Replies

1. 
   Lataxe | Mar 27, 2006 08:23pm | #1

   BBrian,

   I make lots of slats, draw rails/runners and other small parts for various Mission-style furniture.  I get a lot of my timber as "offcuts" from a large outfit that does big scale stuff in houses - stairs, doors, windows and the like.  These "offcuts" are often the left-over 2in thick 8ft long X 8in wide planks!

   To cut such planks down from these dimensions to 3/8 or 1/2in slats, or 1 X 1in runners, means a lot of cuts into that big plank.  My tablesaw blade kerf is 1/8 in.  The bandsaw kerf is less than 1/16 ins.  After 16 or less cuts you save (in theory) a 1 inch plank-worth of wood in using the bandsaw rather than the tablesaw.

   But it is "in theory" for bandsaw cuts need more clean-up than tablesaw cuts - assuming your tablesaw is cutting cleanly; but you seem to say yours is not.

   Perhaps you need to try to get your tablesaw trued up or otherwise working better.  Perhaps then you could also use a thin kerf circular saw blade (down to 1.5mm these days).  Otherwise it seems as if a (carefully set up) bandsaw will save you wood.  But bandsaws can be even more tempramental than tablesaws.

   Lataxe

1. 
   berlinbrian | Mar 27, 2006 08:40pm | #2

   Thanks for your response.The tablesaw was getting through the maple but it was a real workout. I was wondering if the bandsaw would offer a close to equivalent cut but without the struggle since I need to cut about 40 of these slats.I am not terribly concerned about the waste due to kerf size since my cut list assumes a 1/8" kerf and some clean up. I also bought more wood than I need.I often hear people singing the praises of the bandsaw and if I could get to it cut evenly, then the cleanup could be accomplished with the planer which is was I need to do anyway with the cuts from the tablesaw.

2. 
   cowtown | Mar 28, 2006 06:49am | #3

   berlin brian was saying...

   The plans call for planing the 10/4 maple down to 1 3/8" and
   then .....

   Wait a minute.... Yer gonna take 2 1/2" thick material (10/4) and plane more than a whole inch to get 1 3/8?????? Then start resawing it?

   Something is wrong with that picture, and there are three things wrong that I can see.....

   1. yer wasting about 30% of yer material (and 10/4 is likely more $ per bfm than 8/4, and certainly more than 4/4)

   2. yer wasting a lot of time do do this

   3. yer waste factor is gonna be higher. Most KD woods exhibit case hardening, and almost certainly have a moisture variance between outside and inside. Ergo, you plane off yer 1/2" on each side, then joint it, and resaw it. My experience is that you are gonna find a lot of pieces you slice off when you get to resawing are gonna bend just a tad, ergo, more waste.

   Why not just joint one side and edge of a 4/4 rough stick and slice off yer 7/16 strips with yer table saw or band saw. If yer using yer table saw, I'd rip the first strip, joint the board again, rip off the next strip, joint the board again etc. that way you have at least one reasonably smooth straight surface already.

   Methinks that the indication to use the heavier material is likely to achieve a quarter-sawn appearance

   Personally, I'd be cutting off 1/2" strips, not 7/16, if I wanted to end up with 3/8 clean. And with maple, I'd NOT be expecting my planer to give me a good final sandable surface- just too much chip out (or chance of chip out) , but rather use a thickness sander to sand to thickness, even though it is slower, it probably ends up better.

   Once I got the strips ripped, I'd let them stabilize for a day discard the ones which seem to want to end up as boat-ribs, and then stack em on the jointed edge and run through the planer en mass to about 1 1/2 (watching grain direction of course) . Then thickness sand em to final dimensions.

   Ain't nothin wron,g Brian by figuring out how much length say 2 or 3 slats would involve, and cutting down yer 7' heavy board to more managable lengths, besides, that would allow you to reduce the wastage involved with jointing edges, and it would let you maybe work more harmoniously with the grain on smaller pieces on various machines to reduce chip out from grain reversals. Maple is good for grain reversals and chip out in ppaners/jointers. The longer the piece, the more grain reversals you is gonna encounter.Just don't end up feeding short little pieces into yer machines. It just ain't safe.

   I dunno if I helped ya at all,..... but really, planing down 10/4 to 1 3/8 just gotta be either a real off-beat idea, or it better have some real HONKIN good justification for the waste of time and materials involved.

   That's just my way of thinkin about working with maple.

   Eric in Cowtown

3. 
   Knotscott | Mar 28, 2006 02:05pm | #4

   Hi Brian - I've cut 2" hard maple on a GI contractor saw and a Craftsman hybrid with a Freud LM72 24T FTG ripper with similar results as you.  The LM72 is a great ripping blade but is full kerf, and on dense material that thick, it bogs the motors a bit...it'd do better with a 3hp cabinet saw, which for many of us is too expensive to justify.  There's more than one way to skin a cat though... I switched to a thin kerf version of a very similar tooth configuration to the LM72 (found 2 actually, DeWalt DW7124TK and a Leitz 24T FTG TK...they're about identical to each other), and both plow through the heavy material better on my saw...both are very reasonably priced, and right now you can get the Leitz on closeout for $11 plus s/h. ([email protected] )   A friend of mine who's got a commercial shop called the Leitz a "ripping animal".

   The BS is a viable option but will definitely leave a rougher cut.

    

   
   

   ---

   Edited 3/28/2006 7:34 am ET by scotty

4. 
   tangomike | Mar 28, 2006 05:36pm | #5

   echo Eric. Why are you taking 10/4 stock down to 6/4? If you are going to use that bandsaw for anything it should be to resaw your 10/4 stock to 1 1/2 and then clean it up with your planer. But it sounds like you have already taken it down to 1 3/8". Your contractors saw should do ok on this thickness, but I would also rip of 7/16" slats. Also, you should be okay with this thickness through your planer but you might get better results if you make a quick-and-dirty sled (a scrap of melamine works great). I usually get some chatter when running thin strips through my planer, a sled stabilizes the work pieces and also eliminates any snipe.

1. 
   berlinbrian | Mar 28, 2006 05:45pm | #6

   I had a brain fart when I said 10/4. It is 8/4!
   So it seems that the consensus is to keep using the
   table saw to rip the 1 3/8" thick slabs into 7/16"
   strips and then clean them up with the planer.
   Jointing after each rip to get at least one clean side.It also seems that a thin kerf blade might help the
   contractor's saw have an easier time of it.Thanks.

1. 
   charlesm | Mar 28, 2006 08:22pm | #9

   Brian,If the Freud blade you have is the LM72 I think you are okay and likely just need to work on the saw alignment. If the wood is binding it will cause the saw to struggle and the cut quality will suffer. Start by checking the fence to make sure it is dead straight. If so, align the blade to be as close to parallel with the blade as possible and then toe out the back (away from the blade) a couple of thousandths of an inch (about the thickness of copy paper). Also, keep the blade low so that only about 1/2 to a whole tooth is above the wood.
   Charles M

   Freud America, Inc.

1. 
   berlinbrian | Mar 28, 2006 09:09pm | #10

   I think it is the LM72. (Although I just ordered a Freud LU87R010 from Amazon just in case). I have a Delta contractor's saw. Should I use the blade stablilizer? I bought a set from Freud a while back for another purpose but never used them.I aligned the fence before attempting the operation. I am about 4 or 5 thousandths out in the back. I am not getting much burning like I would expect if the fence and blade were binding.When I went slower the saw could keep up without burning but it bogged easily and I was afraid to go too slow since I had read that going too slow can cause burning.I had the blade set about 3/4" above the wood. I though I read somewhere that having the blade too low causes heat buildup and more burning.
   I will try it lower before I switch to the new blade.Thanks.

2. 
   berlinbrian | Mar 28, 2006 05:48pm | #7

   To make the sled, I would take a piece of melamine say 12" wide by 4ft long and put some number of slats on it. Correct?
   It there anything special about the sled other than it is flat?
   Does it have anything to help keep the slats on it, or would the preasure of the cutter head roller keep the slats in place while planing?

1. 
   tangomike | Mar 29, 2006 08:20am | #13

   yeah, pretty much. A piece of melamine, screw a couple of rails on the side, make it about 2 or 3 inches longer than the pieces you are planing. The pressure from the rollers will keep the pieces secure.

5. 
   PeteBradley | Mar 28, 2006 07:40pm | #8

   Bandsaw with 3/8" 4TPI PC Timberwolf band. I know from firsthand experience that you'll get a surface that only needs light planing (or a pass on the jointer) or sanding.

   I'll second the comments about the waste of material. No idea why they recommended square posts. I would have planed a slab to the final width of the slats, then sliced it on the band saw with a fence. Quick and easy. I recently did about 100 slats for a wine rack that way.

   Pete

6. 
   Pondfish | Mar 29, 2006 12:30am | #11

   I have done a similar task many, many times, only in my case I was making 3/16" slats.

   Use the bandsaw, taking time to tune it properly to minimize or eliminate blade drift.  Clamp a fence to the saw with 7/16" gap--you should not have to plane down from 1/2" slats, unless your saw tuning is less than expected.

   I plane the top end of my blank prior to resawing, so I have one "true" face.  I also mark one side of the blank with a slanted line, so that I can keep all the slats in register.  If you have figured wood, it's a nice effect to have slats ordered according to how they came off the blank.  Then I cut off a slat on the bandsaw and set it aside. 

   Next, the blank is replaned to give another flat, true face.  The process repeats itself until no more slats can be cut from the blank.

   I checked the first time I did this, and my waste was about 30% total; however, there was no other way of getting the slats, so I chalked it up to the cost of doing the project.

   IMPORTANT:  maple is hard, and pushing too hard when resawing will burn the wood, heat up the blade, and cause it to drift.  Apply easy pressure when resawing, and give the blade a chance to cool.

   ALSO: if your maple is figured (like curly maple), wet the face that will be sent through the planer prior to planing.  I use a plant mister to get a damp face, then I let the water soak in.  When the face appears dry, I plane it.  This reduces tear out of figured wood tremendously.

   Good luck, it's not a hard job if you are patient.  But definitely, use the bandsaw.

   Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005
7. 
   GHR | Mar 29, 2006 04:17am | #12

   I am starting with 1 3/8" thick by 7" x 4ft" wide board.

   4ft is a wide board.

   I would cut the board to the finished length plus an inch.

   Figure out how much width 4 slats would require and rip to that width first. Then rip these smaller pieces in half and in half again.