My Tablesaw/Bandsaw Resawing jig

[Brmorgan]

After finally getting fed up with the growing pile of "good" firewood pieces that I refuse to burn and hope to getting something out of, I built a resaw jig over my Christmas holidays. I took a little inspiration from BobL's jig and some commercial products I've seen over the years.

Here's the finished product mounted on the tablesaw. I fortunately, or rather unfortunately, have an old POS $50 special yardsale tablesaw, so I just did the welding right on it, making sure to not heat the table up too much to warp it. And no, I didn't do the work with my good blade up like that, I was just checking for parallel!

A side view of the jig. The jack bolts are 3/4" coarse thread, about 13" long.

Closer view of the jack bolt. The front fence rail is 1" low-profile Unistrut rail. The guide for the table's slot is a 2' long piece of 3/4" shaft keystock. It's poker straight and slides like butter in both machines.

To hold the jack bolt secure to the fence but still allow it to turn, I had to create some sort of hold. I cut one side out of a wide 3/4" washer, and welded the other side to a spacer block the same thickness as the nut welded to the end of the jack bolt. It works pretty good, but is just a bit tight. I'll need to file it a bit. All the black crap on the close nut is graphite spray lube. It works pretty good but is a mess. You can also see the 1/2" stabilizer rod and lock collar that I use to lock the jig to a specific depth. Since the fence isn't secured directly to the jack bolts, it would float without these.

I drilled 1/4" holes 1" apart on the angle iron end rails and welded 1/4" X 20NC nuts over them. I ground a point on the end of a few short 1/4" bolts to use as end dogs. They can be driven in very tight and secure. You can also see the springnut that secures the rail to the Unistrut.

 

[Brmorgan]

Here I've got a small ~4" Birch piece that's spalted quite a bit mounted in the bandsaw. It's a bit of a Frankensaw of sorts - it's a Ridgid from Home Depot but I put a General 6" riser block kit into it.

All lined up and ready for the first cut, headrig-style. I did drop the guide post before cutting, but I think I might move the end posts down tight to the table. It would let me drop the guide post further and I can't imagine cutting a piece so large I actually need that top set of holes.

First "slab" off, quite nice spalting color! I ought to get a few nice pen or knife handle blanks out of this one.

Second side squared. It's also capable of cutting fairly thin veneers quite accurately. The piece sitting on top and resting against the end rail is about 1/16" - 1/8" thick. I just cranked each jack bolt 1-1/2 turns after the first squaring cut. I have a great deal of fine-tuning to do with the bandsaw to get it cutting well. I haven't done much ripping with it so far, and it keeps pulling away from the jig such that by the trailing end of the piece the band can be over 1/8" farther away. The guide blocks and push bearings are tight and it's tracking well, it's a sharp 1/2" blade and I've even tried applying more band tension than is recommended. It never wanders the other way. Ideas?

 

[woodshop]

Very creative there Brad. So...how does it perform? Stuck any choice pieces of curly maple you rescued from the firewood pile on there and actuallly milled a little with it yet?

I'm sure I'm not telling anyone anything they don't already know, but you will need a very sharp blade and a good brand blade to do that successfully. Looks like you have a good Frued on that saw there now. Not wanting to run my good blades through certain barnwood etc that might contain unwanted things, I stuck one of those throwaway $15 Harbor Freight Chinese carbide blades on my saw once, and I could barely get through the wood there was so much resistance. This was right out of the box... piece of poorly engineered junk not even worth using as a disposable blade.

Myself, when I want to slice up smaller chunks of wood in the shop I use my bandsaw that I've built an outfeed table for. This allows me to "mill" up to a 4ft long small log with it being supported the entire cut. I also feel a bit safer running round or odd shaped things through the bandsaw than my tablesaw because of the kickback possibilities. However, looks like you have a fine lookin' jig there. Show a few action shots on the table saw when you get it fired up.

 

[Brmorgan]

Here's a piece of split Douglas Fir firewood that I noticed had some figure along one side of a fire scar ring. I actually ended up cutting this one on the tablesaw as I didn't feel like coating my band with pitch.

And here's how it looks split open. I probably have a dozen or more pieces like this and I get countless every year cutting firewood. Good for small pieces only, but still very beautiful wood.

And here's where this jig is really going to be handy for me. I have, and can get, unlimited small Birch crotches like this one. I've never split a small one open before, so let's see what we get!

Unfortunately, Birch grain doesn't really stand out that well until it's been stained, especially when it's a green log that's all fuzzed up from the saw. The camera flash doesn't help either.

This picture got the grain a little better. I'm actually wishing I'd turned a small bowl out or made a spoon out of the crotch of this piece instead, but oh well. Something had to get cut first. I'm really looking forward to being able to take advantage of smaller pieces like this. Stuff that I've always just discarded in the bush.

 

[Brmorgan]

Woodshop - Unfortunately, no, we don't have any Maples up here really. I know, it's Canada and everything, but... We do have Douglas maple which is really more of a shrub and rarely gets over 6" diameter, and you're lucky to find a straight piece even then. My brother owns a yard care business though, and there are always people around town looking to get rid of old apple and other yard trees and the like. I have a 2' long, 4" dia. piece of Lilac I got this way, it has some beautiful purple streaks in it. Don't know how that color would last in the sun though. There's actually a house a couple doors down from his with what looks like an old Manitoba Maple that's all burled up for about 6' from the ground. It's healthy otherwise though, but the minute it dies I'll be at their door. I'll even pay the arborist cost if necessary.

The bandsaw blades are very good quality silicon blades, I forget the brand but I got them from a good tool shop specifically for ripping. The 1/2" that's on there now might have dulled a bit though, as I have used it to clean up small birch root balls that at times had some dirt on them. I also have a 3/4" 4TPI that I'm going to try, it should stay a bit straighter. That birch crotch really stressed the 3/4HP motor out. I'm thinking of putting the spare 3HP compressor motor I have kicking around onto the tablesaw, and put that 1HP onto the bandsaw for a bit of a boost.

That Freud blade is my good Glue Line Rip blade, let me tell you that it's as good as its name, even on an old out-of-whack saw like mine. I actually ripped that Fir piece with just a regular Freud 24T fast ripping blade. Lots of gullet to get rid of the sticky resinous wood. I got a combo package last week with an 80T Ultra Fine Cutoff blade and a 24T Ripping blade (of which I already had one) on sale for $59, whereas just the cutoff blade usually costs more than that elsewhere. I needed a good fine-tooth blade for ripping plywood anyway. I too have a small stack of cheapo blades or ones that might have hit a nail or two in their day for doing the really ugly peaces.

I am planning on building a table extension for the bandsaw so that I can do longer pieces. I'm just trying to come up with the design I want, as I plan on building my own fence system for it as well. Been trying to find a close source of T-Track etc. but I can't so far. Might have to order from Lee Valley. I'm with you on the kickback risk in the tablesaw, but this jig is able to secure the piece very tightly, and it weighs a couple dozen pounds and I am able to really put my weight into it safely via the long jack bolts, so I don't think it'll be too bad.

 

[BobL]

Nice job Brad. Your design is really neat because it fits both saws whereas my rig it too big for my bandsaw. Yours also has the screw based thickness adjuster which is pretty nifty.

Now that I have a bandsaw I am unlikely to use the table saw version so I was thinking of either modifying my existing rig or better still using some of your ideas and making a new one just for the bandsaw.

I have a piece of 40" C-section waiting for me - I'd go do it right now but its over 100F at the moment and the shed is not a very nice place to be.

Thanks for posting the pics !
Cheers

 

[Brmorgan]

Bob - to be honest, for my first design I tried using a car's scissor jack as I've seen people use these before to easily adjust things like router table fences. Apparently just not jacks like the two i had to choose from. There was too much play in the mechanism and it was too difficult to keep it square as it always ended up wanting to push one end of the fence more than the other. If it had worked out well though, it would have made things SOOO much easier. I was thinking, I could have probably used smaller diameter allthread for the jack bolts which would have made them easier to turn due to less surface area friction, but I think the extra rigidity of the 3/4" will be better in the long run. Only the front side is a bit sticky right now really anywa, and I'm going to drill a hole in the all the nuts so I can grease them with the needle-point grease gun I use for my saw bar noses.

Which brings me to a question I have for you - where do you think I could source a couple small sprockets to either weld or set-screw onto the ends of the jack bolts so I can chain them together and have them both turn at the same rate? I would prefer a set-screw so that I could disengage it and run the mill off-square deliberately if need be. I went to the best local steel and welding shops, who sell chains and sprockets to the mills and mines, and the smallest they have are 40-pitch 4" bearing-center sprockets, of no use to me. I also went to a couple motorbike shops, and they have lots of sizes that would be good, but all are about 7/8" splined shaft and would be difficult to adapt.

EDIT - I was thinking about the band wandering issue, maybe I don't have enough tension on it. The indicators on the tensioner are for the 93-1/2" band that comes stock on the saw, but I put the riser block kit in so now it takes a longer band, I forget the exact length. So maybe the longer band needs a bit more tension on it? I don't really know, but I don't want to be eating broken band either.

 

[woodshop]

...I was thinking about the band wandering issue, maybe I don't have enough tension on it. The indicators on the tensioner are for the 93-1/2" band that comes stock on the saw, but I put the riser block kit in so now it takes a longer band, I forget the exact length. So maybe the longer band needs a bit more tension on it? I don't really know, but I don't want to be eating broken band either.

If you used one of the "standard" 6 inch riser block kits available for "standard" Delta type 14 inch bandsaws it will raise your resaw capacity to around 12 inches, right?. You are correct that you will need more tension to keep that blade from wandering. Also, as with most bandsaw blades, the longer the blade, the more important sharpness is a factor. As soon as some of the teeth start to dull they don't cut evenly and the blade starts to wander. The biggest factor though with those riser block setups is that on those saws you are usually limited to a 1/2 inch or less blade. When resawing 8-12 inches, you generally want a wider blade or it tends to wander more even it if is sharp. Also, resawing on a bandsaw is similar to milling a log with a csm in that it takes more power that crosscutting, and usually those 14" bandsaws don't come with more than a 1 1/2 hp motor on them. All that said, don't let me spoil your fun... keep riding that envelope edge. I do all the time in my shop.

 

[BobL]

I've got a couple of sets of mountain bike gear sprockets that I plan to use for when I need a twin gear and chain arrangement. They have no innards so they will have to be welded onto a plate and collar arrangement of some kind.

 

[the westspartan]

Brmorgan, I have used mountain bike cogs the same way as Bobl mentions. I purchased collars with sets screws from www.grainger.com and welded them to the cogs. It was for a sculpture I made a few years ago. The biggest problem I had was keeping the cogs from warping as they were considerably thinner than the collars. After a couple tries I got it. Just had to take it slow.

I have not checked but Grainger may sell chain-drive cogs with the collar attached. I think I have also seen them on automatic garage door openers.

Good Luck and nice jig.

 

[Backwood]

I love the jig. These might be bigger than you want but I recently got some #35 sprockets ( bike chain ) from a place on ebay that sells motorized scooter chair parts. They were just a flat steel sprocket with a hole in it , about 3- 3 1/2" diameter. Like 5 bucks each.

 

[Sawmill]

If you have a farm supply nearby you can get the sprokets and hub that you weld together. Another place may be www.surpluscenter.com

 

[buicken]

i usually run the bigger stuff (up to 12") I resaw through my tablesaw first (with a thin kerf blade). Then i use the bandsaw, the bandsaw tracks nicely in the tablesaw kerf.
one or two passes on the jointer to re-flatten the main stock, and back to the table saw, bandsaw, jointer, ect.

it doesn't waste very much wood, and i get good results.
i have resawn a crap load of ammarillo this way.
any thing over 12" out comes the ripping chain.

 

[Brmorgan]

Thanks for the ideas guys. Would a farm supply have very small-gauge sprockets? I'm talking bike chain, or at the very most motorbike chain. Anything bigger than that I can get at the industrial supplies pretty cheap and easy. I do have one small gear from a busted garage door opener that would be perfect, but I need two exactly the same... I'll figure something out eventually, and it's actually not that tedious to turn each bolt individually. I just have to remember exactly how many turns I give each. On the other hand I can also make a tapered cut turning each bolt individually too.

I swapped the 1/2" blade out and put the 3/4" on the saw. What a difference! It cut like a hot knife through butter, and was staying accurate within 1/32" down the length of the piece. Now I'm able to make passes back and forth just like the carriage of a headrig mill, and have been able to cut 5"-wide veneers less than 1/16" thick quite accurately. I dug up another small birch crotch I had saved from the firewood stack, and this is what I uncovered:

Heh, a closeup shot can make it look a lot more impressive than it is! Nonetheless, I should be able to make some decent small projects like tool handles etc. out of these pieces, as long as I can keep checking and cracking under control. I never end-sealed this piece after rescuing it, and you can see how cracked it was on the ends. In the first picture I also put a veneer piece that I cut from another log - it's about 1/16" thick. This jig is looking like it'll work better than I thought it would. Just a couple bugs to work out, then to make it look prettier.

 

[DRB]

Brad

Have you ever been to Princess Auto? I am sure they would have something your looking for. I think there is one on Kelowna or PG if your in one of those towns someday. I think they have a website to?

 

[Brmorgan]

Hellz yeah I know about Princess Auto! I can spend hours wandering aimlessly in there! I'm positive that they do carry what I'm looking for. I'm lucky to make it near a store twice a year, unfortunately. I guess I should dig out my catalog. I always had trouble finding stuff on their website though. You are correct about the locations, and there's also one in Langley. I do have a cousin in Kelowna, I suppose I could get him to pick something up for me now and then.

I did just remember yesterday that I had a 4" dual-chain timing chain sprocket lying around somewhere. I could split it in half and then weld those onto 3/4" lock collars. They're a little bigger than I really wanted, but free is free and it needn't be permanent. Now to find them and see if it'll work.

 

[Brmorgan]

I finally got the parts I needed to improve my little shop bandsaw "headrig" and was able to spend a few hours working on it today:

First up is an improved method of linking the jack screws to the fence itself. I got rid of the nut welded to the end of the jack screws in favor of set-screw locking shaft collars. I built a piece consisting of a 5/16" thick 3/4" washer, and 1" standoffs cut from pieces of pipe the same diameter as the washer. There is one lock collar on each side of the washer to hold its position securely. This is so far working much more smoothly than the previous system. It occurs to me I should have taken a pic of the two parts separated as it's kinda hard to tell what's what when it's all assembled.

I also added a second lock collar to the 1/2" guide rods to stabilize the fence. This has also seemed to make a big improvement so far. Now to grind & clean up the welds and fix/fill any defective welds. I used 6013 to assemble it as it's so easy to re-start and tack with, but it doesn't tolerate welding overtop of slag at all so it's easy to get holes in the welds with it. I'll take the brushwheel to it all and go over it with 7018 where necessary now. I'd also like to get some 3/8" X 3/4" flat bar to replace the 3/4" square keystock that I used as the main guide rail. Right now the extra 3/8" sticking up limits how far I can bring the fence back if I have a piece right on the table level. Once that's all done it's time to paint.

Possibly the best of all, I managed to pick up some 2-1/2" #35 roller-chain sprockets & set-screw hubs pretty cheap a few days ago. The 42" of chain on the other hand was $16! I know the chain looks loose, but I tried one link shorter and couldn't even get it to come together. I welded a 1/2" nut (3/4" OD) to one of the hubs so I could easily turn it with a wrench/socket. After spraying some graphite quick-dry lube on the jack screws around the guide nuts, it pushes and pulls the fence as smooth as butter.

It's admittedly heavy and awkward on the bandsaw with the tiny table mine has, but once I get a couple table extensions built it should be a lot better. It certainly beats trying to split small firewood pieces with a chainsaw and freehanding them through the bandsaw anyway. It's actually kinda fun to use too.

 

[BobL]

Looks good brad. A few ideas to take up the slack on the chain are, a 3rd roller, or even a derallier type arrangement, or a back wheel of fixed gear bike arrangement. The last one requires a complete remake of one end so dump that idea. Anyway, good to see it all coming together.
Cheers

 

[Brmorgan]

Looks good brad. A few ideas to take up the slack on the chain are, a 3rd roller, or even a derallier type arrangement, or a back wheel of fixed gear bike arrangement. The last one requires a complete remake of one end so dump that idea. Anyway, good to see it all coming together.
Cheers

Yeah, a derailleur would work perfectly for that, but would add even more weight. So far I haven't had a problem with it binding or wrapping around but time will tell if that'll be an issue. A third tensioner sprocket is definitely off the table (even MORE weight) and I'm not sure I quite understand your third suggestion.

 

[woodshop]

I continue to be impressed with the ingenuity on this forum. In a post apocalypse world, I want you guys as neighbors.