horizontal Bandsaw Design

apexsunguitars · Post by **apexsunguitars** » Sun Aug 04, 2013 8:42 pm

I am working up ideas for a horizontal bandsaw for resawing veneers for my guitars since I dont want to be forced to always bookmatch the tops. I am thinking that I would like to be able to cut about 16" wide. I am actually looking for a donor bandsaw to use parts from but I am not familar enough with waht makes a good bandsaw so I would like some ideas. I am thinking that if I found even a decent old metalworking bandsaw with a cast iron frame, balanced steel wheels, a working tensioner assembly, and bearing type guides that this would work. Since it will be powered by my SS headstock then I would think that the original speed settings would not matter. One thing that I am not sure about is the realtionship of the wheel size to the cutting depth (or in this case width) of the work. Are the larger wheels only to accomodate a larger throat depth on veritical bandsaws? Is there anything to prevent me from using the parts from a solid 12" bandsaw for this?

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Sun Aug 04, 2013 9:44 pm

apexsunguitars wrote:I am working up ideas for a horizontal bandsaw for resawing veneers for my guitars since I dont want to be forced to always bookmatch the tops. I am thinking that I would like to be able to cut about 16" wide. I am actually looking for a donor bandsaw to use parts from but I am not familar enough with waht makes a good bandsaw so I would like some ideas. I am thinking that if I found even a decent old metalworking bandsaw with a cast iron frame, balanced steel wheels, a working tensioner assembly, and bearing type guides that this would work. Since it will be powered by my SS headstock then I would think that the original speed settings would not matter. One thing that I am not sure about is the realtionship of the wheel size to the cutting depth (or in this case width) of the work. Are the larger wheels only to accomodate a larger throat depth on veritical bandsaws? Is there anything to prevent me from using the parts from a solid 12" bandsaw for this?

Most of the cheaper metal working bandsaws I have seen have less than 10" of space between the guides. I have the remains of a HF 4X6 metal cutting bandsaw but doubt if you could get the distance you are looking for.

Some where I remember seeing a Shopsmith bandsaw that was cut around the table level and around an additional 6" to 8" was added. I was not interested at that time but believe a "U" shaped aluminum flat plate were used between the lower and upper halfs of the bandsaw. The upper bolt holes were slotted so the upper half could be adjusted for the blade length. It looked similar to one of the bandsaw riser kits that you can buy for extending the height and throat of other bandsaws. I could not find any pictures of this bandsaw in my files as I lost my hard drive a few years ago. There was no cover shown for this bandsaw.

I believe you could custom build a Shopsmith bandsaw just for resawing. The upper blade guide was not modified on this bandsaw. I would believe 12" to 14" would be the maximum depth you could get away with using the 1/2" or 5/8" blade on the Shopsmith. This would mount the same as the regular bandsaw. A longer table might be needed to support the wood being cut along with some good table guide supports.

rlkeeney · Post by **rlkeeney** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:35 am

Have you seen this shop built band saw?
http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/build.html

It's not horizontal but you might get some ideas.

saminmn · Post by **saminmn** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:44 am

I am curious about why horizontal. If it is to support the workpiece on a table instead of against a tall fence, you may run into problems setting up without blade drift issues. I am still a newbie so others may need to correct me. Of coarse a table that tilted along, i.e. parallel to, the blade might take care of blade drift issues.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 12:09 pm

saminmn wrote:I am curious about why horizontal. If it is to support the workpiece on a table instead of against a tall fence, you may run into problems setting up without blade drift issues. I am still a newbie so others may need to correct me. Of coarse a table that tilted along, i.e. parallel to, the blade might take care of blade drift issues.

Blade drift is a urban legend of poorly setup bandsaws.
SS once had traveling academies and I attended one where they cut 3 inch wide wood so thin you could see light through it. They had no blade drift.

Over the years I forgot that training and fell into the blade drift thinking. But something reminded me of that academy training and I got out my notes and I found that if you have blade drift you have any one of a few problems.

Dull blade.
Too fast a feed rate.
Not properly setup bandsaw, table not exactly 90 degrees to blade, guide blocks set incorrectly and blade not properly tensioned, blade skewed by guide bearing.

I believe feed rate was the biggest offender followed by dull or damaged blade.

sawmill · Post by **sawmill** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 1:16 pm

I have a few pieces laying around that I sawed using my Wood Mizer and they are just as flat as can be and if you hold them up to the light and hold your hand on the back side you can count your fingers

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 1:51 pm

I'm sorry but I have blade drift. You can call it something else if yuou want, but I call it blade drift.

I have two seemingly identical bandsaws that both perform equally poor when resawing.

I bought a new blade (trade name is not important) and it works perfectly for resawing. I have not done the "thin as toilet tissue routine" but I have done a lot of resawing and it works.

When I move either of the other two resaw blades to this band saw the resaw characteristics become unacceptable. Reinstall the one blade and quality resaw performance returns.

I attribute this to blade drift and nothing else. I can sorta improve performance by dinking with the fence but why do that when all I have to do is install the proper blade.

sawmill · Post by **sawmill** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:45 pm

I have the same problem with my bandsaw also. On the Wood Mizer the blade guide system is different but with out a good blade it will drift real bad. I wonder about the set in the band saw blades, If I get the set off on the sawmill it will drift bad and may even take a nose dive

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:30 pm

I would be more suspicious of shallower gullets.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Tue Aug 27, 2013 10:59 pm

dusty wrote:I'm sorry but I have blade drift. You can call it something else if yuou want, but I call it blade drift.

I have two seemingly identical bandsaws that both perform equally poor when resawing.

I bought a new blade (trade name is not important) and it works perfectly for resawing. I have not done the "thin as toilet tissue routine" but I have done a lot of resawing and it works.

When I move either of the other two resaw blades to this band saw the resaw characteristics become unacceptable. Reinstall the one blade and quality resaw performance returns.

I attribute this to blade drift and nothing else. I can sorta improve performance by dinking with the fence but why do that when all I have to do is install the proper blade.

I was able to resaw without seeing any blade drift once I installed the 2 auto track bearings in the upper and lower blade guides. see http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... 970&page=3 posting #23 for my comments. This provides better blade stability just like the Carter Stabilizer upgrade.