do i need bandsaw or table saw help please !!

[mac1012]

Hi i need advice as to whether i need bandsaw or table saw.

i started making rocking horses small one for young children sold my first one yesterday at craft fare and got order for another one.

i currently use my hegner for all cutting out and i want to speed up the cutting process as there is a lot of straight sided cuts to the various pieces.

Now i can do a pretty good straight cut with the hegner but was wondering if a table saw or band saw would help me with improved accuracy and speed.

now the problem i have is this i stick the plan pieces onto wood and cut , now sometimes i may not get the paper with say a leg piece which has parallel sides dead band on running parallel to the edge of wood but with hegner it not a problem as you just follow line freestyle.

my question is this, and by the way never used a band saw or table saw so don't laugh at my assumptions !

\so i cannot guarantee i going to rip the pieces dead parallel to the edge of wood as i explain there might be a discrepancy with plan edge etc. so can i cut with table saw without rip fence to allow for slight angle or is that not possibe ?or does it have to be dead square piece to use table saw or would i be better with bandsaw freestyle and if so would a band saw give me any more accuracy /speed as opposed to my hegner.

can i just say please no replys about toy safety or paying my taxes etc as i looked into all this and while some may be thinking they are trying to help would be good to keep on topic , thanks mark

would value any experience and tips you guys could give me

Mark

 

[paulm]

Without question a decent small to mid sized bandsaw would to my mind be the best tool for the job and would be much, much faster than the scrollsaw.

If you are making up lot's of the same model or pattern rocking horse though, it might be worth thinking about making up some mdf or tufnol or similar templates and using with a bearing guided router cutter in a router table or even handheld, depending on the thickness of timbers used ?

Cheers, Paul

 

[mac1012]

paul that sounds an interesting idea with the router the wood is 21mm thick planed soft wood how would you fix the template to the wood for cutting ? a router table would be better if i could cut that thick on it, does the bearing run on top or bottom of work piece and how would i keep the template and work piece together?

it would certainly produce accurate pieces and uniform aswell think it would do for the rockers which are curved and long ?

think i might pursue this idea if the wood not too thick to do on router table

also can you get cutter profiles that would cut and leave a small radius on edge of work piece?

thanks for help mate

 

[RogerP]

You stick the template on with strong double-sided tape (carpet tape). Cutters can have either top or bottom mounted bearing - use whichever is most suitable for the job. There are many sizes of bearing guided rounding over router bits. This would need a separate operation after the part has been cut using a template.

Wealden are a good source for router cutters

 

[mac1012]

thanks roger defo going to go this route ! i just put post up about what best table budget around 200 250 i guess you have one so you know what i going to ask next ! also with it being strong tape can you take of and use template again ?

 

[Jacob]

.....can i cut with table saw without rip fence to allow for slight angle or is that not possibe ?.....

You can't freehand with a TS so for your odd angle ideally you need a good sliding table. You clamp the workpiece to it without needing to use the fence. This is really useful if you are doing a lot of precise straight cuts not necessarily parallel, or for precise cross cutting.

 

[xy mosian]

Of course you could just use the template to draw around, and then use the bandsaw. Save on printing and glue.
xy

 

[mac1012]

ok thanks xy yeah was thiking of that option the router method appeal to be as i could rip a lot of and be gauranteed they same size realise would be noisy and messy but quick and accurate i could prob spend a morning just routering and do enough for say four rocking horses with my ear protectors on !

dont want to pay a lot for table as will only be using without fence to trim wood to templates with bearing cutter , been looking but so many models to choose from

take care mark

 

[xy mosian]

mac,
I take your point. However it might be worth noting the way in which many others use routers with templates. A rough cut of the material to near the size of the template reduces the load on the router and wear on the cutter. This is normally done with a bandsaw. The minimum radius of a concave corner is the radius of the cutter. At least with a bandsaw, approaching the corner from two directions, a very sharp inner corner can be achieved. Both points to be bourne in mind I think. Sorry if you had already thought of all this.
Have fun, and best of luck with your venture
xy

 

[mac1012]

ok thanks xy i see what you mean i prob having a rethink as think the router method is a bit organic and havivng to make sure cutting whth grain etc having to trim very close to pattern before routering plus the safety aspect free styling with a exposed router table cutter !!

I leaning towards bandsaw again i seen a sip model only 10 inch but it on stand and better model of the two ten inch they do i think 580 watt motor and was retailing at 210 180mm cut depth i know some people on here didnt think good choice but i only cut mostly 21mm planed soft or the most i cut is 44mm depth and some old pitch pine 40mm thick which i was given from church.

could i cut two pieces together on band saw ? 2 x 20mm taped together with double sided the problem i trying to solve is uniformity and speeding up cutting process as oppossed to hegner. as there is 2 pieces same for body 2 front legs same size 2 back legs same size 2 rockers identical 2 base pieces the same etc so i want to find method i could cut these together so match each other, so overall depth would be 42mm cutting. i have cut that on my scroll saw ok so until i get bandsaw i going to get some olsen thick wood blades and stack cut 2 pieces togehter. can you reccomend a band saw i can prob go to 300 pounds at a push

thanks for help mark

 

[9fingers]

You will probably be able to get a used Kity within your budget. A good machine and better value for money than a new chaiwanese model.

Make sure you use quality blades such as those sold by Ian at Tuffsaws. You will be hard pushed to find a better blade than Ian's. He is a member here and freely gives advice on which blade to suit your work and machine.

Bob

 

[Max Power]

No question about it, you definitely need a bandsaw, get the best you can afford and as Bob has said take the blade out that comes with it and put a good blade in

 

[xy mosian]

Hi mark, Both Bob and Alan have more experience than I and have given good advice. From my production engineering days I recall that one of the most difficult problems is deciding exactly what the task is, in order to specify machinery. By which I am suggesting, don't buy an enormous machine which will get in the way and seldom be used anywhere near capacity. One point I would make is that rushing into high volume production, without care, can produce a lot of scrap work, I would be wary of stacking material to cut. I can see that it should be possible to cut two nominally identical pieces at once, but would be inclined to make sure that you can achieve the results you want in singles first. Again the use use of double sided tape might damage the surface of the material as it is separated, tearing the grain for instance. Obviously this is not a problem when cutting singles. Having said that, with a finished surface, lacquer etc., it might work quite well.

I have just re read your post and see that you already cut pieces doubled up. How do you hold them together? Is there any damage on separation?

There is lots of good information around these parts about bandsaws and although I can understand any nervousness about buying second hand a pre-loved machine will most likely be a good choice. Try an add in the For sale/Wanted section.

Just for information are you looking to make rocking horses as a hobby or for more substantial income?

HTH xy.

 

[mac1012]

thanks for replys guys i prob look for band saw on ebay .well i wanted to do two pieces together as it would make sense as need to be exactly same i going to experiment with scroll saw first.it soft wood and i sand to finish

i make them in my spare time just started r horses sold first one on nsaturday within two hours on craft fair been selling other crafts all year i make angels crosses love hearts wooden words only spare time but made 700 this year profit so hegner paid for itself.

thanks mark