Resawing on bandsaw, which side of blade bulk of material?

[Tetsuaiga]

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.

If you are taking say 1/4" off a 2" board would you be better off having the 1 + 3/4 part be up against the fence or the 1/4" piece.

I get the feeling it's better to have the large part up against the fence but not entirely sure why that is.

 

[Ttrees]

Depends if you've got a driftmaster or not
You could always make a jig for taking off a certain thickness either.

 

[Orraloon]

With the bandsaw its whatever you are comfortable with. Well for me anyway. My usual resaw method is the offcut at the fence if making more than one. That way you dont have to reset the fence for every cut.
Regards
John

 

[Alexam]

I always try and have the fence as close to blade as possible for stability. Sometimes this may be difficult with small/fine timber because of the guides, but then I put a level wood strip between the fence and the work .
Malcolm

 

[Beau]

I prefer to have the thickest piece against the fence so the thinner section can curve away without restriction but it's not always convenient.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I would say the piece you are keeping should be between the fence and the blade. If you were doing multiple cuts you would set the fence once and all the pieces should come off the same size. This also means if the timber wasn't of equal thickness before band sawing at least the keeper should come out parallel leaving the waste piece the odd shape.

Face side to fence or bed is the old way for good reason.

Cheers Peter

 

[Droogs]

I tend to use a single point pivot attached to the fence, set at just over the thickness I want. Gauge a line on the top of the board and highlight it with black or yellow gel pen as a guideline. The pivot point is a length of brass rod epoxied into a 60 deg pointed block 3" deep, this gives plenty of wiggle room to guide the board as it's pushed through.


Edit to add :- I prepare the face side of each "leaf" before it is put through the saw, with the face to run over the pivot point

 

[custard]

I've wrestled with this question a fair bit, I regularly prepare my own saw cut veneers and having the veneer next to the fence isn't ideal because in last third or so of the cut you've often got this big lump of unsupported timber waving around to the right of the blade.

I tried a third party fence which is geared and accurate to better than a tenth of a mill, the wheel on the end of the supporting rail cranks the fence in or out,

the thinking being the veneer would fall away to the right of the blade and the heavier donor board would be secure against the fence. It kind of worked, but there's one problem. I normally plane or thickness the sawn face of the donor board between cutting each piece of veneer, so at least one veneer face will be a smooth reference or glue surface. The veneers are then run through a drum sander to clean them up and bring them down to final thickness. But adjusting the bandsaw fence a pre-determined distance between cuts meant I couldn't plane between cuts, planing doesn't remove a consistent thickness of material so both faces of the veneer ended up with bandsaw marks. This in turn resulted in many more passes through the drum sander. Given that drum sanders are very slow machines this largely negates the benefit of having a geared fence!

Bottom line, there's no perfect solution, or if there is I haven't found it!

 

[Tetsuaiga]

Some interesting points. Thanks. I did think a hand cranked method would be good.

I don't quite understand Peters point, unless you're saying in your example the piece of wood is only planed and not bothered with thicknessing for whatever reason.

Custard couldn't you just move the fence with piece next to it till it touches the blade, then turn the wheel however much you needed? (re-planing thicknessing/sanding)

 

[Hornbeam]

I was just cutting some bandsawn veneers on Sunday so this is right on time. I always set the veneer to be the distance between the fence and the blade as this ensures consistent thickness for each slice and the the thicker part of the board gives better guarding to the blade.
Unfortunately I had to recut a strip having damage one of teh originals. The fence was not quite exact so the replacement was slightly thicker. This them causes problems when pressing (Ok if using a vac bag).(I put a layer of corrugated card to compress and take up any fractional thickness difference
I dont prepare the back of the veneer and simply glue the bandsawn face down but I do make sure I have a very sharp blade and I am using a big bandsaw with an 1 1/4 blade so the cut is very clean. A vell set up saw and a sharp blade are critical to good deep sawing

Ian

 

[Honest John]

For what it’s worth, here is my two penorth. I’ve cut veneers from both sides of the board with success, however I favour having the cut piece against the fence so that readjustment is not necessary. My bandsaw is well set up to cut true to the fence which is set to be parallel to the slots on the surface of the table. A sharp blade gives a good finish, which in any case goes under a drum sander to finish to final thickness. If necessary using a sled to stick the veneer to. But as has already been said, either side will work.

 

[johnf]

Is a single point fence a better way or not

 

[Orraloon]

A single point fence will be better than a strait fence that has no adjustment for drift. Most fences that come with bandsaws are fixed unless you fork out big wads of folding. The fence that came with my saw is OK for general rough work if I can tune most of the blade drift out but is never ideal. When I saw this clip I built one right away. Works way better than the factory fence and cost just some scrap bits of wood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpbwH9510MY
Regards
John

 

[Peter Sefton]

Is a single point fence a better way or not

My feeling is a single point is better if you are suffering from drift, but the question is why do you have drift? I only suffer from drift if I have a blunt blade or it has less set on one side than the other.

I think setting up your band saw well and using sharp blades is the way to go, you should then be able to cut a whole manor of joints and ripping cuts using the standard fence.

I have just posted a video clip on one of my FaceBook pages showing me cutting veneer with a standard fence.

https://www.facebook.com/peterseftonfurnitureschool/

Cheers Peter

 

[custard]

I dont prepare the back of the veneer and simply glue the bandsawn face down

:shock:

 

[Hornbeam]

If I had a thickness sander then I probably would sand both faces. The problem with planing is if you are doing a book match or have very wild grain. I would always check the surface prior to gluing. The issue is not whether it is rough but that it is consistent.
For laminating I would generally plane/thickness to get tighter joint lines
Regarding the point vs std fence I have made the angle of my fence adjustable so I can account for any lead. A point fence does this but can lack directional stability and takes more skill/concentration, I would try and establish what is causing a lead but its personal preferene

Ian