Photo 6- A long, or flat fence used for resaw. This fence does not allow you to adjust the direction of cut during the process. You must use test pieces to verify that the fence face is parallel to the cutting path. Ultimately this fence produces the most consistent result, if you start with straight stock.

There are two kinds of fence you can use, one being a point location fence as in photo 5, and the other being a long fence as in photos 6 and 7. The point location fence contacts the stock being cut at only one point along its length- a vertical line perpendicular to the length of the stock and parallel to the blade. The advantage to this kind of fence is that it allows you to swivel the stock back and forth as it is fed into the blade in order to keep the direction of the cut going properly. But if you are not careful the cut can get out of hand and wander a fair bit before you get it back on course. The advantage of a long fence is that it holds the stock in one direction very steadily, and so long as the fence is angled in relation to the blade such that a straight cut results, you will get a very consistent cut. But until it is set correctly to the blade, the cut will consistently wander in one direction. Which fence is best? Try them both and decide for yourself- either will give excellent results properly used. Generally though, I use a point location fence with stock that is less than flat, and a flat fence with consistent stock.

Photo 7- A long fence is easy to make with a few pieces of plywood screwed together. The piece that makes the fence face must be flat.

The job will come out better in either case if you can first truly flatten the face of the stock that contacts the fence. This is particularly true of the point location fence, which acts like a planer because it follows the shape of the face against the fence. A long fence has more of a jointing effect to it, that is if the face touching the fence is not flat the stock still moves in a straight line at the blade so long as the fence is flat and the same points on the stock always contact the fence. But this requires that the fence be twice the length of the stock so that the same points always contact the fence from start to finish. This being impractical, the thing to do is flatten the stock face, and to do this quickly you need a jointer.

If you have a jointer it is probably a 4 or 6" wide model, or perhaps you are lucky enough to have an 8". It would seem that the width of the jointer limits the height of the resaw operation- if you want to joint first. With a 6" or even 4" jointer though, you can end up with wider stock by jointing and resawing at this lesser width and then edge-gluing.

You can face joint stock that is wider than your jointer knives with this procedure. Set the jointer to take a light pass, say 1/32". Put the fence all the way to the back. Take a pass, jointing as much of the face as you can. Now, turn the part 180o and joint the other side of the same face. Turn it 180o again and take a pass. Each pass leaves a small step in the middle of the board face, but after three or four faces you will find that the two cuts on the one face are parallel. Now plane the other face till it is flat, then plane the jointed face. This procedure will only work with stock up to about 1-1/2 times the width of your jointer knives.

Once you have a flat face to work with, plane the other side of the stock just enough to clean it up and make it parallel to the jointed side. Now you have two flat sides from which to resaw on one piece. Even if you plan to get only two pieces from the stock (and thus resaw from only one face) it is a good idea to plane the other side now, because after resaw it will go through the planer better with a flat face lying on the planer table, as opposed to a rough face. Set up the band saw by setting the fence at a distance from the blade equal to the thickness you want plus extra for a fudge factor. How much extra you should set up for is a function of how confident you are about the accuracy of your resaw setup. If you know that it will cut a very true line you can leave less than 1/16" extra, but when you are just getting started it might be best to leave 1/8" or so. Soon enough you will see just how good your setup is, and once you have it working nicely you can minimize the extra.

But how much extra you leave can also be a function of how thick your stock is and how thick you want your results to be. If you have 1-3/4" thick stock and you want to end up with pieces at 3/8" thick, the reality is that you can only get three pieces (total thickness 1-1/8"), and not four (total thickness of 1-1/2"). This is because if you try to get four you must make three cuts, and each cut takes over 1/16" in the kerf, which eats up all the extra between 1-3/4 and 1-1/2, leaving nothing for straightening and planing off band saw marks. Taking three out of the 1-3/4" piece means you can cut each at over a half inch, leaving plenty of extra for jointing and planing. In this case there is no sense in minimizing the thickness of cut at the resaw, you might as well shoot for making all three the same thickness.

When you begin making a cut, watch what the blade does carefully. The idea, of course, is that it follows a parallel line to the face against the fence. Push slowly, and let the blade cut at a slow, even rate. Don't force it or you can cause the blade to buckle. If the blade is sharp the cut will proceed smoothly, if it is not it won't, and there are no two ways about it. This is the most wood your band saw will handle at one time and a sharp blade is essential. After the cut has progressed a few inches, stop the forward motion of the cut, turn off the saw and wait for the blade to stop. Retract the stock and inspect the cut at the top and the bottom. If both sets of guides are pointing in the same direction, the direction of cut will be the same at top and bottom. If the cuts go different directions, it could be that one or both of the flanges that the guides are mounted on are pointing the wrong direction. Also inspect the middle of the cut by looking through the kerf. You should see light through there, and if not that means that the cut is curved inside. This could be because the blade is not wide enough, not sharp enough, doesn't have enough tension, or you were pushing too hard.

Once you are satisfied that you are getting an even cut (and be prepared for a few failures at first, so use test pieces), resaw the piece all the way through. If you are trying to get more than two pieces from your stock, flip it over and resaw again referring off the other flat face. Now you are left with two pieces that are surfaced on one side and rough on the other, and one piece that is rough on both sides. Depending on the thickness you started with and the thicknesses of the two cuts you made, the middle piece will be thick enough to resaw again or perhaps it is only thick enough for one piece. Face joint it once again, and plane, and resaw if so desired.