ripping with a bandsaw

Make sure your wheels are coplaner and that your tension is enough (need to find a book on bandsaws to determine that for yourself because everyone is a little different. Lastly, make sure your table is 90 degrees to the blade and take it slow. If it still wanders, and I would consider using a "point fence" instead of your regular one and then go slowly by eye. I just did this today with a 2" square chunk of Bacote.

Don

Gerald wrote:>That's pretty common with a bandsaw. Draw a line and follow it, forget

That's it, freehand it. Tom Work at your leisure!

That's pretty common with a bandsaw. Draw a line and follow it, forget the fence.

What's the tooth count on the blade? I'm thinking that if it's too fine then you might be pushing too hard and/or it might be following the grain. When resawing and blank roughing I use a 3 tooth - matter of fact I almost always use the 3 tooth since I hate to change blades. ;)

I experienced a similar problem with a fine skip-tooth blade, but it disappeared when I went to a 3 or 4 tooth hook blade. I was probably pushing too hard on the skip-tooth because it wouldn't rip very fast. The hook tooth blades do very well for resawing.

Max

Tom, Why do you need a perfect straight cut if you're going to round it?

Find the "path" or wander line of your blade (on a scrap), put a piece of masking tape on the table along that line, guide your wood along the tape and you'll cut a near perfectly straight cut.

Like Owen, I use a 3 tooth blade; and like Owen, I use it for everything because I'm too lazy to change it! (but I do that with turning tools, too--I'll make whatever tool is in my hand do as much as possible)

Ruth

Blade width is also important. A narrow blade can easily twist and wander. I use a half inch 3tpi blade from Viking (formerly TimberWolf) and happily resaw 6 inch material. Next I would check the blade tension.

In my experience bandsaw blades always want to lead to one side or the other. This makes fences a pain to set up, so I always cut free hand to a line. For really accurate cuts I will scribe two lines with a marking gauge, one line either side of where the kerf has to be. I find this is easier to follow than a single line as you can see the instant the cut starts to wander.

If you want to learn all there is to know about tuning a bandsaw, I would recommend the Bandsaw Handbook by Mark Duginske. Its a great book, but portrays the bandsaw as depressingly complex for anyone who just wants to switch on a saw and make cuts:)

Ruth wondered. "Why do you need a perfect straight cut if your're going to round it?"

For the same reason I need to round a bowl blank perfectly before I put it on a machine made for perfect rounding.....my lathe.

Ruth, We are happy to have you back. Don't let your 'wander line" take you away from rcw again. All best, Arch

Fortiter,

At the end of the day bandsaws are great for cutting curves, only fair at straight lines. If you think about how you cut curves it is by eye-hand guidance and this is pretty much the same for ripping.

- Make sure your upper blade guide is as low as you can get it and clear your stock and fence.

- Make sure your blade tension is set correctly.

- If your fence is so high it impedes lowering the guide, use a temporary spacer fence (like a smooth, straight piece of wood or plywood) between fence and stock.

- If you don't have a point or "ripping bar" on your fence, make one and clamp it to the fence. This can be as simple as a piece of dowel tacked to a piece of plywood and clamped to the fence.

If none of this works, go freehand.