Yep, I want to build or buy a lath mill. I live in basswood country and we dont have a lot of call for basswood lumber so I figure I would like to build a mill. Dont think I can saw them out with the band mill so was curious as to whether anyone can tell me , what size circle blades would I need to cut the 2in. plank into 3/8in. thick pieces. Dont know if I can use 7 1/2in. skil saw blades or go with 10 in. Let me know please. Harold
Why do you think you can't make them on a band mill? What kind of mill do you have (Not shown on your profile signature line)? I made a few from some poplar for a customer who makes primitive crates and for my own use. Dirt simple! Saw your board 1.5" or 2" or whatever width you want, turn them vertical just like you were edging them and start sawing. I set my SimpleSet on my WM LT35 on half inch drops and start sawing. The blade takes out a 1/8" kerf leaving a 3/8" thick strip. You can easily do multiples at each pass based on how many boards you want to clamp at one time. Then just sticker them like you would any other "board" and they air dry real quickly since they are so thin.
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This is poplar, 3/8" thick X 1.5" wide X 4' long
How thin is the thinnest you can saw on the last pass? Thats one problem. Another is sawing basswood on my mill, which is homemade, it wants to give me a ragged edge on the off side of the mill. I was figuring to use circle blades turning faster to over come this. Harold
a circle mill will have a lot of waste due to thicker kerf multiplied by number of cuts. for fun I have milled 1/16th inch, you see through it like a lamp shade. I have a TK mill and I can only go down to 1 inch at the bottom. tear out on the exit side is either too fast advance speed or a dull blade. Maybe a specialty blade would work better. I use a 7 degree for everything. depending on the wood, may do better with a diff. blade. What will the lath be used for? I still see snow fence with it, did not think anyone builds with it anymore.
ps if you really worried about the last inch, you could finish sawing on a table saw.
welderskelter,
Most band mills will only cut down to 1" due to the stops and blade guards, sure there are brands out there that will cut a bit lower on final pass.
To get past this, best solution IMHO is to build a simple re-saw sled out of 1x12 or ply, there are threads on the FF that outline this pretty well. using finger boards and some 1x material you can set it up to cut down to whatever thickness you wish your final cut to be. This would also assist with the tear out as the fence on the re-saw setup would back up the following edge of the cut.
agree with Doc, you would most likely not be happy with the amount of waste lost to dust with a circular saw setup.
Many ways to accomplish what your looking to do, a bit more snooping around the FF will surely net you some good ideas.
I call that last board that will not cut at 3/8" a sticker :)
I agree with crusarius, and you can leave a little less than desirable wood on what will be the bottom when you make the cant, that you know will be wasted in the end.
I concur with others and can cut down to about 1" (A hair less but why risk knocking the set off another blade?). There are plenty of uses for those little 1" boards including stickers or crafts or such. Just start on your pre-determined mark so you end on your 1" mark at the end.
With a good sharp blade I have also cut 1/16" shavings off my cants - usually I do that when somebody says a cantilever mill won't cut straight. Of course they curl right up but they sure make great kindling when they dry a day or so.
i cut some stuff like maple and ERC to 1/4 inch to use as coaster stock for my laser.
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I like those, matter of fact, I really like those. smiley_thumbsup
Yea Doc, Nice work. I have a friend that I sawed some 3/8 in. basswood for that does lots of scroll saw work. I was just thinking I can always leave the bottom boards thick and cut them up and sell on ebay to carvers. Wonder? 8)
If you do a bunch, you can stack and sticker them and be ready to sell or use for anything. what are you using the lath for?
I am just looking for something to sell . Keep the wolf away.
i looked and it appears you are in a fairly small town of 400. Is there a flea market near you. Many places, cookies and live edge are the big deal. some are setting up at mall parking lots. also facebook and craigs list, but you have to be careful. Your downtown area looks small as well. If you get out there, they may not buy what you have, but you can negotiate some custom work and get you name out there.
The diameter blades you are talking about can have a 1/8" kerf, same as a bandmill. There was a homemade gang rip saw in a cabinet shop I worked in. It used 12" blades bored for the 1-1/4" arbor that were stacked with various spacers and an arbor nut. Once that was all clamped up the arbor was machined smaller than thread diameter on the end and there was an end plate with a flange type bearing that located on several dowel pins and was bolted on. We figured 5 hp per blade, from ancient memory I think it could swing 6 or 7 blades. I did run green redwood lath on it for one job and it did fine. The boards came back around on a roller table till they were eaten up. I think the arbor was 16" but at that tight spacing and HP requirement it took several trips to chew up a board. The real bread and butter for that machine was air dry oak hammock sticks, we had a standing order from one of the rope hammock makers so during in between times we would rip and mold those. If you want to pursue the idea try it on a tablesaw and if the cut is better than the band then you might have something. I don't think it was running any faster than gang cutting on a bandmill. Like any one off homemade machine, it had its quirks/ things that could have been done differently.
I'd feel real comfortable milling 6-8 boards 1.5" to 2" wide at a time on my mill. The low clamping I feel would be my bottleneck. More boards and I'd risk them popping out. With 2-3 inches of clamp bite things are cool. When it gets down to an inch or less they want to bow up in the middle. That still sounds faster than the mill Don is describing.