resawing very thin boards

[Robert Long]

I am looking for help and suggestions on resawing very thin boards!
A customer came in yesterday with a Spanish cedar board 'just!' 1" x 8" x 14 ft. long and wants it resaw'n .

I wonder if I should lay a sheet of ply-wood on the bed of my WM LTD40 or make a jig to help hold that thin a board or not even attempt to cut it?    If I can resaw it he will bring some 200 l ft. to be done, so I am trying to get a way to help him out.

The board he brought around is nice and flat so I think I can split it without making a wedge out of it.

Thanks for all the help you all can provide.

Robert ???

[Tom]

with Cedar, you might get away with the boards being fairly flat.  I wouldn't want to depend on it though.


What you really need is a resaw.  You can turn your sawmill into a fair one but it won't work like something designed to do the job.

Your aim is to set the blade and not move it.   Move the wood through the blade.  Have a flat bed/conveyor for the lumber to ride one.

Have a weight (wheel) riding above, and just in front of the blade to keep the lumber pressed to the bed in the area where the cutting is taking place.  This allows a warped board to be cut through the center and sometimes a cupped board to be pressed flat.

It's difficult enough trying to split a 2" board.  I don't think I would want to take on a 1" board for pay.

Some woodworkers are pretty good at "Free handing" the resawing on their shop Band Saws.  Maybe even better than trying to get a sawmill to do it.

[Robert Long]

Thanks Tom ;)

I can try to set such a system up and try it out with some of my own 1" stock and yes you are right, It should be done on a resaw bandsaw but some of the boards are as much as 12" wide and that is also a problem as well as length and yes, sometimes things just can not be done.....but I must try!

When and if I master this then I will get back to you with results,

Thanks
Robert

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Tom just described what we do with our homemade Woodmizer type mill. Use a piece of Melamine board. It's the white epoxy finish particle board. Screw a piece of aluminum angle to the OUTFEED blade side, and use a presser wheel of some sort, Tie the sawhead so it won't move, set the blade height and self feed the board through. We can cut pretty precise ¼" boards from 1" boards.

[beenthere]

Robert
Your question reminds me of a band re-saw jig I ran across years ago. A good friend of mine, who had a large band saw (verticle, not the log bands such as WM) said this jig made a world of difference for his resawing of boards.

It helps with the drift of the band (probably happens when teeth are not sharpened and set exactly right on each side of the band).

This site shows the jig (found on Google of "band resaw jig" )
http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-plans/bandsawing/bandsaw-resawing-guide/

Don't know if this will help any, as the stock is pretty wide. Might not need to be that wide in the long run. 

Good luck, and look forward to your try-outs.

[WH_Conley]

Find a pallet shop with a band resaw and strike up a deal.

[Cedarman]

All boards have a little bend.  If it is just an 1/8" you will not get good results just laying the board on the mill and resawing.
Here is a technique we use all the time to resaw boards.

First take a cant at least 8" wide and lay on mill.  Make a cut off the top of the cant to make it perfectly flat.  Lay this cant aside and make one more.  Leave this cant on mill.  You now have a perfectly flat place to lay board to be resawn and is perfectly parallel to blade travel.  Now take a 1" board and place vertical between cant and uprights. Board needs to stick above cant and will act as backstop to boards you are resawing.  Now place board to be resawn on flat cant, place other cant wth new flat face down on top of board to make a sandwich. Weight of cant will flatten board.  We use at least a 6x8 x as long as board to be resawn.  Resaw board. If cutting in 1/2 , you should never have to change saw height. It is a bit labor intensive, but goes very quickly with 2 people.  But the results are excellent.

[Robert Long]

hey, Fla-Deadheader


   You write...... " Screw a piece of aluminum angle to the OUTFEED blade side"

What's the aluminum angle for?
Your use of melamine sounds like a good thing to try and I will!

Thanks
Robert

[ely]

i was thinking like cedar man, only i would just stack about seven of the precious boards on my mill and start sawing them. when i got the bottom four split i would restack the boards on the top down low and repeat.

not sure how your mills cut but i can cut fairly thin lumber when i have it all in a stack. fairly thin= my buddy rolled up an 8 ft pine board and stuffed it in a small coffee can one time.
didn't we have a thread on here about who could saw the thinnest board once. i think.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Robert, you use the Alum Angle for a "fence" to keep the blade from wiping the boards off the melamine. We split somewhere around 300--1" X 6" X 10' Cypress for a customer. He was thrilled. We then planed it to a heavy 3/8's for him.

[Robert Long]

Fla.-Deadhead

I though that, thanks!   Now, how long a board have you cut using this method?

Robert

[schmism]

for your wheel press'r 

just go with a standard power feed head.



http://www.amazon.com/Delta-36-850-Horsepower-3-Roller-115-Volt/dp/B00002234K

you sould be able to develop both the down pressure needed and it will self feed the boards so you can go get the next one and have it waiting.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Robert
10 feet long.

  We bought a plastic wheel with spring and down rod, from Surplus Center. Made a bracket on the sawhead to bolt it to, and have it set down ON the melamine that lays on the cross bunks for the log. When you poke the board under the wheel, it pops up and rides the board. It works really well, but, will NOT press the curve out of a board, to make it flat. IF your boards are flat, this works really well with 2 people, one feeding, one pulling out the other side of the blade.

  Goes pretty quick.

  Link]http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2008061610295613&item=1-2210&catname=water]Link

[StorminN]

forgeiron,

At about 1:20 to 1:30 in this video you can see how the feed roller works on the Baker resaw we have here. The roller is powered with a small hydraulic motor. Our Baker actually has two rollers before the blade and one after. The methods the other guys have suggested here will work... I'm just posting this to show how it's done on a commercial-built resaw...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpwNlLF8qfw

-Norm.

[Robert Long]

StorminN

Nice operation......makes my little mill very LITTle!

Robert ;D

[Robert Long]

Well, I did it, I resawed (if that's a word) a piece of 1"x8"x 14 ft. of spanish cedar using Fla.-Deadheader's method of using a piece of melamine board as a surface and I used a 2"x2" board as a fence the full lengh of the work by simply cutting a grove into it where the blade traveled.

As to a presser wheel, I put an old wheel from a rototiller on my grable and hung it over the mill and onto the board being saw'n. the results were great, the 1" board turned out 2 - 3/8" uniform boards.

Now to perfect a complete jig with all components so all I need to do is lift it onto the mill. ???

Thanks to all who gave advice and help! 8)

Robert

[Fla._Deadheader]

   8) 8) 8)  git-r-done  8) 8) 8)