0 set band blades

[mainshops]

 good morning all
i'm 74 but only a youngster at sawmilling and glad to find this site. a little background on me . i'm a retired tool and die maker, have a 18" Hudson mill that Ma bought for me when I retired . ma being my wife. I have a small machine shop that I can fake my way through most mechanical issues. Now for my first question
I want to saw thin.(less than .125) maple for shaker boxes. the width is 4.00 and under. can I use a 0 set on a  blade just to saw the thin stock? with a standard .019 set for maple it takes a lot of sanding to get the saw marks out. any ideas will be appreciated. thanks Dan

[drobertson]

I'm thinking it wont' work very well for you if at all,

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, mainshops.  ?? on your question.

[Ga Mtn Man]

Welcome to The FF mainshops.  You will need at least a small amount of set to provide clearance for the blade body.  Regardless of the amount of set, an accurately set band should leave you with a finish that requires minimal sanding.  As I'm sure you know, rough-sawn lumber is usually dried and then run through surface planer to get to the final thickness and finish.

[Ox]

A pretty impossible thing to do in my little old opinion.  Any type of wood cutting saw needs some set to provide clearance for the body of the blade to pass through.  You may try to go for less set and see if you can get lucky and not pinch and heat up your blade.  Maybe try .013 or so?  This thought never crossed my mind and I've never tried it.  Perhaps saw it a bit thick and send the boards through a thickness planer?  You might have to attach them to a jig (a flat and true thicker board) to be able to plane such thin stock.  Somebody who has messed with thin stuff will be along shortly and answer with real life experience.

[Larry]

A carbide tipped band doesn't have any set and cuts smoother than anything else.  The carbide tip on the tooth is wider than the body of the band to provide clearance.

They are expensive.  I had one for my old sawmill to resaw hard tropical woods.  You can get by with a 1" width on your mill I think.  I have the same band for use on the shop bandsaw.

Another cheaper option that you can try is getting a band with more teeth.  6 teeth per inch should work well for what you are doing.

One place to check is Suffolk Machine as they sell bands for both sawmills and shop bandsaws.

[Kbeitz]

Fine teeth is what you need...

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Mainshops!

[pineywoods]

It's not the amount of set that's giving you tooth marks, it's un-even set. I saw lots of 3/8 thin hardwood using standard old 1.25 X .045  7/8 spacing bands, with 27 thou set. The come out like planed, no tooth marks. Just 1 tooth with more set or less set will make marks on the finished lumber. I do my own setting and sharpening and take pains to get it right.

[Kingmt]

Don't stack boards on planners. There may be some that you can get by with it but others are going to shoot the board. You use sanders to bring a vener to thickness. You might get by with a hand plane tho.

[Hilltop366]

Don't stack boards on planners. There may be some that you can get by with it but others are going to shoot the board. You use sanders to bring a vener to thickness. You might get by with a hand plane tho.

I have used the two board method but you have to add a stop to the bottom board to keep the top board from being thrown out.

[Kingmt]

Even given a proper jig I wouldn't put a 1/8" board in a plainer.

Stop by a cabinet shop with all your pieces. I'm sure the owner would be happy to run a few board through his sander for you.

[deadfall]

The guy in the six minute video says to use a thickness sander and not a planer.

http://www.ronhazelton.com/projects/how_to_make_a_wooden_shaker_box

[hackberry jake]

I played around with planing thin stock on a dewalt lunchbox style planer once. I found that much below 3/16" and it just explodes in the planer, even when it is on top of another board. Being only 4" wide and a relatively hard wood, you can get away with very little set, but not zero.

[mainshops]

   thanks all for your responses. good thought all.
I believe a lot of my problems are the uneven set I found on the blades. that is what i'll try to eliminate first by setting my own blade by hand somehow.
I played with the two board method on the old parks planer and ran in trouble  at about .080 tk
the drum sander does the job but I have to start at about .125 thick to get to the target thickness of .065. .075 &.085
the with of the boards are 4.0 hard maple so as suggested I try for a minimal set say.005. Can I do that with a hand set until a get a setter made? Dan

[Magicman]

Remember that a standard tooth setter will not catch a tooth that is too far out.

[Delawhere Jack]

Mainshops, welcome to the FF. Maybe you could saw 4" blanks on the Hud-Son, and then resaw them into the thinner stock on a shop bandsaw?

Like Pineywoods said, a properly set band will leave a very smooth surface.

[bandmiller2]

Mainshops welcome. I would try "O" set, the pieces you will cut are so thin that they would not cramp the band. You could also try a slight set or as suggested carbide or stellite tipped  bands. Frank C.

[pineywoods]

Cheap and dirty setter, slow but accurate. Sets both right and left at the same time.
click here
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,50749.0.html
here.s a pic


 
Just be aware that like magic said, it won't un-set a tooth that already has too much set. Also watch the raker teeth. sometimes one of them will get bent sideways. Rakers should have zero set.

[BCsaw]

My first instinct was to say more teeth........finer cut.

Just like Kbeitz mentioned.

By the way......Welcome. ;D

[Larry]

I don't think you will ever get want you are hoping for with a standard bandsaw blade no matter how it is set.

Besides the methods in my first post there is another method that I have had excellent results from.  I resaw up to 6" wide on the tablesaw.  I use a standard Freud 24 tooth thin kerf blade.  I use finger boards to press the stock against the fence.  The sawed surface feels slightly fuzzy but no tooth marks at all.  The best part is I can hold a tolerance of less than .005 inch deviation on a 3' long board.  When I have to double cut I get a slight mark where the two cuts meet but a quick swipe with sandpaper wipes that out.  Another benefit is it is much faster than resawing on a bandsaw.

I found a leftover scrap of maple I sawed a few weeks ago.



This is want the sawn surface looks like and it goes straight to glue up.



It took a while for me to develop this method.  When I first tried to rip the strips my deviation was all over the place and it showed in the final product.  My Unifence was not flat and I had to replace it with an aftermarket fence rail.

I use these strips to make inlay strips for use on small boxes.  I glue contrasting strips together and even a slight deviation in thickness shows up.

[hackberry jake]

Table saw blades are also much cheaper than bandsaw blades in the long run.