Bandsaw Problem

gregwarren · Post by **gregwarren** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:31 pm

I am having problems resawing with my Shopsmith bandsaw. I am using a Shopsmith 5/8 blade and it is set to the proper tension according to the scale.

Here's what happened most recently. I am attempting to resaw a 2x6 piece of walnut roughly down the middle. I attached a board to the bandsaw fence to make it about 6" tall and used a feather board kind of jig to hold the stock to the fence. (I have used this setup successfully before). As I was cutting, I noticed that the stock began to pull away from the fence on the outfeed side. I wrestled with it a little bit and finally turned off the saw, pulled the stock back and noticed that at the bottom of the board the cut was veering off to the side.

I had seen some suggestions before that, because of blade lead, it might be better to work without a fence and just follow a line drawn on the top of the stock. I tried this approach and got about 3/4 of the way through the board when I noticed that the outfeed side seemed kind of twisted. Again I shut the saw off and backed out the stock. Even though the cut on the top of the board followed the line I had drawn, the cut on the bottom veered to the side intill it was about 1/4" away from the edge. Needless to say, instead of 2 roughly 1" boards, I now have considerable waste....and it's walnut!

I have now taken the blade to the sharpener to see if that will make a difference. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Will a dull blade really cause this kind of problem? The very first time I resawed a board I was very happy with the results and it took very little sanding to remove the saw marks and I used the same setup I described at the top. Since then, results have been hit and miss. Should I use something other than a Shopsmith blade?

I'd appreeciate any guidance.
Greg

wa2crk · Post by **wa2crk** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:42 pm

Greg;
Yes a worn blade can cause that problem as well as too loose on the tension, improperly adjusted guide blocks and having the set of the teeth on one side of the blade not the same as the other side of the blade. If the blade ever came in contact with only one of the guide blocks it would change the set on that side.
Other causes could be too many teeth per inch. If the teeth are too close together or the wrong type for re-sawing , which is what I think you are trying to do, the gullets between the teeth will fill up with sawdust before they exit the bottom of the cut. In this case you will be cutting at the top of the cut but not at the bottom and this will cause drift.
Try to get a blade that is specifically designed for re-sawing. It should have 4 to 6 teeth per inch.
Another thing that will cause this problem is too fast of a feed rate. Try to slow the feed rate way down.
Keep us posted
Bill

tnerb · Post by **tnerb** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:25 pm

I agree with what Bill said.

I like to use a 1/2" blade with 2 to 4 tpi. inch for resawing.

Another thing you can try is to make sure your table is 90 degrees to the blade.

Brent

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:52 pm

What Bill said - want to emphasize check to see if your guide blocks are square and flat don't forget the lower ones! Also feed very slowly! Let the blade do all the work!

Sounds like you are having the blade fixed. I also use a 5/8" re-saw blade from Shopsmith.

foxtrapper · Post by **foxtrapper** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:40 am

Not just a worn blade, but a not so good new blade will do the same thing. The blades sold by Lowes for example (btdt). Getting a *good*, *sharp* blade, of the type suited for the cutting you are doing, makes all the difference in the world. For what you're trying to do, the wood slicer blade from Highland woodworking might rock your world.

gregwarren · Post by **gregwarren** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:18 am

Thanks everyone. I'm using the SS blade recommended for resawing so I think the tpi should be right. The table is 90 degrees to the blade and I'm feeding the work very slowly. I use cool blocks and I noticed one of the lower ones wasn't square so I think I've fixed that. We'll see what happens after the blade comes back from the sharpener. There's only one guy in town and he gets to stuff when he gets to it.

Greg

mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:24 am

gregwarren wrote:Thanks everyone. I'm........ There's only one guy in town and he gets to stuff when he gets to it.

Greg

Speaking of town.....where you be Greg? Your profile doesn't show.

nuhobby · Post by **nuhobby** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:51 pm

gregwarren wrote:Thanks everyone. I'm using the SS blade recommended for resawing so I think the tpi should be right. The table is 90 degrees to the blade and I'm feeding the work very slowly. I use cool blocks and I noticed one of the lower ones wasn't square so I think I've fixed that. We'll see what happens after the blade comes back from the sharpener. There's only one guy in town and he gets to stuff when he gets to it.

Greg

I am not sure here, but I think Cool Blocks may not hold up too well for wide blades. I am using the Ceramic Guide Blocks available through Bill Mayo; these are about as tough as you can get.

(The reason I am not sure, is that I just traded my new-in-bubble-pack Cool Blocks on a derelict used Mark V !!! A bit of exaggeration but not far off...)

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:20 pm

gregwarren wrote:Thanks everyone. I use cool blocks and I noticed one of the lower ones wasn't square so I think I've fixed that. We'll see what happens after the blade comes back from the sharpener.
Greg

I also use cool blocks. The only bad part about them is they do require a lot of checking and maintenance.

keakap · Post by **keakap** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:26 pm

gregwarren wrote:I'm using the SS blade recommended for resawing so I think the tpi should be right. ...We'll see what happens after the blade comes back from the sharpener.

My SS resaw blade also had a 'lead' problem when first used. I used a procedure I'd heard about somewhere and "removed" the unbalanced tooth set. Since then I use a fence set parallel and no problemo.
It may well be Sharpener Man will balance the tooth set on your blade.
Methinks you may also need to use an alternate tensioning measurement.

I just recently read a description of the very problem you've experienced and whut to do about it, I think maybe in PTWFE (?). I'll look for it.