Resaw blade

[Moretzmando]

My wonderful wife allowed me to find my own Christmas present. I found a Frank and Co 26" band saw and am in the process of getting it up and going. I'm dedicating it to resawing and am looking for coil stock to silver solder my own blades. I found a lots of stock on fleabay. One coil was Burton 5/8" .016" 3 tpi. Googling it revealed its probably for sawing meat. Will it still work for wood or should I look elsewhere? I've read that most people who have done a lot of resawing, like a narrower band because it doesn't want to skew as bad and removes less material. Ideas?

[Moretzmando]

Sorry using my phone, don't know how to rotate image.

[sunburst]

For re-sawing, we need proper blade tension. The wider the blade, the more tension required to maintain straight cuts. Looks like your saw frame is strong enough to properly tension a fairly wide blade, but even so, I never use a blade wider than 3/4" for re-sawing in my 30" saw though it will accept blades up to 1 1/2" wide.
More in a bit...

[Moretzmando]

Thanx John! Looking forward to more. Any reason the meat blade wouldn't work? Really narrow kerf would be nice. John, any chance I could pay a visit one day and pay you to resaw some one piece Sitka tops? Not really sure how to resaw from a rough split wedge.

[sunburst]

More...
Power.
How much power do you have? For re-sawing, extra power is nice, but not really necessary if we have the proper blade. The more teeth we have cutting at any one time, the more power it takes, so if we're sawing 12" lumber and we have 3 tpi, we have 36 teeth cutting at one time. If we have 1" tooth spacing we have 12 teeth cutting at one time. It takes less power to drag 12 cutting teeth through the wood than to drag 36 teeth through the wood.
I use blades with 3/4" tooth spacing for re-sawing.
Blade angle:
Two angles to be concerned with: hook angle and rake angle. Hook angle is the angle of the face of the tooth and rake angle is the angle of the back slope of the tooth. Basically, the hook angle should be less (closer to 90 degrees) for harder wood and for wider wood whereas it should be more (more hook) for softer wood and narrower wood. For re-sawing you want a fairly steep hook angle and a fairly long rake angle, but it depends on the wood being sawed, the width of the cut, the power of the saw, and so forth.
As you can see, it is a compromise, and we tend to err on the side of less hook then we can get away with.
I don't know what the blade geometry is for the meat saw blades, but I suspect it is not ideal for re-sawing wood, and if I were you, I would look into suppliers of blade stock intended for re-sawing.

Send me a PM If you're in the area and would like to stop by.

[Moretzmando]

Thank you. Part of restoring this saw is getting a vfd. The guy I bought it from had 3 phase power. The motor is 3ph 3hp.

[Moretzmando]

On my watch list. The bi metal option seems like a great deal, but can it be silver soldered? I also have a do all blade welder on the machine, but it's currently not working. Suggestions?
100' rolls
Nicholson 1"x2tpi .035 skip carbon
Lenox 3/4"x4tpi skip flex
"" 3/4"x3tpi skip neo
"" 3/4"x3tpi hook flex
"" 1"x3tpi hook neo
Starrett 1"x3tpi hook .035
Barnes 1 1/4"x3tpi .035
Morse 1"x3tpi .035 carbon
Disston 1"x2tpi .035 carbon

250'
Nicholson 1 1/4"X1.3tpi .042 hook carbon
"" 1 1/4"x2/3tpi .042 bimetal

[MikeEdgerton]

Let's see if this fixes your image. That is a big band saw

[Moretzmando]

Let's see if this fixes your image. That is a big band saw

Close! lol

[Moretzmando]

So you like a 3/4" blade with 1.3tpi John?

[Lynn Dudenbostel]

I've had wonderful results with the Wood Slicer blades from Highland Woodworking in Atlanta. They are made specifically for resawing. They come in 1/2" and 3/4". They have a variable pitch to the teeth to help cut down harmonic vibration, thin kerf, impulse hardened teeth. A friend who processes a lot of instrument wood uses these on his Laguna bandsaws and highly recommends them. I bought a Hitachi resaw and plan to replace the 3" stellite tipped blade with a WoodSlicer.

[sunburst]

So you like a 3/4" blade with 1.3tpi John?

Yes, that configuration has served me well. Take into consideration that for re-sawing big stuff, I generally use my Woodmizer sawmill, so I don't re-saw over about 12" or so width on the bandsaw. Those who re-saw lots of guitar top, back and side sets usually go with a blade with a smoother cut and a thinner kerf, much like the blades Lynn mentioned. There are several good brands. My 3/4" blades are welded from blade stock. I used to be able to get them made for me just down the road in Lynchburg Va., but Lynchburg isn't just down the road anymore, so I'll soon be seeking a new source.

[Matt Harris]

I use the Wood Slicer blades from Highland, like Lynn. They've worked well for my purposes, but I'm far from a 'power user', just a hobbyist. Also, you might want to check with them, but I'm not sure they sell by the coil. They'll make one of just about any length, but I don't think 'entire coil' is an option.

[MANNDOLINS]

Another vote for the wood slicer.. I put one on my old delta with riser block and it cuts 12" maple like butter.. I wish they made a 1/4" version for regular sawing work.

[j. condino]

Nice! Big bandsaws get me sooooooooooo much more excited than another 1000 response thread about picks and fretwire!

The blade I chose really depends upon the material I'm cutting. No matter what blade I use, Brazilian rosewood and similar high oil and resin content woods seem to gum up and wreck the blade very fast, so with those I go for a simple fair priced blade and change it often. For easier woods like mahogany, maple, and spruce, I'll go with a higher quality blade where it tends to wear out over time rather than gunk up and cause havoc from friction.

My main comment is on using a vfd. I run my 30" Yates on a dedicated 220v 30 amp line and use a big Hitachi VFD. The Htachi is expensive, but extremely reliable. If you cheap out and try to get by with a $150 Chinese model, you run probably a 50% risk that it will burn up very fast- the failure rate on them is high. When shopping for vfds, pay attention to the amp rating, not the horsepower. A 3 hp motor will often be between two different vfd ratings, but remember that while they can usually handle 50% more amperage, the draw on startup is huge. I have a 3hp motor on mine but it weight almost 300 lbs and was made by the Allis Chambers aircraft company. The saw came out of the old WACO biplane factory.

Many people look at a vfd only as a power conversion issue, but they offer so much more. I have vfds on my big bandsaw, my spinlde sander and my big edge sander, all for control and speed as the primary reason, power conversion being low down the list. My big saw has an imbalance at around 60 hz, so I dial the vfd down to about 50-52 hz and everything disappears and it will pass the nickle test. It is also great when I make a big cut and run into an inclusion or some other issue and I can reach over and dial the cut speed down (or up) on the middle of a big cut. I also change the display so I can measure the draw on the motor to keep everything running smooth and not over load the system or blow the big breaker. All of this allows me to fine tune it too very precise levels. As a mandolin builder, it is no big deal, but I also build upright basses. Using this setup and just a $30 blade form my local sawshop, I can cut .050" slices of mahogany and curly maple at 18" wide; the online guys want close to $300 for a 204" x 1" blade.

Stop by sometime and check it out; almost twice as many people own Loar signed F5s than Y30 snowflakes!

j.
www.condino.com
www.kaybassrepair.com

[Moretzmando]

I'd like to thank all you guys for your support on this site and elsewhere. I was by your shop some time ago James and I'd love to come back. I'd like to watch you, John, or the Dude do some resawing. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around resawing from a quartered wedge while keeping the cuts as dead quarter as possible. I'm guessing there are a few straight planks to cut into 1 pc tops and wedges in between to make 2 piece tops out of? Anyway I finally got out of the collision shop and am now working 5:30pm to 4:00am painting ambulances. I have all day Friday, Saturday, and some Thursdays to travel. Any invites? Don't make me beg, I will. LOL

[Bluetickhound]

Really need a resaw capable bandsaw... The one Marty has (Ryobi BS-360) would be perfect for my uber-small workspace but I have had no luck whatsoever finding another one... I have a few billets of wood that I can't do anything with... My Rikon 10" bench top model isn't abLe to get it done, that's 'fo shizzle....

[j. condino]

A nice old art deco Walker Turner 16" bandsaw went for $200 on the Spartanburg Craigslist this morning. I missed it by three minutes; luckily I already have one.

[Moretzmando]

Really need a resaw capable bandsaw... The one Marty has (Ryobi BS-360) would be perfect for my uber-small workspace but I have had no luck whatsoever finding another one... I have a few billets of wood that I can't do anything with... My Rikon 10" bench top model isn't abLe to get it done, that's 'fo shizzle....

Any interest in selling those billets?

[Bluetickhound]

No... Not until they (eventually) become completed instruments any way!! The redwood I got from Ken is really intriguing to me. I have been scouring the archives for tips on how to do it justice...