Bandsaw tolerances?

[Fixall]

Hello Shop Talk,

I hope you are all doing well today!

I am in the process of fine tuning my Laguna 1412 and was just curious at to what kind of tolerances you guys are achieving on your bandsaws. I think I've got the saw pretty close to good, and I'm wondering if I should just stop before I mess it up, lol. I'm using a Timber Wolf 3TPI, 3/4" blade.

When cutting a 5" x 1.5" piece of wood, I'm getting just under .01" (.008" to be exact) difference across the width of the wood. I think to get it any better I would have to shim the fence somehow? Worth it? I was thinking of using the bandsaw, instead of the table saw, to cut scales from thinner phenolic pieces (3/8" to 1/2") with less waste.

I think I've got the drift pretty well sorted. It's at about .001" over the length of the 5" scale.

 

[Randydb]

Which Laguna do you have? I don't think you are going to get much tighter tolerance than you are getting there. I have a 1412 and it has been a very nice saw in many ways. One thing I have found when it comes to resaw/cutting is that if you are cutting away a small amount and there isn't wood "on both sides of the blade" that the blade will deflect and you wont get the straight cut you are wanting. I'm not sure if I am making sense. It's not like a table saw with a solid blade where you can run a piece through and trim off a 1/16th or 1/8th. I find on the bandsaw the blade deflects part way through. It is more pronounced the thicker the piece of wood.

My 1412 was a massive upgrade over my General, both power and resaw capability, and I love it....BUT 5 years later I wish I bought a 16" or 18" bandsaw.....more power!