The physics of bandsaw resawingThis article also available in Italian
I occasionally get emails from people who have trouble with resawing lumber
on their bandsaw.
To illustrate some of the concepts, I made a simple "model" of a bandsaw blade cutting through wood. I used sawdust on the table to model the board being cut. Each tooth, as it passes through the board, cuts out some wood chips, and carries them out of the cut.
The solution, it would seem, is to cut slower. But as the blade gets slightly dull, the tip of each tooth becomes slightly rounded instead of a perfect point. When the tooth isn't pushed into the wood fast enough, that round causes the tooth to just rub on the edge of the cut instead of biting into the wood. So really slow feed rates only work when the blade is very sharp.
But for very deep cuts, such as when resawing wood that is 30 cm (12") wide, even with a 2 TPI (tooth per inch) blade, there are 24 teeth in the wood at the same time. Those 24 teeth add up to quite a lot of power and feed pressure.
In this "model", the strip of cardboard is the blade, and I'm pushing against it with a steel ruler. Under pressure, the strip of cardboard has a tendency to buckle away from the force. This starts with the front edge of the cardboard buckling sideways. This sideways buckling can be countered by pulling both ends of the cardboard strip so it's really right -- essentially, more blade tension. But even with the blade under tension, once the feed pressure exceeds a certain amount, (what is referred to as the "beam strength" of the blade), it will still want to buckle sideways.
Applying more down force on the saw makes it worse. But adding more tension to the blade make this happen much less.
Some people prefer really wide blades for resawing, but for my purposes, 3/4" has always been wide enough. Even 1/2" wide blades have enough beam strength for resawing if sufficiently tensioned. The 3/4" wide blade on the right is the one I used for cutting up a log. Though I had previously cut up a short log with just a 1/2" 3 TPI blade. With just a 1 HP motor on the saw, but a very sturdy tensioning mechanism, lack of motor power was a bigger limitation than beam strength of the blade. If you find that your blade has gotten too dull to resaw, that doesn't mean the blade is too dull for other work. Once the blade is too dull to cut through 30 cm (12") of material, it will still cut through 15 cm (6") of material just fine. You will have an easier time resawing if you cut your boards to the width you need them before resawing.
Metal fatigueYou may worry about damaging the blade from over-tensioning, but it's just about impossible to over-tension a 1/2" blade with most bandsaws. You will damage the saw before you damage the blade. But too little tension can also lead to blade breakage, as the blade maybe forced around some tight bends near the blade guides. Tight bends cause stress and metal fatigue, leading to cracking between the teeth and blade breakage. If you see cracks in multiple places on your blades, that's metal fatigue.Too heavy a blade around too small a wheel will cause the blade to fail from prematurely from metal fatigue. If you run a blade meant for a portable sawmill around 14" (35 cm) wheels or smaller, don't expect it to last very long. I'm pushing the limits with my 14" bandsaw/sawmill, but I don't use sawmill blades on it either. On that topic this guys YouTube video is interesting. He's using a sawmill blade on 14" wheels. Bound to fail eventually. A blade guard wouldn't hurt either! "Low tension" bladesThere are companies that sell so called "low tension blades". I don't understand what the magic of these blades is supposed to be. Any metal that is mostly iron will have nearly the same Young's modulus (resistance to elastic deformation), and the same physics applies. I'm pretty sure the whole low tension thing is just a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo. That said, nothing wrong with buying a low tension blade, just make sure you put enough tension on it. Remember, except for the narrowest blades, the blade can withstand more tension than your saw can give it!
Frequently asked bandsaw questions See also: More about bandsaws |