Resawing question

[colinc]

Hi,

advice needed:

we need to convert baulks of sitka spruce 8" x 4" between 24ft and 36ft long into laminations 4" wide x 1/2" to 3/4" thick.

Ultimately they will be glued together to make a tapering spar 44ft long with a construction joint at the centre.

These are big pieces of wood to deal with! How would you cut it without specialist facilities?

Alternatively - does anyone have the facilities?

Colin

 

[Modernist]

If it's clean Harlows might re-saw it for you or there was a private sawmill at Hartshorne run by a Mr Mumford

 

[markymark12]

I would have a call round and find someone local to cut them for you. If it is reclaimed however you may find it difficult to find someone willing to take it on.
There are skil saws out there which would cut it, but it would be an expensive way to go for one job and the kerf and accuracy not great, so reworking a bit more than a resaw

 

[ondablade]

Presuming a 4 in depth of cut and clean and square wood (and subject to what somebody who knows a bit about the things has to say) i'd say it's probably a job suited to a resaw - that is a heavy duty bandsaw running a wide and highly tensioned carbide tipped blade and fitted with a power feeder.

This is a heavy duty Stenner version, there are smaller ones around too. It fairly goes though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgoRkUEtspc Or here's one in Wales: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVUXM2Tf ... re=related I'd imagine that many joinery shops will have a resaw of some sort.

You could i'm sure get it done on a heavy duty bandsaw too, although as the saw gets smaller and lighter the cutting will slow considerably, and the risk of issues with blade wander etc will increase.

Something like a carbide tipped 1 in Lenox resaw blade on a bandsaw big and strong enough to tension it properly should probably do it - say one of the 24 in heavy duty Italian models. It might be possible to find somebody with a saw like this and with a power feeder too, but most won't have one.

It could probably be done with a rip blade on a big and powerful table saw too, but i've no experience of ripping as deep as this. Chances are it would waste more material due to the wider kerf. A power feeder sounds like it would be a good move on this too.

If the strips are subsequently to be laminated it'd be fairly important to decide whether or not whatever resaw method is used that the finish is/is not consistently good enough for gluing/laminating. In that if they had to be run through a planer as well it would waste more material, and add time.

Another issue might be the need to reduce the width setting on the power feeder as successive layers are peeled off and the thickness reduces.

 

[Benchwayze]

I have some 7" x 5" Douglas fir up to 5 feet long. I plan to resaw them into 7" x 2" planks on a Startrite 351, 8" depth of cut bandsaw.

First though, I will be contacting 'Tuffsaws' for some new skip-tooth blades.

Faint heart never won the fight!
I'll let you know how I get on.

John

 

[ondablade]

Good luck John. Interestingly enough I've just finished an e-mail exchange with one of the UK mags that reviewed a new Startrite model recently - on the basis that while it was a nice looking saw my feeling (fresh from a major bandsaw buying saga) was that the piece wasn't nearly quantitative enough in determining what its limits were.

I got nowhere. But the fact remains - there's very little way to figure e.g. what thickness can a saw realistically re-saw at a decent speed and to a decent finish without trying one out.

Which for most of us involves buying the machine first, and taking our chances. I've suffered financially more than once and wasted a lot of time as a result of the fuzzy, feel good but minimal data containing style of writing that has become the norm in the mags.

What's more this style of qualitative writing fails to really reward those making high performing kit - for the price point. Sales literature is equally impossible - no matter what it is it's best in class.

It's to my mind quite a serious issue, in that there's lots of equipment in general out there masquerading as being of 'professional' standard. Not everybody needs a bandsaw that'll resaw 12in with ease, lots will be happy with much less.

But right now it's damn difficult to figure where the line lies in the case of a given piece of kit. (I'm using bandsaw examples, but the issue is much more general than that) 12in vertical capacity for example most definitely does not equate to 12in of resaw capability in many saws....

 

[Harbo]

I recently re-sawed several 10" x 4" sycamore planks into 10" x 1 1/4" on my old type 352. But they were only 8' long!
Blade from Tuffsaws.
I suppose the long lengths might be manageable with lots of roller supports fixed someway?

Rod

 

[Oryxdesign]

Am I right in thinking that you want to cut across the 4" dimension? If you are then you should get good results on a bandsaw.

 

[colinc]

Hi,

have been looking into the availability of resawing facilities and have a couple of local leads to follow up.

thanks,

Colin

 

[dickm]

I'd have thought that most of the bigger bandsaws (352 or similar) would tackle that IF they have a decent blade, AND some way of supporting the timber into and out of the cut. 4" is hardly deep cutting, but supporting 30 feet of timber is a major job, and effectively needs 65 feet of space in which to operate. I'd also suggest you need a point fence, not the usual long fence.
Can you rig up/borrow something like roller conveyor track each side of an appropriate bandsaw?

 

[Benchwayze]

Ian (Ondablade)...

My 351 is about 15 years old. I have sawn up to 7.5" in depth often enough, and the re-sawing capability was one of the prime reasons I bought it. I could have got by with the next model down and elbow room in my shop would have benefited too. Next to my planer/thicknesser, the bandsaw probably had the biggest positive effect on my woodworking; in terms of projects I could tackle. I suppose I could manage without either, but I wouldn't want to!

I am confident that with a good blade, well set-up, and some out-feed support, the 351 will cope with these baulks. I shall be sawing across both dimensions, depending on how the grain goes!

I have ripped small logs in the past (Softwood), so I know the saw can usually handle what I throw at it. It's just the age of the machine that bothers me, but to date it's making no strange noises and given necessary blade changes it seems to stay happy!

Regards

John.

:wink: