use the right blade...
tighten the band a fuzz..
tall fence.. make or buy one.. google is your friend..
is EVERYTHING copacetic???

Bandsaw Resawing Tips
The physics of bandsaw resawing

 

Buy a Laguna.

 

in at least a 16 Italian made...

 

Kreg has a nice bandsaw fence. I bought one and mounted it on my new old Minimax S45 bandsaw. The Kreg kit comes with a fence only long enough for a 14 inch saw which should work for you. I had to buy a longer fence for mine since I have a 20 inch table.

You should not have drift but the above fence will adjust for it.

Woodcraft had them on sale for $107. I think you can find them on eBay for that same price.

 

The 16 inch Laguna (Italian made) is a dream machine. A friend and I went down to Laguna and he bought one there. Incredible engineering in that thing. But too rich for my occasional-user blood. The 14/twelve is an excellent machine for the money, takes a 3/4 inch resaw blade and cuts straight up to 13 inches high. Not cheap compared to a couple of other bandsaws, but I think from my research that it is far and away the best machine for the money. Of course, there are differing opinions, but this is mine.

 

I had a 14" grizzly and upgraded to the LT16 sometime ago for about 3 time the cost of a grizzly and never looked back.

 

Buy a 3/4" resaw blade, probably 4TPI. Dump the factory fence, you will need to make a simple fence. You will need to set the fence to the drift angle for your saw, plenty of youtube vids on that. That saw will easily resaw, just take your time cutting. I would suggest youtube woodwisperer, he has some good ones on bandsaws.

 

I am very happy with my 14" Grizzly with riser block. I use Highland's Woodslicer Wood Slicer Resaw Bandsaw Blade | Bandsaw Blades. for resawing. I follow Snodgras's set up video https://www.google.com/search?q=snodgrass+bandsaw&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8. The fence on my Grizzly is "adjustable" There are 4 set screws where the blade of the fence attaches to the base. There is enough play to adjust it. I am very satisfied with my Grizzly and am doubtful that I would be three times happier with spending three times the money.
I did replace the guide bearings. When I took them to the bearing supply house, there is one local, the counterman shared that the Grizzly had a good quality Taiwanese bearing but they stocked the best quality made in Italy.

 

I made a simple fence out of MDF and shot some sealer on it for a little slicker finish, works great. I've posted this before but here's a video of it in action -

 

I have no complaints with my Grizz so far. Great machine for the price. In fact, I think I'm gonna spent the $$ for a riser. Make a higher fence and use a 3/4 or 1" blade and it should slice most anything you want it to.

HJ

Gotta find the time to do this .. ..... and the $$

 

Hello John. I like my Grizzly also and I have no plans to buy another saw. I put a riser on mine. It's pretty easy to do.

 

You may not be able to get a 1" blade to track properly. I have an 18" saw and I can put an 1 1/4" blade on it but I can't center it like Alex Snodgrass shows on his YouTube video. It would be too far back for both the guides and the backing plates. I should also mention that I exceeded the manufacturer's recommendations thinking that I knew better.

 

I think the wider blade and a good tuning (youtube Alex Snodgrass), plus tall fence. Here's Snodgrass's video, really helped me.

 

I think the wider blade and a good tuning (youtube Alex Snodgrass), plus tall fence. Here's Snodgrass's video, really helped me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU

Thanks Tom. I saved that link so I can go over it when I get back into the shop and check out my Grizz.

 

@honesttjohn Grizzly sells the riser on its site. It is the same one you can use with modifications on the Delta. Different ones for different saws and it comes in a kit with the blade guard. Here are all versions listed on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...ias=aps&field-keywords=grizzly+riser+block&sprefix=Grizzly+riser+block,aps,1475

 

I have a grizzly 14" bandsaw, and have used it to resaw successfully on MANY occasions. You don't need to replace the saw, or go to a lot of extra expense to accomplish what you are doing. It may surprise you, but I use the sock fence, and a 1/4" 6TPI blade to do so. The blade is a timberwolf blade. I have used this setup to resaw the full 6" capacity (I don't have a riser block, and no plans to get one) The key to doing a successful resaw is to let the blade remove the material. Do not push the work piece through too fast.

Here is the process I use to resaw a board into two work pieces:

1. Flatten both sides of the board. Being parallel at this point is not critical, as that is taken care of at a later step. This can be done with a jointer or hand planes.
2. Make sure blade is properly tightened AND tracking correctly. The tracking is the critical component here. If your blade isn't tracking right, it doesn't matter how wide the blade is, it isn't going to resaw well.
3. Set the fence so the blade is centered on the work piece. Note, you will want the two pieces to be reasonably thicker than the final dimension.
4. Make the cut. USE A PUSH BLOCK. While a tall fence would be nice (one can be easily made), I use a push block on the table to keep the work piece firmly to the fence. Again, this is NOT a race. Take your time and let the blade remove the waste material.
5. Off the band saw, you have two boards that have a flat face. Use a planer to make the rough face smooth and parallel to the flat face, and then bring to your final dimension.
6. Edge joint one side of each board.
7. Cut to width.
8. The work pieces are ready to incorporate into your project

One piece of advice, resawn boards do tend to be a bit more prone to movement as you have likely released some internal stresses. Try to get them into whatever glue-up you are doing for them the same day you resaw them, or take other measures to keep them flat until you are ready to use them.

 

My fence.

 

Don, you've gotten some good suggestions and Mike's step by step is well done. I also have a Grizzly 14" with a riser block. The widest board that I've resawn was 9". Most of my resaw is 6" or less. I made a couple of jigs to help. The first is a convertible resaw fence with both a 3" and 6" high faces. The first three pictures show each fence face and how they're held together. The fourth picture shows how it's attached to the Grizzly fence. Actually, there's another quick clamp at the other end of the fence but I just attached it at one end for the picture. The blue tape is to fix the angle to exactly 90 degrees. As best as I tried to make it exact, it was off a hair so the tape corrects this. The last picture shows another jig that is used for point pressure. Some people just use this as a pivot point to free hand the cut but I'm not that talented so I use it put pressure against the work piece to hold it against the shop made resaw fence. When this is set up correctly, with the blade 90 degrees to the table and parallel to the fence it provides a very even cut. The 9" board barely measured 1/64" off from top to bottom and the the thickness planner evened that out. As others have pointed out, make sure your cut leaves you enough thickness to plane it down to final size. The larger band saw blades (I have both 1/2" and 3/4") leave a rough finish.

Hope this helps.

 

This thread begs a question that I just have to ask. The only bandsaw that I have ever had any experience with is my 17" Grizzly and after doing the Snodgrass drill it cuts with zero drift. In this thead the subject is basically about a 14" saw. Is the conclusion that the Snodgrass set up will not work on a 14" saw?

Seems to me with my limited experience that a 14" saw should work with the right blade if it sharp and the set up is as Alex suggests, but I don't know and that is why I'm asking.

Jerry

 

Jerry...I have a 14" Rikon (10-325) and Alex's method works great. I switch blades all the time (cheez...only one bandsaw) and with his initial setup, it's a snap...I have never had a problem resawing (or veneer) straight as an arrow with the stock fence.

 

Saw size shouldn't make a difference Jerry.

 

C'mon Chuck, size matters.

 

Since everyone has an opinion, here's mine. I bought a 17" Grizzly @ their tent sale, it was pretty well beat up, table was busted doors dented... I brought it home and cleaned it up, the next year at the tent sale they had MY table all by its lonesome and I snagged it. I use a 3/4" Wood Slicer blade from Highland wood working and I can make consistent 1/8" or thinner flitches. I am very happy with both my saw and the blade. DesertRatTom earlier posted a link to Alex Snodgrass's video, be sure to watch it and take notes, it made all the difference for me.

 

Well, the comments made in regard to my question about re-sawing with a 14" saw and using the Snodgrass set up are what I expected as Alex implied that his method was not restricted to any particular size saw and that "size was not an issue" when it come to bandsaws, he did not speak to any other "devices".

With that said why would anybody ever need t second party fence unless they are not familiar with what Alex says to do with their bandsaw? Ummmmmmm


Jerry

 

Jerry, the only reason for an auxiliary fence, in my experience, is to provide stability when resawing wide boards. The fence that came with my Grizzly 14" is only 2 1/2 inches high. For me to resaw that 9" board I mentioned in my previous post I used a 6" high fence to provide the support to keep the board parallel to the blade through the entire cut and not wobble. If I tried a board that wide free hand or even with a point fence, with my hands, i'd never keep it perfectly straight and vertical. Would take a lot more milling to get it right. For narrower boards, 4" or less, I use the fence that came with the saw along with the point fence positioned about 1" before the blade.

 

Barry,
Of course that makes sense, my saw came with a tall re-saw fence and since I have never used or even seen a 14" saw I over looked the fact that they do not come standard with a taller fence for re-sawing.

Jerry

 

I had a blue 14 inch Rikon bandsaw with the bigger motor than the green version. I cut some small pecan and oak veneers with a 1/2 inch Timberwolf blade and thought I was at the limit of the saw using Alex Snodgrass's video. The table was too high and small for me feeding small logs. I decided a wanted a lower tabled bandsaw which would match my table saw and outfeed table height. I needed extra support to help with the small logs I was pushing through. I found an 22 year old S45 Minimax bandsaw. They call it an 18 inch bandsaw. It has a much bigger table which is lower. It tensions much better than my old Rikon and will run a larger blade well. The S45 is the light weight Minmax bandsaw. I am sure the others are even better. This Italian bandsaw runs very smooth.

The Kreg after market bandsaw fence is a very nice smooth fence. I did not get the fence when I bought my S45 bandsaw.

 

I haven't looked too closely at Snodgrass's videos. From my experience, cutting a good straight cut (rips and resaw) comes down to a few basic things:

1. A consistently sharp blade. The teeth on the blade are set out slightly in opposing direction. If one side of the set gets duller than the opposing, you will get drift.
2. Proper Tracking. I keep my solid part of the blade centered on the wheel, so that the teeth are digging into the crown. My focus is more on the top wheel, since that is the wheel that will have most impact on the cut. If the blade stays center on the top wheel, this indicates that the bottom wheel is also in alignment.
3. A consistently sharp blade.
4. Proper tension. Each band saw AND band saw blade is different in regards to the tension requirements. Once thing I will say is that the tension gauge included on the band saw is mostly useless.
5. A consistently sharp blade.
6. If your saw has wheel bearings, they should only just slightly touch the blade.

Band saw blade setup can be VERY subjective. In the end, if it works for you, and its not a safety risk, go for it. The setup above works well for me. The fence on my band saw is parallel to the blade, and I do not get drift. When I do start to get drift, in most cases it is because half the blade is duller than the other, and I will simply replace it.

 

I don't understand Mike. How can one half of a band saw blade be dull and the other half not?

 

So when resawing veneers do you put the thin piece inside the blade or outside? I have seen examples both ways.

 

For the sake of consistency, veneer in, then you're not moving the fence with each cut.

 

Thanks guys now I understand.