Shopsmith Forums

Thanks! My blade is a 4 tpi skip-tooth 1/2" blade, usually from Olson since I can buy one about 5 miles from here conveniently.

I used to change blade types for different jobs but I really don't any more. The 1/2" blade does a lot of ripping and resawing. Thought it was going dull last week, but that turned out to be a particularly soft and gummy board where the dust built up in the kerf. Today the cherry hardwood and the softwoods all re-sawed with no complaints and hardly any drift.

If I want to do curves, I usually arrange it to where I can fair-out the convex curves on a sander or router operation. For internal or concave curves, whenever possible I just try to sink those with a Forstner bit. For instance the little foot-coves below were done that way, an afterthought which helped balance the appearance of one box:
Chris

Thanks for the info, Chris.

Very impressive.

My bandsaw cuts fairly straight to the fence when resawimg but I have a very uneven/chattery surface on the cut. My bandsaw seems to vibrate quite a bit, I am reasonably well aligned to the shopsmith, cut on A or B setting , have tried a few different blades. Tension the blades well per the scale.

I'd love to get a better finish on my resaw cuts as seen in these photos, varying feed speed doesn't seem to make any difference either. The finish I get is equivalent to rough lumber that hasn't been planed or jointed at all, if not rougher.

Hi Dccarpenter,

Regarding vibration, my 2007 bandsaw used to have a set of factory cast-aluminum wheels that frankly didn't look that straight. Around 2009 I rebuilt another old Shopsmith BS for my brother-in-law, and in the process I swapped around lower and upper wheels (my originals and some new ones for his rebuild) until both saws ran with less vibration than my original.

Beyond this my only mods are using rubber-sealed instead of metal-shield backer bearings in some locations, which seemed to reduce the squealing tendency. I also have white ceramic guide blocks.

I run the tension usually a tad higher than the 1/2" mark on the setting gage. But overall probably the best asset is running a blade that isn't too fine of a tooth pitch, to help the dust escape. In the past 5 years I've been messing a lot with handsaws, and this "slo-mo" type of sawing helps me appreciate what sort of work the fast bandsaw sawteeth have to go through.

Good luck!
Chris

Time marches on, and a new project is in planning, sort of a liquor cabinet. For maximum satisfaction, I want to stretch my existing lumber supply.

A set of legs is in mockup, with a 20x20x20 cardboard box acting like a cabinet:

I think I'll be cladding this cabinet with a mix of woods. I like them quartersawn or rift sawn, and I like my wood to go a long way. I believe this was 14 cuts on the Shopsmith bandsaw this morning It's a trooper!

Happy Woodworking,
Chris

Playing with proportions and admiring some reclaimed wood...

The cabinet might look kind of neat with overhangs on the front doors, here taped in place ash resawn boards:

For the sides or back, that resawn Pine (or other SPF species) is kinda nice reclaimed wood. The densest parts are beyond 30 rings per inch:

Chris

Looking good, Chris. I resawed some oak myself just the other day with my SS bandsaw -- it's a trooper. My workpieces were too short to power plane, so I thicknessed them with my little Jet drum sander. That worked well, but it's a relatively slow process, and changing grits is a pain. How do you clean up your resawn boards?

Hi Dennis,

Hard to do without becoming an addict, but I love working small thin boards like this
Thanks
Chris

I thought you might say that! I have a fair assortment of old Stanley planes, but I don't yet have a decent woodworking bench. So fixturing a workpiece for serious hand planing is usually more work for me than just using a machine. But once fixtured, I do enjoy hand planing. I really need to clear space and build a good workbench. I even have the vises for it already.

Just some more playing on a small desktop valet. The basic bookmatched red oak composing the top and sides, was courtesy the SS bandsaw:

Happy Woodworking!

Chris