I'm just wondering what sort of thickness of wood my new band saw should be able to cut through.

[Not your average framer]

My new band saw has a 300watt motor which is further geared down with a pair of pulley wheels and a belat drive. Although it is the same watts as the previous band saw, it feels like it has a bit more cutting power than the previous machine. I would like to be able to re-saw 3" thick pine, if this is likely to be possible, but I honestly have no idea where this sounds reasonable, or not. Does anyone else have any idea about this?

Thanks.

[JFeig]

For resawing material on a band saw you possibly want a 4-6 teeth per inch blade. 300W motor will be the limitation.

[Not your average framer]

I've been making some enquiries too! As you say I will be needing a blade with less teth. I am planning to go for a blade with 4 RPI and it will be a ground tooth blade which will reduce the drag in the thicker wood and the blade suppliers has told me that with a ground tooth blade 3 inches will be no problem. My thinking is that I want a material size that is not available as standard and if I can slice up a larger stock size into several strips of the size I want, there will be a useful cost saving. I intend to be using a standard size piece of pine from my local hardware shop. This will not only save money, but should allow me some helpful flexibility.

I already use pine mouldings and cut locally available pine to suit my existing requirements, so this is not a new thing for me. Also it gives me some added possibilities, when making deep box frames and display boxes. I am thinking that I can fairly easily cut out rebates, using my 10 inch diameter table saw with an 84 tooth blade and hopefully should be able to get a clean finish inside the rebate. Although I have a couple of routers and a router table, I am not that keen on doing routing inside my workshop, because of the volume of very fine dust, which I don't want to be producing within my workshop and having to cope with the possibility of some dust escaping.

I am not only thinking about the extra effort to prevent unwanted dust getting inside of framing jobs, but also the potential problems which may occur when hand finishing in a dusty workshop area. I will only be using my table outside the rear of my shop premises and this will be limited, subject to the weather at the time. Any future routing activities are not being considered at all at this point in time, as I think I will need a dedicated area if I will be producing any significant volumes of really fine saw dust. I think I can manage using the band saw in the workshop as the potential for controlling the handling and disposal of any dust is much easier, than it might be with a router.