rip saw vs re-saw vs table saw

Mike_M · December 23, 2007, 03:23:47 PM

I have another newbie question about saws? What does a re-saw or rip saw do that a table saw can't? Being a single person type busieness, does a re-saw and or rip saw offer any huge advantage over a table saw for making blanks before they go into a moulder? Thanks again for all the great help. This forum is outstanding.

David Freed · December 23, 2007, 04:52:29 PM

A tablesaw cuts a wide board into 2 narrower boards. You can get a ripsaw, combination, or crosscut blade for your tablesaw. A resaw is a bandsaw that can cut a thick board into 2 thinner boards. Some resaws can cut boards as wide as 12" or more. For example a resaw can turn a 1" thick x 12" wide board into two - 1/2" (minus saw kerf) x 12" boards. I hope I explained that so you can understand it. David

Mike_M · December 23, 2007, 07:18:08 PM

Thanks David for the reply. So if I put a good rip saw blade on my table saw and added a powerer feed would this work for making blanks? Or should I be looking for a dedicated rip saw?

trim4u2nv · December 23, 2007, 07:42:40 PM

If you want to rip 300 sticks in an hour get a rip saw or gang saw. If your lumber doesn't have a jointed edge also get a rip saw. If you need to make 300 sticks per day use a powerfeeder and tablesaw and add a sled to edge if both edges are rough sawn. If you are making really thin blanks a gang rip or twin resaw might be better. A big stenner, robinson, or mcdonough will eat up a lot of wood in a shift of resawing.

Kelvin · December 27, 2007, 05:57:27 PM

Howdy,
I'm like you running a one man show. I use my sawmill to re-edge lumber after its dried. Why buy more machines? This leaves a really nice straight line. A straight line rip table saw uses a feed belt mechanism instead of a fence and will put a straight line on a piece of lumber if everything is setup right. A table saw merely makes a parallel cut to the fence. If you put slightly curved lumber through a table saw, you will have lumber that is coplaner, meaning both edges are the same, but not necessarily straight. I bought a long bed 8" jointer to run most of my material through before starting to mill lumber, then i run it through my table saw which has a rip blade and power feeder. This makes the width cut parallel to the jointed face. If i have a real big stack of lumber i can merely drive it back out to the woodmizer sawmill and resaw on edge to make one or two straight faces. This might be sufficiant for most moulders, depends on how finicky yours is. I also have a 19" bandsaw in my shop that will run 1" wide resaw blades and resaw lumber into thinner boards. I recently purchased a 36" vintage oilver type bandsaw that i will put a 5 hp motor on for resawing big stuff! They also make a resaw attachment for your bandmill type sawmill that is simply a powerfeed system that pulls the lumber through the staitionary sawhead, which in most cases is exactly what they build for resaws, either woodmizer or Baker will put 1 to 5 bandsaw heads in a row so when you feed in your cant all the heads will cut at once and produce howmany boards you have heads to saw. Make sense? I always try to do more with less, so i wouldn't dedicate the floor space to a ripsaw unless you were really making the material, and i would buy at auction as the older ones go for about $400 or scrap prices so there is no need to buy new as far as i'm concerned.
Good luck, happy milling!
kP

jim king · December 28, 2007, 10:05:19 AM

This is our homemade ripsaw / resaw when new and half a million feet later. Still going . Made out of bloodwood and purpleheart. All it needs is a couple of young strong backs and cuts 3000 bf a day in 8 hours of 1 1/8 inch.

Mike_M · December 28, 2007, 03:01:04 PM

Kelvin and Jim,
Thanks so much for the replies. This is such a great resource for someone like myself who is learning as he goes along. Kelvin, it sounds like we have similiar operations. I am looking at Logosols new jointer to add to my operation. I made a good contact with buyer that is interested in Golden Chinquapin, I beleive this tree is similiar to Chestnut. We have a decent supply of here in western oregon and the builders here are always looking for alternatives for finish wood. Anyway being a one man operation I don't have a need for a huge production machine, just something that is functional. We do have the re-saw attachment for our Woodmizer but have not used it yet. At this point all I have been doing is milling and drying for customers, but would like to add the value added part real soon. Starting with the Logosol jointer and then hopefully adding a Logosol four head planer down the road. Again thanks for all the information and happy milling to all.
Mike M.

Kelvin · December 28, 2007, 04:53:56 PM

Jim,
Boy thats just a mini sawmill! Nice use of materials to make rollers. I can't see the arbor, is it electric, and if so how big, and what size blade do you run? Looks cool. I appreciate folks who make their own equipment!
KP

Den Socling · December 28, 2007, 05:31:28 PM

Jim King,

I immediately recognized those rollers and couldn't believe my eyes. I've been trying to use purpleheart and bloodwood that I have dried. I might as well run rocks through my machines!

jim king · December 29, 2007, 06:55:18 PM

Kelvin: The arbor is purchased and of course Chinese, about 85 USD here. It uses a 24 tooth blade 22 inches in dia and powered by what I think is a 25 hp motor.

Den: You need to get some car springs and make some serious tools and you will have no problem working with these types of woods.

I will attach a photo of our sharpener made from a .5 hp Chinese water pump. We took the pump off and made an adapter for the filing disc. Also attached is a photo of my turning tools , car springs, old files, machete parting tool , chainsaw bar and our planer is a helical head. I would never try again to work these flat boards without a helical head machine. I run the planer 8 hours a day on KD bloodwood, limoncillo, purpleheart etc . and rotate the chips maybe every three weeks. Absoutly no down time on the planer.

Kelvin · December 29, 2007, 10:49:57 PM

Super cool tools! Have you made any gouges our do you just use chisels and scrapers? I've wondered about this for my bowl lathe.
Kelvin

jim king · December 30, 2007, 09:29:53 AM

Kelvin: I make all my tools and they come is many shapes and forms not known to you civilized people up there but some resemble gouges made out of SS pipe. For roughing I use a "V" pointed file welded onto a 1" pipe handle at least 2 feet long. I once tried some of those little store bought tools and they liked to beat me to death. I like heavy tools that do part of the work for me. I will attach a photo of a peice I turned for a contest using only one tool , a home made skew. The peice is about 16" tall.

Kelvin · December 30, 2007, 10:31:26 AM

Wow,
super nice, thanks for taking the time to do the pictures! I've been wanting to make my own lathe chisels as well. SS pipe means stainless steel pipe? Isn't stainless pretty soft for holding a good edge? maybe it means something else, but that sounds like a good idea, pipe. Where to find something hard for pipe in this town now?
Thanks
Kelviin

jim king · December 30, 2007, 05:35:49 PM

Kelvin:

I will send a photo of our forge tomorrow. You will think of an old movie and shoeing horses when you see it but you could do the same thing with your weber.. It makes the steel hard enough. How hard I have no idea.