more advice needed

[donwatson]

Hi Folks,
I am back with another tale of woe.
I am trying to cut some letters as shown in the attached pic.
The wood is kiln dried English Oak that varies between 48mm and 52mm thick. The height of the letters are 160mm.
I tried cutting the letter T at the club yesterday and broke 2 blades (Pegas No 9 Crown Tooth). It was proving difficult to cut with the blade seeming to jam quite often and when the pieces of wood came apart there was a fair amount of sawdust clinging to the cut faces.
Is the 2" thick pieces of Oak a step too far ?
Would I be better cutting the thickness down to, say, 35mm ?
Any advice/suggestions welcome. (hammer)

take care
Don W

 

[Cordy]

Don, yes cut down

The max thickness I cut on my small Hegner is 35 mm

 

[linkshouse]

I would say 2" is definitely ambitious and right at the upper limit of most scrollsaw's stated capacity.

Definitely reduce the thickness if you can.

A bandsaw might be a better option. Even if there are internal cuts, at that size I would have though that you could get away with some carefully place entry cuts glued together after cutting (much like you often see on bandsaw box patterns). It'll go a lot quicker with a bandsaw too.

Regards

Phill

 

[donwatson]

Thanks Chaps,
I will try the bandsaw approach this afternoon as that was used to cut the rough shape initially.
I will reduce the wood thickness as much as I can if that doesn't work.
The idea is to make a sign for the GLENROTHES MENS SHED' and I wanted this lettering mounted on 18mm marine ply. The letters could be fairly rough as I don't think you would see any little problems ?

take care
Don W

 

[AES]

+1 for the other's opinions - that's pretty thick stuff you're trying to cut.

If the band saw doesn't work as well as you'd like, is there any chance of (roughly) halving the thickness? Even mounting the resulting cut letters on to ply, or MDF, or softwood to get back up to the required original thickness?

The only other thought that occurs to me if the above is/are no good is that my Excali scroll saw will take a length of broken band saw blade. Perhaps you could "lash up" a mod so that your saw can do that too? Though of course you're still asking for a lot of power to cut almost 2 inch oak.

AES

 

[novocaine]

I think you might also be suffering with internal tension in the wood, as you cut it it springs closed on the blade and traps it, hence bent and broken blades.

as above, 2 inch of oak is a tad much too, but thinner stock might not fix your issue if it is clamping the blade.

I've managed 2" beech on my clarke saw before now, taking it easy and going slow.

 

[AES]

Good point novocaine. Because I seldom use "raw" wood (and 'cos I'm not so experienced), that possibility had nor occurred to me. Personally I think the OP should look at that.

(BTW, novocaine, I too use beech fairly often, not so much oak. All other things being equal, which would you say is the hardest to cut, beech or oak? Just for my own info - sorry for thread drift to the OP).

AES

 

[Claymore]

...........

 

[novocaine]

less about species and more about the chunk you've got.

I have a piece of european oak that cut like butter, same time had from the same supplier a piece that was like rock, all down to how it was grown and where in the log it was cut from. same with beech to some extent.

I prefer beech myself as it tends to be more consistent and if I forget to clean the sawdust off it doesn't turn my table in to a rust haven.

 

[AES]

OK, thanks Gents. Interesting info (just to add to me ever-growing "data bank" - hopefully!).

AES

 

[donwatson]

Thanks for all the comments. I have used the bandsaw with a ¼" blade and it cut very well.
Just a couple of pieces of Oak to buy and we can get it finished.
Thanks again for all the comments.


take care
Don W

 

[Claymore]

.......

 

[AES]

Looks pretty good Don. Well done.

AES