Tip #47
Resawing Techniques (continued)
Click here for a printer friendly version of Tip - Pg 1-4, Pg 5-9
Help with Downloading PDF Files

Adjusting the Speed

Once you've mounted the proper blade for resawing on your bandsaw, adjust the running speed of the blade. (This may not be possible on some machines.) The standard speed for a homeshop bandsaw is approximately 3000 feet per minute (fpm), and the conventional wisdom is to slow this down to somewhere between 1000 and 1500 fpm for resawing. The slower speed increased the effective torque of your motor. There is less chance that the machine will bog down while cutting through thick stock. The slower speed also reduces the friction of the blade in the cut. Since the blade does not get quite so hot, it stays sharp longer, doesn't load up with pitch quite so fast, and there is less chance that it will burn the wood.

But, as I said this is just the conventional wisdom. In experimenting with different blade/speed combinations, I found that the bandsaw leaves a smoother cut on the resawn board if you run it a the standard 3000 fpm or even slightly higher. The blade has to be sharp, and you have to resist the temptation to feed the stock too quickly. As long as you keep the feed rate slow, there are more cuts per inch and the normal washboarding evens out. Each tooth takes a smaller bite, carrying away fewer chips, so the temperature of the blade stays within limits.

By the way, if you don't know the speed of your saw, it's easy enough to figure out. Divide the diameter, in inches, of the motor pulley (MP) by the diameter of the bandsaw pulley (BP) to get the pulley ratio. Multiply this ratio times the rpm of the motor (RPM) and the circumference of the bandsaw drive wheel. (The circumference is the diameter of the wheel (DW) times pi (3.1416) since the answer is in inches, divide by 12 to get feet per minute. Here's the equation:

Continue to Preparing the Stock
Back to Choosing and Using a Blade