Why I’ll Appreciate a Shop and Bandsaw
The pictures show my progress for building a desktop organizer variation from the one in the Mike Pekovich article (Dec 2020). I have already built one out of green ash. The variation will have horizontal dividers instead of shelves. The sides will be taller (12 – 3/16″). A bow saw and a frame saw is what I am using to mill the logs. The hardest work was sawing the logs in half. It takes about four and 1/2 hours to saw off a piece from a half log like the one in the picture next to the half log. It is 1/2″ thick. Then a few hours to saw scrape and plane it down to 5/16″ thick. I used a circular saw and chop saw to speed things up (a little). The pieces that have been hand-planed and scrapped are sweet gum on the far left and cherry. The cherry will be sides and top and drawer front. If there is enough, also cherry for the bottom and shelves. I’ll probably use the sweet gum for the back panel and inner parts of the drawer. Because of worm damage, as you see in the piece freshly sawn off the log, I don’t know how much cherry I will have. How long would it take with a bandsaw, thicknesser/jointer, and table saw?
Replies
Wow. Good for you. That's real work.
Ecyor, Very impressive!
It still would require many steps on the Bandsaw, Jointer and Thickness Planer but it would take much less time than by hand.
Here is a good article from Michael Fortune outlining the process. He avoids the Tablesaw in the early milling process because of the possibility of kickback as the wood releases tension.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2007/01/01/mill-lumber-safely
https://www.finewoodworking.com/membership/pdf/9255/011196052.pdf
A well tuned Bandsaw with a good resaw blade can actually come close to producing boards that are flat, straight, square and near a common thickness. The boards would still have some milling marks that can be dressed with a hand plane.
Thanks, John and Gary. That was a very good article by Michael Fortune. I have a jig saw and didn't even consider it for making the rough crosscuts. I have been ripping edges with a circular saw and crosscutting with a chop saw. I will try my B&D jig saw with the rough cross cuts and see how it works. I think I have a blade that can handle 1/2 thick cherry.
Ecyor, You're welcome.
I don't always follow Michael Fortune's exact steps but I am very cognizant of them. Often I'll use a Chop Saw to cut lumber to rough length, but I make sure it is stable on the stand and I may take several passes to complete the cut allowing the wood to release stress and not pinch the blade.
Here is a good video of breaking down a green log on a Bandsaw. Note: If you use this method be careful when pushing the log to not get your hands close to where the blade may pop through the live edge.
YouTube: Logs to Lumber on a Bandsaw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d4h3LGTD10
I would use a 3/4" 3-4 Skip TPI Bandsaw Blade. A carbide tip blade will give the smoothest cuts, cutting through the board like butter.
My shoulders started to hurt as I read your post! As impressive as I find it, I'm sticking with my bandsaw. That 4.5 hour cut would be done in maybe 45 seconds with far less cleanup to do.
Yeah, that's what I'll do one day Gary. I will appreciate being able to bandsaw a rough board off of a log in 45 seconds, MJ, with far less clean up.
You would appreciate a bandsaw :
Wow, how do you resaw a board so wide without a higher fence?
Not a problem, as said before in this thread, a well tuned bandsaw will do wonders, I start with a sled to get a flat side on the log and then it’s about choosing the grain pattern , that is from an Elm log, a pretty hard and stressed wood by nature.
Kudos to you. I have an 18BX, and I made a tall wood fence for those tall cuts.
Gulfstar, What blade (type, TPI and size) did you use to make the cut?
It’s a one inch Resaw King 2-3 tpi with carbide tips.
Excellent! Great blade. I thought that it might be. Thanks.
Gulfstar, that's one clean cut elm board.
Bandsaw Boxes Made Easy: Warning Bandsaw Box making can be addictive. However they are easy to create and make great gifts for storing little trinkets. Have Fun! I want to thanks.
liteblue
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