Sawing thin “veneer”

[scsmith42]

[chet]

I assume yer resawing on the bandsaw in one of yer pics and not on the Baker. Beautiful work! 

[scsmith42]

I assume yer resawing on the bandsaw in one of yer pics and not on the Baker. Beautiful work! 

Correct.  I have a dedicated 16" horizontal bandsaw with a conveyor system, running Laguna Resaw King bands.  

.035 kerf, 0 degree set and we're maintaining tolerances of .003 or less across the width of the veneer.

[Larry]

That's some beautiful and unique paneling Scott.

I've ran the Laguna Resaw King on my mill but never could come close to the tolerance your getting off the resaw. I was sawing some thin kiln dry tropical stuff. I also run that band on my shop bandsaw with power feeder and might be able to hold to .015". Limited on width to 12" with that machine.

[tule peak timber]

I run Lennox blades on a 28 inch vertical bandsaw with a power feeder and get good results over 1/16 thick and thicker.. Only KD woods though. A little mahogany wall of veneer. The door is also veneer over sugar pine. I use the heck out of my little "veneer" setup. The new server is not taking my pics!

[chet]

You answered my 0 degree set question without me even asking. 

[scsmith42]

I run Lennox blades on a 28 inch vertical bandsaw with a power feeder and get good results over 1/16 thick and thicker.. Only KD woods though. A little mahogany wall of veneer. The door is also veneer over sugar pine. I use the heck out of my little "veneer" setup. The new server is not taking my pics!

Rob, I started off with Lennox Tri-masters but switched over to Resaw Kings about 10 years ago.  They are better in all areas.  Thinner kerf, less material loss, and Laguna will resharpen them.

I used to have to sand around .025 - .030 per face to get rid of the kerf marks left by the Trimasters.  With the RK's, that dropped to .010 - .015 - sometimes less.

My only disappointment with the RK's was when Laguna moved their production and resharpened it facilities from California to South Carolina.  It took them months to get quality problems under control.

This is the machine that I use.

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-16-30-hp-3-phase-dual-conveyor-horizontal-resaw-bandsaw/g0504

[thecfarm]

Look like tule peak timber has some competition!!!!
WOW!!!! 

[scsmith42]

Look like tule peak timber has some competition!!!!
WOW!!!!

Uh - as much as I'd like to claim that... the answer is no.  

Rob is in a class of his own when it comes to being an artisan.  

[tule peak timber]

All kidding aside, my experience with Torbin's resaw king blades and Lennox were exactly the opposite of SC's. This admittedly was back when he first came out with them.

My resaw is a modified SCM 28" vertical bandsaw that I beefed up the table on, added a Comatic resaw motor and roller kit and did a few other minor things. I added sealed bearing blade guides and a makeshift lubricating system, using watered down spindle lube and a blade wiper. Nowadays, instead of the blade lube attachment, I squirt on DuPont wax chain lube instead and it works quite well. As far as tolerances, I eyeball my set up with a 6" machinist rule and I'm probably sanding 50 thousandths or more through the wide belt. The great majority of my veneers are probably around 1/4", so I don't worry too much about removing material. Just set up, cut and go. The original machine and feeder cost me a total of around $8500, 15 years ago and that's about 1/2 of what today's prices are. The machine that SC is using most assuredly is a superior machine to my home brew model.

Another note on the thin veneer issue is that usually I glue immediately after coming off the saw and after every mistake in the book, I strictly use epoxy to laminate on a substrate. At this stage in the game, I probably won't step up to a better machine.

[doc henderson]

there is a guy in Wichita that has much used equipment for sale.  including that grizzly resaw.  I got my gizzly spiral planer and jointer as well as 3 logrite arches from him.  was on craigslist.  not meant to be an add.

[scsmith42]

Rob, I started with a setup similar to yours (24" vertical bandsaw with comatic power feeder and roller fence) but switched over to the 16" horizontal setup in 2009.

Here is a high res photo of some black walnut veneer that we resawed for a customer today.  Sawn thickness was around .125 (1/8"), and the kerf marks sanded out at around .012 per side.  Sanded thickness (both sides) was around .100

When I first tried the Resaw Kings about ten years ago, I was very disappointed with the cut quality and complained to Laguna.  Their rep asked me to send them back and let them resharpen and return them to me, and told me that if I still wasn't satisfied that he would refund 100% of my purchase price (including shipping both ways), and I could keep the bands.

I was stunned by the difference after they had been resharpened and reset!  Their rep told me that the bands were manufactured in Europe and that they could not maintain close tolerances at the speed on the production line.  However, when they resharpened them they took their time to get them dead on.

After that, every time I ordered new bands I instructed them to resharpened and reset them before they even shipped them.  Been great ever since (except immediately after their move to South Carolina).

[Larry]

That looks the same as what I'm getting from my Resaw King.

I'm confused about what your talking about when you say "set". My bands have a body .035 thick and a carbide tooth that is .060 wide. No set at all. The clearance is from the wide tooth. What is Laguna doing when you say "reset"?

[scsmith42]

That looks the same as what I'm getting from my Resaw King.

I'm confused about what your talking about when you say "set". My bands have a body .035 thick and a carbide tooth that is .060 wide. No set at all. The clearance is from the wide tooth. What is Laguna doing when you say "reset"?

Larry, mine have a .035 body width, and .046 tooth width and 0 degree set.  However, the first time that I bought them (before resharpening) there was a few thousands variance to the set - supposedly due to the way that they were mass produced and shipped.

When Laguna in California would resharpen them, they would reset the teeth so that there was no offset at all.

[Larry]

Interesting, learned something new. Thanks. Laguna must of changed the tooth width at some point, maybe to save money or maybe with less clearance they run better.