My New Shop Toy - Re-Saw

[tadol]

Lots of times they mix up wheel diameter with the cross-cut capacity -

Those are great saws for resawing - but I had to get rid of the universal (router style) motor and install a standard industrial 2hp motor (which it sounds like has happened). They were designed for resawing large dimension softwoods, and the stellite tipped blades hold up great for that, but they have a much shorter life resawing rosewoods, ebony, teak, etc - make sure you clean any material you want to cut, get rid of any trace of sand, dirt, anything abrasive or it will seriously affect blade life. Never hit a nail or screw -

I ended up selling mine ( a Ryobi ) when I found an old model Davis and Wells 20" saw at a great price. I've just started rebuilding it, but I prefer the higher table and ease of running smaller blades. Plus, the larger wheel diameter should let me try out a nice Lennox carbide blade - someday -

[redir]

Originally Posted by runamuck

I have that Hitachi Band Saw. It was clearly designed for resawing and not much else: I had to modify a few things under the hood in order to use less than a 1" blade. And then changing blade size takes much longer than I'm used to.

Other than that, it's a great tool.

Glad to here you like it. This one will be set up for resaw only. From what I understand they made a different guide set for anyone who wants to use it as a regular band saw.

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Almost every review I read on these saws say that they got rid of that 'router' style motor. It's too bad they spec'd this saw out with one in the first place.

[John Arnold]

Almost every review I read on these saws say that they got rid of that 'router' style motor. It's too bad they spec'd this saw out with one in the first place.

I bought my saw slightly used in 1990. and it still had the original motor. I hated it.....too noisy, and low on power. Fortunately, the gear reduction stripped out after a few months, and I was forced to get a better motor. It transformed the saw.
The only reason I can fathom that they used these motors is so they could be used on a basic 110V 15 amp circuit. Nothing else makes sense.

The Hitachi blades have a couple of features that enable resawing with such limited power. The hook angle is about 20 degrees (versus 10 degrees on most 'normal' resaw blades). The downside is that with that much hook angle, the wood may 'self feed'......where the wood is actually pulled into the blade by itself. If you are feeding by hand, that can be scary.
Secondly, the band is very thin for such a wide blade (~0.025"), and the teeth have very little set. That means a narrower kerf, which may require less power. The problem with a narrow set is that the kerf can fill up with sawdust, which will create heat. And if the wood is oily, it creates even more headaches.

[redir]

Thanks John for sharing your experience. I'll have to remember that self feed nature of the blade... Yikes that is a bit creepy.

That makes sense too about the 110 volt motor. That's always an issue when folks want a new saw in a shop that has no 220 outlets.

[tadol]

Originally Posted by John Arnold

The only reason I can fathom that they used these motors is so they could be used on a basic 110V 15 amp circuit.

Very true - but that also allowed them to import them into the US under lesser tariffs as consumer power tools, as opposed to industrial machinery. I don't remember all the details, but it explained the use of that "universal" motor on the jointer/planer, and a couple of other units that they tried importing.