Woods for laminating

[silentneko]

How big of a band saw are we talking? I only have room for tabletop power tools now.

[Jaysen]

I was using the store brand from the. If orange place (not sure if we are using real names these days). Back then it had a huge capacity from upper guides to table and would take 5/4 blades. I had access to huge Jet and Grizzly units with the 2.5 and 4" width blades but ... they scare me.

The limiting factor is really just your ability to be consistent. One of my "mentors" never did a resaw wider than 2". But he'd make 6" and wider bent laminations. I could do it but not as well as he could. His process was not fancy just required more consistent glue and pressure than I could master.

[fallguy1000]

A well tuned table saw and an excellent sawyer can produce a pretty wide resawn board that can be planed smooth, or better yet, sanded smooth. If you use a sander, you can use the fence for the good stock and rip the offal for the good board. Run any thick boards through the sander first, alone, before running the batch.

Or, you can use the fence and try to get the pieces closer to the same on each pass, but you have to joint the board each time. I have done it both ways, and prefer to keep the good jointed edge against the fence and rip the offal for the good board. This, of course, requires moving the fence repeatedly, and to do so, you must either trust yourself, or use a bump stop of some type on the other side of the blade from the fence.

[silentneko]

Well I think you guys convinced me. I'm going to buy a cheap band saw to play with. Just a table top model for now.

[cape man]

My gunwales on the OD18 are chestnut, cherry, and poplar, all done with a table saw.

[fallguy1000]

A cheap bandsaw will probably not be able to resaw much or very well. But a cheap bandsaw can easily cut a 3/4" board to nice shapes. I have a post war Delta bandsaw and it works, but I would never try to resaw with it. If you want to resaw, a table saw with a new, but thin kerf blade is the most economical way. Maybe someone might argue this with me, but I doubt it.

[silentneko]

I appreciate that the table saw is way more efficient at this task, but it honestly freaks me out a bit cutting on it that thin. I've ran to many calls at work for missing fingers, and I feel more comfortable with the bandsaw.

So I made a few minor purchases today. First a grabbed a cheap 8" drill press. Plan was to use different sized hole saws to create rings that can be laminated together to make some fancy rod holders. Well the POS was so weak it couldn't get through 1x southern yellow pine. I had to go so slow and on the slowest setting that I was scratching the wood instead of cutting it. So that one is going back.

Next I ran to the orange place and got a little 9" Ryobi bandsaw. After the failure with the drill press I didn't have high hopes, but it surprised me. I set it up and tested it on a piece of scrap PT 2x6. It made quick work of it. After quickly fashioning a guide out of wood and clamps I was able to cut strips up to about 3/16 thick x 36" long. They aren't perfect, yet, but for a first go it was promising. I'll play more with it, and I'm sure the blade is junk, but it cut well, and was able to make some fairly tight radius cuts.

[fallguy1000]

The reason you cut the offal to the good is to keep the fingers away from the saw while maintaining a good joint on the fence side! If you get real narrow at the end of the cut, you need to develop experience running the push stick into the blade. It is a bit tricky, but a good sawyer does it when needed. Also, another way to be more careful is to run the saw at a minimum height, and I like to run the back of my feed hand (if it isn't on a push stick) along the back edge of the fence. That way if a part is to ever get pulled into the blade by some foolishness, my hand is probably only going so far into the blade.

Text version:

bump stop is here, good material is here , blade is here, fence is here

You keep moving the fence so your part bumps a bump stop, then you remove the stop when the fence is set (but the bump stop gets the same location everytime using say a miter running in reverse with a clamp on it, etc, then you cut the part and the part on the outside of the blade is the good part, sometimes you'll end up with a small chip that doesn't cut you can cut with a utility knife

In order to do any of it very well, you need more equipment, so the best course of action for your operation would be taking it to a shop.

[pee wee]

I've heard it said the bandsaw is more dangerous than the tablesaw, not sure that's true, but they both can be used safely or not (my brother once badly cut himself with a chisel) - it's knowledge and technique you need to use. Learn how to use the given tool safely, and never break those rules! When fingers and hands are near a cutting blade and something goes wrong, there is no time to extricate yourself. Bam! Whatever was going to happen has just happened; question is, where were your fingers, were you doing something in a way you shouldn't have? (generally speaking, if something goes Bam! then you were) Spend a minute setting up for the procedure, looking around and making sure the work area is clear, use push sticks if they are called for, make a zero clearance plate to keep thin work from dropping down between the blade and table, don't use your fingers as clamps, lots of things to think about ahead of time.

You shouldn't be afraid of a tool, but you should afford it deep respect and learn and implement safe work practices. I know a number of people who have been badly injured using power tools, one lost his hand; they all admitted they were doing something they shouldn't have been. Most of the time they knew better but thought they could take a shortcut, but a few didn't have the experience or knowledge they needed. One example: wood will sometimes have flaws like splits and loose knots that can go flying or grab the blade, severe changes in grain direction, internal stresses that cause the wood to spread apart or pinch on the blade, even the rare piece of embedded metal. Use safety glasses, look over what you're about to cut and if possible avoid problem pieces . . . think ahead.

Sorry, I didn't expect this to get so long. Safety First

[silentneko]

I'm not afraid of the table saw, just trying to cut thin veneers with it. I've been playing with the band saw a bit, and I find it extremely predictable. The table saw has way more power, and is faster, but speed and power aren't always needed for a job like this.

Keep in mind I used the table saw when I built my cedar strip kayak a few years ago. Cutting dozens of 1/4-3/8" strips was nerve racking. The clean wood was fine, but as mentioned above anytime I hit knot or defects it had a chance of bucking. I have not had any bit of that so far with the band saw, it goes through the knots nice and smooth.

I'm going to build a jig of sorts to extend the table a bit I think. I'll let you know how it goes.