Happy New Year!
For context: I’m really looking forward to crafting a set of end grain cutting boards this year. I already have a thickness planer and a good set of hand planes. I don’t however have a way of ripping my material…
I recently moved into a townhome and have access to more space in the garage. Noise is still an issue and it’s not permanent. Therefore, I’m leaning to purchasing a 10” bandsaw over a table saw due to the space and noise constraints.
Question: Will I run into any issues if I rip cutting board material on a bandsaw? I imagine a swipe or two with the hand plane will be needed before glue up? I don’t mean to bring up a table saw vs bandsaw debate again, but just looking for some guidance more specific to my intended project. Any gotchas before I move forward?
Thanks in advance!
Replies
The issue isn't with ripping, but with cross cutting. If you're making end grain boards, you want clean, accurate cross cuts after gluing up the blanks. That's where a table saw with a sled excels. It's possible to do with a bandsaw, but the cuts will be rough, making the smoothing process more difficult.
I wouldn't get anything smaller than a 14" bandsaw.
Thanks, and I should have mentioned that I do have a mitre saw and track saw (I was fixated on the ripping when posting above). I imagine both would cover the cross cutting issue you mentioned.
The band saw is a great tool. 10 inch is a second saw though, or perhaps a starter saw. If you have room in the house and budget try to go 14" unless long term you want 2 saws.
Even so, a 10" the job. Just more slowly and slightly less neatly.
The hard bit is that it will leave an edge that needs cleaning up. If you can do that with a hand plane then you'll be fine.
Probably the only issue is that there is considerable skill involved in jointing wood by hand. Best tip is to joint both edges at the same time, then any out of square results will compensate and you'll still get a flat glue up.
I guess it would be possible to gang up the pieces and quickly run them through the thickness planer. Although I try and avoid doing that as much as possible due to the noise… thanks for your feedback!
Kcannoli, Ripping on bandsaw and cleaning up the joints with a handplane works well. I agree with getting at least a 14" bandsaw. As an alternative, your tracksaw with a long enough track makes an excellent ripping tool. Just add parallel guides (Festool, Seneca or similar) that can handle wide and narrow rip cuts. With the right blade the tracksaw cut quality will be comparable to a cabinet saw.
A bandsaw has other capabilities such as resawing and cutting curves that in my view makes it an essential power tool in the workshop.
Thanks Gary!
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I work mostly with hand tools (own a table top mortiser but getting good enough where I won't be using it much). The one tool I have been saving for is a bandsaw. I think I can do all the work I need with a bandsaw and then following up with my hand planes.
I'm another vote for a 14" or bigger saw. The only comment I can add to what's already been said is be sure to learn how to properly set up a bandsaw. If your saw develops drift you will find that your results will cause much more touchup than a swipe or two with a hand plane. Michael Fortune has some great videos on FWW that I found very helpful.
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