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Best Blade For Bandsawing Thin Sheets...?


erikbojerik

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I use 2 bandsaws in my work.....On the 36in saw I use a 1 1/4in blade .042ga with the kerf around 1/8in and 2-3TPI.....here is where I resaw some very heavy and wide stock(20in)......on my 14in I usually use a 1/2in blade(I don't remember the guage).....again, an aggressive blade with 2-3 teeth per inch. The kerf here is also about 1/8in...maybe a little less.

The 1/2in blade on the 14in saw seems to handle any resaw chores that I may have for it with relative ease. Remember, if you are resawing, an aggresive blade works better because it provides ample area for the sawdust and tiny chips to clear and not clog your blade. The blade won't wander around unless it is dull. A 1/4 blade may note give enough stiffness to plow straight through very dense and hard stock without a little trouble. I'd go with the 1/2in blade 2 or 3 TPI. Remember...if you have an underpowered saw, this all may be moot.

Edited by tdog
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I general rule of thumb is that you want at least 3 teeth in the wood at once. When resawing you basically want the smallest amount of teeth possible, though, for chip clearance, And probably a hook blade. Personally, I use a 3/4" blade, but I've had discussions with people that swear a 1/4" blade gives them better results when resawing. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but they've been woodworking 30+ years.

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Yeah, I've had some old timer's tell me they prefer the 1/4in, and there are specialty blades for resawing that are 1/4in, but I have had better results with the 1/2in.....I have my blades custom made, believe it or not, it IS cheaper to go this route. I cut a lot of burl and root balls, so it would not be cost effective to use a 1/4in specialty blade....too much danger of ruining an expensive blade on a tiny rock or sand pocket.

I stay away fromthe 3/4in on my 14in bandsaw because the 1/2 is more versitile for my work...I spend less time changing blades......but I do have the advantage of my 36in saw, which is almost exclusively used for resaw.

After resawing, The wood still needs to be planed to a uniform thickness, I use abrasive sanders, what do you use?

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That depends on the wood. Most of the time I run it through a 15" planer (I have one in the home shop). If it's figured, or I think there's a chance it'll tear out badly, I run it through an aquaintences massive drum sander. I forget the exact size of the thing but it's massive. His shop is where I get most stuff resawed, too (and my wood supplier). My brother works for him, and he's also a close friend of a close friend. Anyway, I'm sure nobody cares about that.

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I suspect that the folks using 1/4 bandsaw blades to resaw were wanting to get a high enough tension on the blade that it couldn't wander in the cut. Some bandsaws don't have enough range of tension adjustment to really tighten up a larger blade. Small/well tensioned is better than big/poorly tensioned.

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I've found it depends on a lot of factors; wood density, wood grain, wood thickness... and the patience of the user. I've seen guys try to shove stuff through a band-saw like they were using a table saw... and then they got mad because the blade didn't cut straight.

It's a thin blade. If you push too fast, it will twist... even a 1/2" blade.

If you're cutting dense thick wood, use a wide blade.

If you want to cut small circles in really thin stuff, use a jig saw.

D~s

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ddgman2001.....Most of the burl I cut is "green".....and not kiln dried. Much of my burl is at least 6 or 8 years old and is fairly dry, ....@10-14% moisture content, but not dried to the point where I'd use it on a guitar without further drying. Most of the burl I use is very stable to begin with, so not much degradation takes place.

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Thanks for all the replies guys. After doing a few tests, I settled on a 1/4" blade with 5-6 teeth per inch, stretched as tight as I dared (93-1/2" blade). This was for resawing laminates for a 9-piece laminated neck for my neck-thru 5-string bass. I started with stock that was no thicker than 2 inches (48" long), and was able to cut some sheets between 0.10" and 0.25" that have a pretty constant thickness, better than +/- 0.01" (measured with digital caliper).

I found that if I went slow and had a good stable fence, the blade didn't wander at all. I think a narrow blade is better in this application; a thicker blade would tend to exaggerate the small amount of wander that inevitably happens, whereas the thinner blade just leaves very narrow ridges that sand right down on a 100-grit belt sander. I was able to do padauk (soft), flame maple & walnut (medium), and even ebony (hard) this way. It worked out great.

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  • 1 month later...

Bumpupdate...I tried a 1/2" blade (looks like 6-7 TPI) on some 6"-wide cocobolo, blade was new and stretched really tight. Everything was OK until I ran into a knot that caused the blade to wander...once it started to wander, there was no turning it back and it eventually came out the side of the piece (4/4 stock). I get the impression that I could have made a mid-course correction with the 1/4" blade...no way with the 1/2" blade.

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some woods are really hard to resaw...

Don't do purple heart it eats blades...

The band saw book is a must if you are going to use the saw a lot.

haha

Thats exactly what I need to do at the moment.

I have a piece of 8/4 that is about 20 by 14 inches. I need to make it 4/4.

I can't find anyone who cam resaw it so I can either cut it down the middle and attempt a bookmatch or plane it down. I really wish I could find somewhere with a saw big enough to resaw the whole thing.

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