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so all this time I thought it was rock birdseye because perhaps it grew near rocks?


mistermikev

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turns out it's hard as a rock.  roughed out a neck blank from some birdseye I have... my first experience cutting birdseye and man this stuff is super hard.  not at all like the flamed maple I've been working with mostly. 

my bandsaw was too close to the wall to get all the way thru so like I've done many times before i carefully shut down my bandsaw, waited for it to stop, and tried to back out the piece (I know, should have made relief cuts but wanted the leftovers in one piece).  well, my bandsaw was bound up pretty good on the piece.  I carefully tried to spread it a bit and finally got it out but in the process I think I bent a fairly new timber wolf blade. 

when I start my saw up again it's "jumping" forward regularly.  Wondering - am I screwed?  blade still seems to work good but it's probably a bit dangerous cause if it jumps into a knot it could be problematic.  What say you?  take it off, look for the uneven spot and try to hit it with a hammer/straighten?  I'm guessing I've knocked my saw out of wack too but I think I read somewhere that when it jumps like that there is likely a bad weld or a slight malformation in the blade.

I guess going fwd I have to make relief cuts or risk ruining a blade?

thanks for any/all advice and/or shoulders.

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You've put a kink in the blade, probably on the weld, there should only be one weld though. I did this exact same thing a month or so ago. but I carried on using the blade until it broke a couple of weeks later, I just didn't cut quite as close to account for the extra kerf that's created by the kink. When it breaks, you will probably find that it breaks on the weld too, that's always the weak spot.

If you run in to trouble and have to back out, it's best to put a wedge in at the end to keep the gap open for the blade. I find headstock breakangle offcuts are perfect for this, used one to wedge my maple top while I was book-matching it last night actually. May be of interest, the blade I've got on my bandsaw at the moment is an axeminster "back-toothed" blade, it's awesome at going around corners and if you need to backup, it will just back out like a knife in butter, you just have to make sure that you're cutting on the right side of your line on the way back.

An assumption I've been making lately.. The more timber pinches when resawing, the more tension there is in the board and the more likely you are to see some movement, especially in your neck blank 😮 Give it a good few days to do what it's going to do.

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I've done that before too. Unplug your saw and set a small block of wood behind your blade and slowly turn it by hand till you locate the problem area. It will be where the blade moves forward off that block of wood. I've had the bends be almost unfindable, in which case it is gradual and you should be able to run the blade for a while.....until you get tired of the rougher cut the blade leaves. I've also found a crack in a blade and a bend that forms a mild crease. If you find either of those throw the blade away, or make a rasp out of it, but don't saw with it.

And yes, rock maple is damn hard.

SR

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8 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

You've put a kink in the blade, probably on the weld, there should only be one weld though. I did this exact same thing a month or so ago. but I carried on using the blade until it broke a couple of weeks later, I just didn't cut quite as close to account for the extra kerf that's created by the kink. When it breaks, you will probably find that it breaks on the weld too, that's always the weak spot.

If you run in to trouble and have to back out, it's best to put a wedge in at the end to keep the gap open for the blade. I find headstock breakangle offcuts are perfect for this, used one to wedge my maple top while I was book-matching it last night actually. May be of interest, the blade I've got on my bandsaw at the moment is an axeminster "back-toothed" blade, it's awesome at going around corners and if you need to backup, it will just back out like a knife in butter, you just have to make sure that you're cutting on the right side of your line on the way back.

An assumption I've been making lately.. The more timber pinches when resawing, the more tension there is in the board and the more likely you are to see some movement, especially in your neck blank 😮 Give it a good few days to do what it's going to do.

only had this bandsaw for 6mos so... I guess this is the price of learning.  next time I'll be a lot more gentle with it altho I was pretty gentle.  I used a chisel to separate the cut a bit after I figured out that I should do that... admittedly I was just trying to work it back and forth before that and I think that is where I went wrong. 

axeminster - seems reasonably priced.  might have to give em a shot.  I paid about $35 for the timberwolf and it really hasn't been used that much so kinda bummed.  could have been worse I s'pose. 

when my blade bound up I thought the same thing about it perhaps being a bit wet... but this stuff has been in my garage here in az for 7 or 8 months and the other pieces I cut out of it (made one neck) have not moved at all so... I hope it had more to do with cutting 2" material with a 1/4" blade... probably a bad combo.  either way - yup... gonna have to give it a bit before I go further.

anywho thanks for the advice.

 

7 hours ago, ScottR said:

I've done that before too. Unplug your saw and set a small block of wood behind your blade and slowly turn it by hand till you locate the problem area. It will be where the blade moves forward off that block of wood. I've had the bends be almost unfindable, in which case it is gradual and you should be able to run the blade for a while.....until you get tired of the rougher cut the blade leaves. I've also found a crack in a blade and a bend that forms a mild crease. If you find either of those throw the blade away, or make a rasp out of it, but don't saw with it.

And yes, rock maple is damn hard.

SR

thank you for the great tip on the checking the blade.  will def do before I use it again. 

re rock maple... I had no idea it was this hard.  pretty heavy by comparison too.  hope that translates to really rigid. 

 

thank you both for the responses!

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I've only been using a bandsaw for about a year myself and I'm on my 6th blade. I have tried some of the premium titanium blades but they break just as easily at the welds, so I put it down to user error. In fact I've made the same mistake as you, resawing 2" hardwood with a 1/4" blade. I would recommend you move your workshop around though so it isn't backed up against the wall. I've got mine side on to the wall so it doesn't take up too much space but the work is free to push all the way through.

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46 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

I've only been using a bandsaw for about a year myself and I'm on my 6th blade. I have tried some of the premium titanium blades but they break just as easily at the welds, so I put it down to user error. In fact I've made the same mistake as you, resawing 2" hardwood with a 1/4" blade. I would recommend you move your workshop around though so it isn't backed up against the wall. I've got mine side on to the wall so it doesn't take up too much space but the work is free to push all the way through.

true dat.  that's what I get for not wanting to change the blade!  yeah, def a mistake to have it close to the wall to.  all good advice.

 

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