Bandsaw expert required

[segovia]

Hi

I have this piece of willow that I want to cut into strips of about 1/8" or less - my final dimensions will be strips of about 1/16" by 5/8" by 30"

The current dimensions are about 2" * 4" * 30" - two sides are reasonably square and the others are curved with one side still having the bark.

Any ideas how I may approach this on a band-saw would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi there Segovia.

Have you the means to plane and square the blank before you start re-sawing?
If you can square the blank all around, you will have a much easier time of it when you come to re-saw.

I would prepare the willow to as close to 4 x 2 as possible. Then I'd run it through the bandsaw with a 4" face on the table, and the fence set to 5/8" from the blade.

You'd then have a strip 2" x 5/8".

Ideally, after each pass, you should clean up the sawn face ready to re-saw another 2" x 5/8" strip. When you have as many strips as you can get from the 4 x 2, flip each one over onto the 2" side, and re saw with the fence set to 1/8". You should then have strips 5/8 wide by 1/8" by 30 "
I think!!.

You will need a sharp, quality blade, and your saw needs to be set up to its optimum.
With care I'd think you could manage this on a bandsaw. You might manage to get strips 1/16" thick, but you would need a blade with hardly any set.

If you can't follow my garbled description, give me a shout on PM.

HTH

 

[Jonzjob]

I'l go along with what John said. You shouldn't have any bother as long as you just let the saw do the cutting and don't try to force it. Also, you don't really need any special blade to cut down to 1/16" in my experience, just a good one.

And don't forget to use push sicks and make sure that the rip fence face is at 90º to the table! At least a band saw doesn't have nasty habits like kick back :mrgreen: :mrgreen: