I have 100 year old fir that I am resawing into planks for the flooring in my house. These boards are up to 14″ wide. 10″ is the widest I am going to try to cut. I don’t want the boards to cup. I am using a 20″ Delta/Rockwell band saw. The blade is 11′-91/2″, .035, the teeth are 2/3 per inch. It seems that the blade gets dull pretty fast causing my cuts to wander. I am thinking of changing out the spring to see if I can get more tension. Someone at Sator, a great blade sharping place in San Francisco, suggested that the belt might be slipping, causing the saw to not cut as efficiently and maybe changing the belt would help.
Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated, thanks, Dave
Replies
wavos, I'd say that after a maximum of about 3-5 boards sawn off a 6' to 10' long plank of a gritty and resinous timber like fir, and at a 10" to 14" deep cut at that, it's about time to fit a new one of those blades. Slainte, RJ.
10" inches is about as wide as I am having any of the planks. The 14" ones I rip down fist. It is good to know that I am not doing anything wrong even thought I might have to have the blade sharpened more often than I excepted.
This was the first time I used this message board and I am SURE it will not be my last! Thanks for all the great help. Dave (Wavos)
You may need to put some 'back' in the blade. It means that the back of the blade is longer than the front (teeth side) of the blade. As a result the blade becomes a section of a cone rather than a section of a cylinder.
At the weld, instead of having a square butt, you grind the ends to some angle and then reweld.
During cutting, friction can cause the front side of the blade to get hot and expand. When this happens the cut will go snaky. This means that front edge thermal expansion is enough so the front of the blade looses its strain (tension). If the back is slightly longer than the linear front edge thermal expansion, the front of the blade will always be strained.
In replacing the blade on the machine, you will have to put some tilt in the top wheel so that it will track right. Be careful and thorough when you do this and make sure you get it right before you power up the saw.
You did not mention the width of your blade
Thanks for the information. This is really new territory for me. They blade is 1".
Edited 9/6/2002 1:03:15 PM ET by wavos
you might want to try using a bimetal blade, as they last a lot longer than a regular carbon blade. if you get a 1" 2 pitch blade, once it dulls you can easily resharpen it on a bench grinder as well. timberwolf recommends putting a lubricant on the blade as well. mix up equal amounts of diesel and chainsaw bar oil and then put it on with a brush while the saw is running, i've found this helps keep pitch from building up and keeps the noise down too. good luck
I have heard that Top Coat is making a lubricating product for band saws.
A little off-topic but...
I've got the same Delta Rockwell 20" A/B and I'm having resaw issues as well. I've changed the blade and belts but it's not cutting well with a 3/4 inch Lenox tri. So I'm interested in this thread, obviously.
I'm hoping I can burden you with a question, though. What type of resaw fence are you using. I'm not confident that the commercially available resaw fences will fit this saw. Do you have any advice? Thanks, Al
on the fence
If you have the original fence for the Delta, you could simply add a tall auxiliary face to support the width of the boards being resawn. Or, make your own L-shaped fence, and c-clamp it to the table. Setting the proper angle in relation to the blade (as opposed to the edge of the table) may require some fiddling, however.
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