[Woodworkers] Resawing

[chuck.steger at gmail.com]

I’m going to respond to my own post and ask a question. I made 2 changes, I
cut the width of the board down  and used my other BS with a ¾” 3 tpi hook
tooth blade (different BS blade lengths so different blade). This worked.
But, I noticed when I cut the wide board, it cut fast and easy (albeit,
drifting) and the new cut was on the line but cut slower. I had to the clean
the blade with a brass brush after each cut because the saw dust from the
rosewood was caked on the blade. Tedious but worth the effort to get a good
clean cut (no drift at all). 

So the question is, if you over tension a blade does that cause drift?
Because my only 2 culprits are blade sharpness and tension, right?

 

Chuck

 

From: chuck.steger at gmail.com <chuck.steger at gmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2021 9:59 AM
To: woodworkers at sawdusters.org
Subject: Resawing

 

I have a couple of band saws where I keep a ¼” blade on one and a ½” blade
for resawing on the other (yeah, lazy!). In the past I would use a wider
blade for resawing but really liked the ½” 6 TPI blade so I kept it on.
Yesterday I was resawing a 11” wide by 14” long piece of Bolivian Rosewood
(real dense wood). I used the ½” blade and it was slow going but never
drifted and cut beautifully. In fact, that’s why I use this blade – no
drift. However, when I was finished and looked at the blade, the gullets
were full, the blade was caked with saw dust and I honestly was surprised it
did so well. So, I changed to a ¾” 3 TPI hook tooth blade. It cut much
faster and easier but drifted like a son of a gun. In fact, it drifted so
badly, it ruined the piece. The good news is I needed a thinner piece, so
that became the thinner piece. But, when I was sanding both pieces on the
drum sander it was obvious how badly it drifted. Because the previous blade
cut to the line with no drift, I could cut 1/16” over my finished thickness.
However, with the ¾” blade, I couldn’t. So, I marked a ½” line to get a
finished 3/8” thickness. As I monitored the cut, it was drifting so badly, I
had to stop or it would have cut into my 3/8” thickness. BTW, it drifted at
the bottom and I was monitoring the top which is why I didn’t see it the
first time.

So, all that to ask why the drift? Is the blade not sharp enough (I had used
it before so maybe dull?), not tensioned enough, or ???? I think it was
tensioned enough but I still throw it out there as a question. Why would the
½” cut so beautifully and the ¾” cut so badly? I cleaned up the ½” and was
tempted to put it back on but I don’t want to because it’s really not
designed to do what I was doing.

One thing I’m going to try today it to cut the 11” width down to a narrower
piece (that I would need anyway) and try resawing a narrower piece.

I ordered new blades but, of course, they won’t be here for a few days and I
want to resaw today.

 

Chuck

 

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