Back in days of old when boats were built of proper stuff, the ships saw was used to cut “rolling” or changing bevels along the length of various “bits”. A ships saw was a big gigundo bandsaw with a twist. Rather than the table tilting with respect to the blade, the whole blade assembly tipped with respect to the table. Bigger ships saws featured power tilt. I don’t, at least at the moment, have a picture of a ships saw. I do, however, have this picture of a friend’s home-made ship saw.
Note the arc in the stand. The whole upper assemble tilts right and left on that arc. Within the stand is an acme screw which exits the stand on the left side. There is a 90-degree drive assemble on the end, and you can see the shaft coming up at about a 45-degree angle there on the left side. He attaches a 1/2″ reversible drill to that and, voila, power tilt! Behind the saw you can see one outfeed table (along with other stuff, but we’re not talking about that, LOL.). He rolls the out-feed table up to the saw on the one side, and an in-feed table up to the saw on the other. He’s run stock over 40′ long thru this contraption.
You might never need such a device, but this ought to give you enough of an idea so that you could make one if need be.
Replies
Ed,thats ingenious. Idea can be used with small router tables/Scroll/jigsaws.
Some cantilevered arrangment would have be devised to register the machine's table paralell with the top of the top of his giant wood 'trunnion' (Elimanating the need for infeed and outfeed tables). Stein.
That one's a keeper...thanks, Ed!
Ed -
Where is the center of the arc with respect the in/outfeed tables? Does he have to adust the ht. of the tables according to the depth of the workpiece to keep the arc center in the middle of the cut? Or, perhaps the question is better put - where does one consider the workpoint when making a cut while rotating the saw?
I've often had thougts about trying to build some sort of carriage for my bandsaw such that it would operate horizontally instead of vertically. I'd think this would make re-sawing wide pieces quite a bit easier if one could lay them flat to run through the saw rather than standing up.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
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Neat idea!! Does the table stay horizontal by itself when the saw is tilted, or is the table re-leveled afterwards? A true ship's saw has a fixed, horizontal table. The reason this is critical in boatbuilding is the bevels generally change along the length of the member. So with a true ships saw the bevel can be changed while the member is cut.
(Disclaimer - based on "book learning", not actual experience.)
I just did a quick search for a pic of a real ship's saw, but no luck. I do have a picture of one, and could scan and post it, but for now here are some picts of the above saw at work.
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The party down low is running the "power tilt", and the one on his knees is praying the thing works, LOL. Actually, of course, he's feeding the stock.
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In this picture you can see that the in and 0ut-feed tables are well above the saw's table, which might as well not be there at all.
I'm not sure all the ships saws had a fixed table. I've got a Crescent 36" in the garage awaiting cleanup, and the tables slide horizontally on a dovetail as the angle is changed.
I would think the table would have to slide unless the table is exactly in the center of the arc.
Rich
Slide yes, but not tilt (at least I don't think they tilted).
Rich, where are you located, and what are your plans for the saw?
I'd like to see a picture of that saw, if you could?
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