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Most don't know but I've been on a quest to resaw. When I first got into guitar making I scavenged to the far ends of the earth and bought everything I could get my hands on if I thought it was worth having for guitar wood. Boards of Mahogany, Anigre, Bloodwood, Cocobolo...even Avodire....and that's just a few. I was a able to get some use out of the Timberwolf brand of blades but got really irritated with them failing in the middle of a cut and ruining some wood. So.....

I consulted with Louis Iturra and ended up buying one of his 3/8th's carbide tipped blades...I forget the name of the blade. I own a Grizzly GO555 and have had a bear of a time getting it to run this new blade. I even stripped the tensioner nut INSIDE the housing. Had to disassemble the top end of the saw and cut the old tensioner rod so the stripped nut would fall out of the housing. Ended up replacing that with upgrades from Iturra. Spring, new brass nut and tensioner assembly.

THEN...I had a bear of a time figuring what the drift was on the band....completely destroyed a billet of Avodire on that endeavor and nearly sold the saw in my fit of rage. Woke up the next morning and played with it some more...this time using baltic birch plywood...and figured it out.

The pics are of some cocobolo I've resawn just today. I did a billet of spruce yesterday. They all came out so smooth...no need for a trip to the sander. Some with flash some without.

In short....it can be done.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

That is some wonderful wood you've ended up with!

Glad you got it figured out Chris! Looks like it's full steam ahead for ya now.That is some very nice wood you just resawed.

Hey Chris, thats lookin good I've got the Grizzly 14" with riser too and it took me a while, and some of Iturra's parts, before I got it to resaw decently.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Very cool!
Congrats on your success!

Nice looking sets as well

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

looks like we may have a new sponsor/supplier in the works. nice looking sets

Those are indeed some beautiful sets. Any plans to part with any?...

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Louis really is easy to get on the phone...and in this day and age, getting the OWNER of a business on the phone is difficult.

For those that are interested the 3/8'ths carbide toothed blade I purchased from Iturra was on sale (back when I bought it). He did make mention that it would be on sale until he runs out though because he had a lot of it. I paid less than a hundred dollars for an 105 inch blade. It's a vari tooth blade too (3 / 4).

I appreciate the comments on the wood but I'm probably going to hang on to this stuff. I've been told by more than one person that the strong black ink lines in cocobolo are NOT the norm and my experience hunting it confirms that position.

Thanks a bunch folks!

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

Congrats on fighting through all the rings of fire to find answers to resawing. Your results look great.

I have ben a fan of Lou Iturra for years now and find his catalog my single most important resource in learning about the care and feeding of bandsaws...all 252 pages. It's almost like selling accessories took on a secondary importance to being an instructional book. Thanks for the thread, Chris!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Todd...what's your favorite blade for resawing these days? Are you using the same for all resawing or are you changing based on the species being resawn? TIA

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

JJ I'm just gonna second and third your endorsement of Louis Iturra and his catalog.

Todd....I still have a vibration that slowly comes and goes as the saw runs. I' really not sure what it is but I would attribute it the aluminum wheels. I have the saw set on the fast speed. Grizzly doesn't state in their catalog that these wheels are balanced. The do sell a set of computer balanced cast iron wheels that would fit the saw, but, it's not that big of a problem really. Especially considering the quality of cut I'm getting right now. I almost don't want to touch it for fear of messing up the alignment of the planets or something.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.