Ian
Established Member
Hi
I’ve been struggling with a Rexon bandsaw for some time trying to resaw wood over 5” width but it struggled and that was even with a new blade. Considering it is a small bandsaw it didn’t do to bad, but it was time for an upgrade, and as I was also wanting to cut more of my own veneers, I invested in an Axminster 4300 bandsaw .
It had a good motor size, good guides and good fence. I bought some ripple sycamore and wanted to cut some veneers of a piece which was 8” wide. I put on a new 1” blade and it cut pretty well but dulled reasonably quickly. So I searched for a TCT blade - not much luck - then I posted a message here a while back and got quite a bit of info, especially from Scrit who pointed me in the right direction – thank you.
He advised me to purchase a ½” 3tpi lennox tri-master as anything wider than half an inch would not be able to be tensioned on my bandsaw. I got in touch with a company close by (Lister Machine Tools, Belfast) and they ordered me one.
£82.50 - that included delivery and personal tensioning by the rep as well as a valuable lesson on how to fold it.
The blade was tensioned to 27000 psi
I made a fence from birch ply and faced it with melamine
I have used feather boards before but found there was too much drag
so I took the bearings of my lathe steady and it worked a treat
My push stick fitted in between nicely - no need for my fingers to be there
It cut 5 1/2" walnut with ease - the results were a nice bookmatch
No problems with 6" ripple sycamore
The blade doesn't wander at all - I was consistently able to cut 1mm veneers.
It would not be very cost effective if you don't use your saw that often but if you want to cut veneers regularly it is, in my view, worth the cost.
Resharpening - £30 - I hoping to get it done once a year but only time will tell.
I used to go through about 5 1" blades at about £20 each per year.
All the best
Ian
I’ve been struggling with a Rexon bandsaw for some time trying to resaw wood over 5” width but it struggled and that was even with a new blade. Considering it is a small bandsaw it didn’t do to bad, but it was time for an upgrade, and as I was also wanting to cut more of my own veneers, I invested in an Axminster 4300 bandsaw .
It had a good motor size, good guides and good fence. I bought some ripple sycamore and wanted to cut some veneers of a piece which was 8” wide. I put on a new 1” blade and it cut pretty well but dulled reasonably quickly. So I searched for a TCT blade - not much luck - then I posted a message here a while back and got quite a bit of info, especially from Scrit who pointed me in the right direction – thank you.
He advised me to purchase a ½” 3tpi lennox tri-master as anything wider than half an inch would not be able to be tensioned on my bandsaw. I got in touch with a company close by (Lister Machine Tools, Belfast) and they ordered me one.
£82.50 - that included delivery and personal tensioning by the rep as well as a valuable lesson on how to fold it.
The blade was tensioned to 27000 psi
I made a fence from birch ply and faced it with melamine
I have used feather boards before but found there was too much drag
so I took the bearings of my lathe steady and it worked a treat
My push stick fitted in between nicely - no need for my fingers to be there
It cut 5 1/2" walnut with ease - the results were a nice bookmatch
No problems with 6" ripple sycamore
The blade doesn't wander at all - I was consistently able to cut 1mm veneers.
It would not be very cost effective if you don't use your saw that often but if you want to cut veneers regularly it is, in my view, worth the cost.
Resharpening - £30 - I hoping to get it done once a year but only time will tell.
I used to go through about 5 1" blades at about £20 each per year.
All the best
Ian
