No, not sleeping on the job, but I am fantasizing about resawing raw logs on my bandsaw. I would like to run, say, oak branches and/or trunk up to the maximum resawing capacity of the bandsaw to make boards. Given the weight of the logs and the uneven nature of the rounds, I realize that probably the maximum length I can run through is about 18 to 24 inches.
To this end, what is the best and safest way to resaw these logs to produce the best boards and to keep my fingers (and toes) intact?
Thanks, ATOMA
Replies
You don't say how big your band saw is, but if you set up some outfeed table, I don't see why you can't do much longer pieces than 18-24".
I resaw logs by building a simple plywood cradle - base with a wall at a right angle. You can screww the log to the cradle through the wall. The base then rides against the fence.
I just purchased a used MiniMax S45, which should have a respectable resaw capacity.Good idea for the jig, this way, you are not fighting the logs wanting to rotate while cutting. I guess it won't hurt to saw through the base of the jig until you get to the crews.
Yeah, the base is sacrificial. If you are interested in quarter sawing, once you have a flat face, you can turn the log and cut another. With two square faces, the rest of the cuts don't even need the jig.
Make sure to use a proper resaw blade - like 3T per inch.
Pictures help! I know there are at least 3 magazine articles over the past 5 years or so that show set-ups for what you want to do, and processing logs much longer than you're speculating you're limited to. The only one I could find online is here at FWW.com If you're a subscriber you can access it at:
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/FWNPDF/011027082.pdf
Not that it's necessarily the best way, just ane example of one way to do it.
Thank you, Forestgirl.Yes, you are right; in response to your suggestion, I found a couple of more articles that show two jigs for this set up. One uses a Pony clamp, which I think is the way to go.Best regards, ATOMA
Hope it goes well, let us know!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I played with resawing green madrone this season, while cutting firewood. The best way for me right now is to rip a log in two freehand with the chainsaw to establish 'flat' faces to bandsaw and also to limit weight. This worked out much better than taking whole logs and slowly flattenning one side with a hand planer before the bandsaw. I was a little too abmitious with length this season, 12" by 7' logs wieghing almost 200 pounds up on the bandsaw table (with beefy infeed/outfeed support) Next time it's 3' to 4', wider, logs. So, look at resawing once with a chainsaw, and then maybe leave the logs a little longer, but not seven feet like I did! Mine is a newer Jet 18", and the chainsaw is a large Stihl.
Brian
A,
What the others said but I would add:
1) I have a 1.5 tpi hook tooth blade used on a 2.5 HP (output) BS and this cuts thick green wood a lot easier than a 3 tpi of similar tooth pattern does.
2) Branches are all reaction wood and are unlikely to make usable planks, even if you manage to resaw some, which you will find problematic as they bind, warp and may even go "bang!" as you slice them.
Lataxe
Atoma -
You can certainly process usable lumber on your bandsaw (I have and do), but here are a couple of considerations beyond the various jigs described in the articles that Forest Girl pointed you toward -
If you're thinking of sawing up oak, you don't need a jig. The best, fastest and lightest on your back way to get boards out of American red or white oak is to split the log into quarters with a sledgehammer and some wedges. It can be further broken down (and a bit more accurately than with the wedges) with a froe. Doing this gives you two flat surfaces that you can true up with a power jointer, an adze, or a handplane that can then be re-sawed in a conventional fashion on a bandsaw. Several other North American hardwoods can also be processed this way, including maple, walnut, and cherry.
Don't bother with branch wood. Even gargantuan branches on oak trees are not worth sawing into anything other than firewood. It's "reaction wood", and will never stop twisting, cupping, and bowing, even in a finished project.
Finally - make sure you thoroughly wax and/or oil all the metal parts on your bandsaw, jointer, or other power tool you want to use for this purpose. The sawdust from oak logs is sopping wet and very acidic. It will rust your bandsaw's tabletop, wheels (if they're steel), and guides in as little as 30 minutes.
D,It's interesting that you're able to rive American oaks and get reasonably straight boards. Most timber, including oak, that I get and rive from the log here in north west England has wind in it. Sometimes there's more and sometimes less. Rarely will there be a straight-ish and unwound log. Such rivings are fine for chair, stool or other items that are hewn or drawknifed straight - or even flat (eg for a seat). I can't remember ever seeing a rived log that would have provided a plank as flat as a sawn one. Virtually every bench, shaving horse or other item requiring a flat plank, made by local green woodworkers I know, are either sawn or adzed flat from a rived-but-wound slab.Perhaps there is something in the nature of American oaks, or their habitat, that provides logs without that tedious wind we seem to suffer here? I would be interested to hear of your experiences.Lataxe
Be careful of foreign objects. If you can borrow a metal detector it might be a good idea to scan the logs first.
What follows is a list I did for our newsletter. Not all of them are likely in your case but staples, bullets, etc. show up everywhere.
Tom
• a side-harrow tooth. <!----><!----><!---->
• an old lead musket ball counted rings and it was about 100 yrs old. <!----><!---->
• small metal box with a small quantity of gold dust and flakes in it. <!----><!---->
• Coca-Cola bottle<!----><!---->
• two 6-inch diameter by 8-inch long rocks, sitting vertically.<!----><!---->
• nylon rope<!----><!---->
• automotive-type water pump <!----><!---->
• steel T-post <!----><!---->
• four railroad spikes on one side of the log, three railroad spikes and an 8-inch lag screw on the other. <!----><!---->
• animals (raccoons, squirrels, mice, cats, snakes and of course bee's honeycombs) <!----><!---->
• disk blade with the 12-inch bolt holding it into the tree. <!----><!---->
• 1/2-inch rebar <!----><!---->
• metal-jacketed 50 caliber round. <!----><!---->
• anvil <!----><!---->
• horseshoes<!----><!---->
• railroad spikes<!----><!---->
• 18 electrical staples out of one place in a walnut log. <!----><!---->
• sap spiles (to drain the sap for Maple syrup) <!----><!---->
• a deer stand <!----><!---->
• an ants' nest<!----><!---->
• a 3/4" wire rope<!----><!---->
• Shrapnel in a teak plank from ex-Rhodesia, now <!----><!----><!---->Zimbabwe<!----><!---->. <!----><!---->
• an old wrought iron fence straight through the middle. <!----><!---->
• a mushroomed ball of lead about an inch in diameter<!----><!---->
• nails<!----><!---->
• insulators<!----><!---->
• a metal roofing cap several feet long.<!----><!---->
• a live 50 caliber shell. <!----><!---->
• a spoon made from lead. <!----><!---->
• a training grenade from WW1. <!----><!---->
• a three inch hollow with an old five cent coke<!----><!---->
<!----> <!---->
• My helper was cutting up the branches of a felled <!----><!---->Virginia<!----><!----> pine when a section of about 8 inches burst into flames, producing a bright white light like magnesium burning. There was a water hose nearby, and he instinctively tried to flood the flames with water. It continued to burn - this was not pine resin. Finally, after repeated attempts to put it out, he decided to just pile the rest of the freshly cut, very green pine tree on top of the fire. Even with all the water from the hose, the flames ignited the whole tree into a blaze. I have a degree in biochem, and all I can figure is that some sort of explosives or fireworks, or a form of magnseium, etc. had been in a hollow, and the tree's new growth calloused over it. <!----><!---->
<!----> <!---->
• a live monkey from the local zoo
Tom,That is an astounding list!Most of the timber I get in log form is relatively young and from woods well away from urban life. There is sometimes (rarely) a nail or a bit of wire but nothing like those encapsulations you list for us. It would be a wonderful thing if the stories behind some of them - how they came to be there - could be told. That gold in a box, for instance......Lataxe
<!----><!----> <!---->
I’m sure there are wonderful stories especially if you were buying the beer. We really like guys in sawmills.
<!----> <!---->
What worries me is that many sawmills have a great number of holes in the walls and roofs where something came apart unexpectedly.
<!----> <!---->
The caution probably wasn’t necessary here. I suppose it was more a reflex than anything else.
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Have a good evening.
<!----> <!---->
tom<!----><!---->
Lataxe - You might have a cogent observation there (english oak growing twisted because of constant wind). Where I live in North Carolina oaks are the predominant species in the forest, and they grow to huge girths. I have one in my driveway at the moment that came from a neighbor's yard that is 5 feet in diameter.
What I was suggesting to the OP, though, was using splitting and riving to break down an oak log into quarters so that he could manage the resulting pieces onto his bandsaw. Generally speaking, the riven parts are not nearly as flat as what you'd see off of a saw, though they are close enough to be smoothed and straightened with a power jointer and/or a coarsely-set handplane.
Regarding the two predominant species here - red oak and white oak - the red oak will split if you just show the maul to the log. White oak is more difficult as the fibers stick together and tend not to want to let go. That said, it can still be split down the grain to yield a pretty straight piece, assuming there's no knots.
Lataxe, it's probably a lot to do with the difference between north American forested land and forested land in the UK.
It's a generalisation and perhaps not entirely accurate, but the deciduous hardwood forests of north America I suggest tend to be denser than here in the UK. Denser forests means less light at ground level leading to to straighter growing trunks urgently trying to get their crown up to the canopy. They shed their lower side limbs more readily than trees that grow in more open growing conditions. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Here try this. At that price tag you might as well go all out and buy a small woodmizer.
I'm also curious to try milling my own logs, just one problem... Israel is not known for its lumber production.
http://www.lagunasupport.com/flash/logmasterstream.htm
Chaim
Edited 9/10/2008 12:57 pm by chaim
Amazing!! A nice video demonstration, thanks for point it out. This would be ideal for a wanna-be sawyer with a good size shop.ATOMA
You can saw trunks, not branches. You need a blade with 1 to 3 teeth ,at least 1/2" wide.Make a sled frm 1/2" plywood that rides along the fence. Make two end right angle blocks for each end of sled. Screw one block at each end of log,into the log end and down on the sled,two lag screws into one end and one lag screw into other end.This will keep the log from turning.Make sure the table is at 90° to the blade, then add a leg under the table to keep the table from going out of square.
It is easy to knock the table out of square setting down a heavy log.Paste wax the table and the sled bottom.Cut as fast as the set will allow, probably with a sharp blade you can cut 4'-0" in about one minute.Then remove lags , lay cut side on bottom,repeat until you have four square sides.If you have a jointer that is wide enough,joint all sides square. I would resaw at least 1 1/8" even for 3/4" finished stock.Only resaw a length that you can handle.I have resawed cherry logs up to 6'-0" with help.
Use the branches for firewood or turning. Any boards you cut from a branch will be unstable.
mike
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