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Hi all, I have a 24" woodtek bandsaw and a brand new 1" Lenox Woodmaster CT (Carbide tipped) 1.3 TPI blade and I am barely getting passable results resawing through 8" cocobolo. My two main problems are:
1. The blade catches the wood, kind of hits/knocks or grabs it, and sometimes grabs so hard it stops the blade. I am not pushing the board through hard, as a matter of fact, this makes me push it through super lightly.
2. The cut takes more out of the middle, leaving me to plane the ends every other cut to get a straight board. My fence is 8" tall, made from two thicknesses of 3/4" birch plywood, sturdy and straight. Any wisdom or insights? Any good online resources for resawing?
Thanks in advance!

My first thought is there is not enough blade tension. When the blade stops, does the motor stop as well?
Make sure the tires are clean and the teeth track just in front of the tire. Set your guides so there is only enough clearance for a dollar bill. Have you tried resawing a sacrificial piece to test your setup? Maybe a chunk of white oak or something harder.
There a many YT videos on BS setup, google is your friend.
Make some sawdust!

B


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I’ve been there with the Woodmaster CT blade ( which I like a lot) and a very hard wood (Osage Orange). The blade has a very aggressive hook angle which draws the wood quickly into the blade. First, make sure that the drive belt on the saw is tight and not slipping. The aggressive blade needs all the power it can get. Once you’re sure the belt isn’t slipping, you might try moving to a less aggressive blade (the Lenox Trimaster is what I used on the advice of smarter people than me). It worked well on the harder woods. But, since I got the belt tight, I haven’t had to use anything but the Woodmaster CT for resawing my Osage Orange. Good luck. Please report back if you come up with more useful information on this.

I also had past issues with my woodmaster ct on my older laguna 20 in 5 hp BS . I switched to a wide kerf 1 . 25 in carbon steel blade from edge mfg in Pevely MO.. It takes a wide kerf. I/ve also had good luck with their 3 tooth skip blade (carbon for resawing), You might check that both of your long edges on the coco board are dead flat and your face side to be resawed is at a perfecto 90 deg to the edge and to the BS table .Also check that the blade is at 90 deg to your BS table , Vibration can throw it out o f square. COCO also gums up the blades . So you may want to use a lubricant. Pam or coconut oil w orks in a pinch . I use a commercial blade preservative. The teeth the blade cannot get dull, They can be touched up with a diamond stone . I use 2 part epoxy to glue the coco back plates together. Good Luck. PS my woodmaster ct blade broke twice and had to be rewelded. For my Laguna saw I will stick to carbon steel blades , that are cheap and can be easily sharpened.

I've used a 3tpi 3/4" Timberwolf consistently for several years now without issues resawing up to 12" stuff of all sorts. They recommend a lighter tension on their blades, which works as long as the blade is in good condition and you haven't damaged it (like I do some times) from taking it on and off the saw too often and tweaking the blade.

Personally, I've never had a blade "catch" on a piece and stop. Now, if it's not tracking, it can start cutting off line and create so much friction it will bog down the motor and stop, but that's a very different feeling. If you have two pully positions in your lower cabinet, try the one that runs at a nigher rpm for a blade that aggressive. And, I agree with the tension, it could be that. But, normally that manifests in tracking problems and blade "bowing" through the wood.

As a point of reference, when I'm setting up my saw with a new blade as described above, I use a ~4" piece of hard maple and if I can take a slice of less than 1/16" off the outside face (not next to the fence) along a ~12" board with no variation in thickness I know the saw is set correctly.

FWIW, I'm using a Jet 18".

I would guess this is happening because the insert around the blade appears to be lower than the table level. A gap under the wood will allow the blade to try to pull the wood down rather than cut it. You shouldn't have to cut lightly with this blade. It's my go to resaw blade and I've cut a huge range of woods with no issues. Make sure your set up it perfect- including drift, blade squareness, and tension (as much as your saw can handle).



The fence should be acting as a guide only. It really doesn't need to be very rigid as it shouldn't be taking a load. Yours sounds fine.

The cut inconsistency sounds like it's a drift issue. I set my blade drift so it holds the wood against the fence itself. By this I mean the blade runs slightly behind the center of the wheel.

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Many, many different ways.
Once I took the leap of faith and setup my saw like this:
https://youtu.be/wGbZqWac0jU

Summary:
Set the:
Deepest part of gullet in the center of the wheel
Tension
Depth of the side guides (1/16” from gullet)
Thrust bearings (1/16” from blade)
Side guide distance from blade
Level table

It cuts like this with the CT: