building a gang ripsaw, need thoughts.

[sawyerkirk]

I'm getting the material together to build a 6 blade gange ripper. This machine will be used mainly to cut 6/4 mixed hardwoods. Blades are 10" with 5/8" arbor, I'm tryingto determine how much power I need, I have a 6hp electric motor. Is this enough power? The power feed is a 1/2hp motor with a tire mounted on it. Am I fooling myself or will this be feasable? Thanks, Kirk

[Ron Wenrich]

Usually, a gang saw is used to tear a cant down into several boards.  Cants can be of any size, but are limited by the how far the saw can reach.  

Are you taking a 6/4 board and ripping it into strips?  I'm not sure that a gang saw is the best method.  Most often a straight line rip saw is used, due to better accuracy.

Your 5/8" arbor seems to be way undersized.  Most edgers ( and that seems to be what you are building) have at least a 1 7/16" arbor and most are a lot bigger.

Rule of thumb power requirements are 5 hp/blade/inch of stock.  You can get away with less, but your feed rates would be pretty slow.

How much are you planning to put through this machine?  If you are doing any quantity, you might want to get a small band resaw with a run around.  Used ones may be affordable, depending on your budget.

[sawyerkirk]

I'll be ripping 6/4 boards of various widths into 1-3/4 stakes.

[Larry]

Have you thought about ripping the stakes on the mill?  I used to saw survey stakes 32" long and built a jig  that layed on the bandmill bed.  I would clamp about 10 or so 6/4 boards 32" long together.  The jig was 12' long so I could clamp a total of 40 boards (4 sets of 10 boards).  Each pass of the blade gave 40 stakes.  The jig was made with 2 metal bars 1 1/2" X 1/4" and held together with allthread.  Used a few pony clamps to help hold the boards when they were real wide.

Happy sawing   :D :D

[Don P]

Ron's horsepower numbers are on track for a gang rip like you are talking about. I used a shopbuilt one for making hammock sticks, you know the wooden sticks at each end of those macrame knotted beach hammocks, it was a 5 blade that we ran 5/4  random AD red oak through with 25 horses and a 5 on the feed and it was about right...what you have is enough for a single blade really :'(...slowing down just makes heat and eats up blades. It could turn a bundle into spagetti in an afternoon, then we'd chop on off times when we needed to fill in some time.
Had a stack of various spacers that could be put between the blades to make everything from lattice to cabinet frame stock. A good saw shop can punch whatever arbor size you need, I think we ran 1-1/4, but its been almost 20 years ago now.

[sawyerkirk]

I currently cut them to size on the mill, but am looking for a better (faster) way. maybe I should stick with what I know works for now. Thanks for all your input. Kirk