A re-sawing fence for the bandsaw

I collected some rather nice fiddleback Jarrah from The Timber Bloke for a build ...

I planed one side and one edge, and then it was time to saw away waste prior to thicknessing to dimensions. I had a brand new carbide Woodmaster 1.3 tpi 1" blade, to replace one that disintegrated after about 4 years of hard use. I had reasonably good results from the old blade.

In addition to the new blade, I have also modified my resaw fence on the Hammer N4400. Several years ago I made this one out of MDF ...

It slides over the original fence ...

The local woods I work with are typically quite interlocked, the wood moves, or it just makes more work for the blade … and it is not unusual to see a widening kerf as it moves through. The issue with this is that the one side of the board then pushes away from the fence, and pushes into the blade, causing the cut to skew.

I have given this some thought over the past year, and realised that the fence needed to change so that it did not affect the blade.

One way is to make a single point fence. The problem with this is that it does not leave a smooth, even finish.

Then I watched a video by Ethan Moore on the Little Ripper ..

Now this looked interesting, and reinforced my thoughts that the fence was contributing to the problem. Also that forcing the board against the fence would never be a solution – wood will move and the kerf with it.

A Little Ripper is not my answer – other than being very expensive, it is complicated. I want the process to be simpler.

It occurred to me that I could modify the fence to allow the board to exit the blade away from the fence, leaving it free to move without affecting the cut.

At first I simply pulled the fence back ...

However, there was not enough support for the board as it went past the blade. This led to cutting back the fence and retaining a short, low section for registration ...

So, here is the 9" wide Jarrah being sawn ...

As it comes out of the blade, so the kerf opens up slightly. Nothing unusual ...

Here is the back of the fence ...

The board is staying tight against the fence, the cut is staying tight against the line, and it remained that way from beginning to end ...

The final surface looks like this ...

Very happy with the new blade. Even happier with the re-saw performance.

Regards from Perth

Derek

October 2019