Resawing, Bandsaw drift etc

[Blackstar1099]

Hi all. Just wanted to talk about re-sawing

I'm assuming a few of you do your own re-sawing. I'm curious if you've seen the Alex Snodgrass video where he says bandsaws should never drift if they're setup correctly by putting the widest part of the gullet of the blade in the centre of the wheel as opposed the traditional method of centre of the blade on the centre of the wheel.

If you haven't seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU&t=134s

I recently bought a Lugana sheerforce 16mm blade for my Carbatec BAS-350B 14" as I wanted to finally do some re-sawing of back and side sets. I know a 14" is not an ideal size for re-sawing but it's what I bought at the time. I really don't have the budget or room for something better at this time. I cut up some Sapele and Zebrawood with good results. Then I tried some Spruce that I picked up from Matthews Timber recently and the blade started drifting. I didn't touch the setup. I would have thought softer wood would be easier to cut.

I just used the stock fence that came with the carbatec BAS-350 which isn't very tall. I looked around for a re-saw fence that would work with that saw but can't find anything. If any-one has who has that saw and has a decent fence I'd like to hear.

I've also just started looking at the Magswitch resaw guides which allow for any drifting by pivoting on rollers. Any-one tried those?

Piero

[kiwigeo]

I'm assuming a few of you do your own re-sawing. I'm curious if you've seen the Alex Snodgrass video where he says bandsaws should never drift if they're setup correctly by putting the widest part of the gullet of the blade in the centre of the wheel as opposed the traditional method of centre of the blade on the centre of the wheel.

Interesting stuff. My first thoughts without thinking to hard about all this.....even if the blade is placed centrally on the tyre and comes of the tyre with a bit of play the blade passes through the guides before it gets to the wood. Wouldnt properly set up guides correct for the play imparted by running the blade centered on the tyre?

Will definitely look at the set up on my bandie and play with same after watching the video a few more times.

[simso]

All saw blades drift, how much so comes down to initial setup compensation and then it comes down to feeds and speeds as you cut different woods

[kiwigeo]

Sharpness of your blade can be a factor too. Like a lot of ppl Im a skinflint and I tend to push my blades past their use by date.

[peter.coombe]

Even with a properly set up saw, runout can cause drift, especially with hardwoods. If you orient the plank so the runout points away from the fence that can help reduce the drift. Other way around and the drift ends up cutting too thin and you have firewood. Is of course better to have no runout, but that is not always possible.

[lamanoditrento]

you might find this video interesting

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2018/07 ... dsaw-drift

[kiwigeo]

So we now have two schools of bandsaw users...1) blade centred on the tyre or 2) blade gullet centred on the tyre

[Alain Lambert]

This is what I use for a re-saw fence. A short rounded square. You can adjust the piece if the cut want to drift.

[hepikohetaniwha]

One reason why you get drift is that the gullets are filling up before they reach the bottom of the cut. The feed speed needs to be right for the tooth size and the depth of cut.

Different woods have different ‘sawdust expansion factors’- that is, different woods fill the gullets at different rates. Softwoods tend to fill the gullets faster than hardwoods. This may help explain why you got drift with spruce after having none with hardwoods.

[Dave M]

Sharpness of blade is absolutely crucial apart from anything else. Like start with a new one.

Tension has to be right and the blade guides have be set up just right.

Even then a smallish saw with a limited width of blade is always a bit problematic.

[Andos]

Thank you for those setup links.
I have a 14" x 180mm depth of cut modified to 220mm with home made roller guides. It's taken me weeks to learn how to sort the drift out and a 30 min video to find out I've made every setup mistake in the book.
Some lessons are hard learnt!!