Cutting the inside out of a thick piece

[Anthony Whitesell]

My father is working on a project where he needs to cut out the center of irregular shape from a piece of 10/4 maple. The piece would be usable if it could be cut out in a single piece (instead of drilling it out and turning into a big pile of ships). The first thought was bandsaw, but he doesn't want to cut through the edge. Second thought was scrollsaw, but it is just a hair too thick to get it under the upper arm. The jig saw blades we have are all too short. What other ways can you brainstorm?

[Myk Rian]

Buy some longer jig saw blades.

[Aaron Berk]

In the sheet metal fabrication shop we cut the band saw blades, then braze them back together after they have been feed through a starter hole on the inside of the piece to be cut.
I'm guessing you don't have a blade welder though. so ummm..... any one else?

[Joe Scharle]

Buy some longer jig saw blades.
Yep, and bow saw, recip saw if radius allows, coping saw. But if it's hard maple.....better bring some lunch!

[Anthony Whitesell]

How'd you guess? Would a just sandwich do or should I plan a thanksgiving dinner?

[Bill ThompsonNM]

I suspect that if he hasn't already finished the outside dimensioning, cutting with the bandsaw from the outside is the best choice. I realize he doesn't want to do that.. but perhaps if the two of you tried a bandsaw box with similar material, he might find the very tiny join acceptable. If you pick the spot properly and cut with the grain, the join can be all but invisible.

[Vince Shriver]

Make a template and route out the pattern you need. If the bit isn't long enough, then drill a hole in the channel you've routed to get a flush trim bit through, and finish it from the other side.

[Aaron Berk]

Make a template and route out the pattern you need. If the bit isn't long enough, then drill a hole in the channel you've routed to get a flush trim bit through, and finish it from the other side.


+1 for Vince

Sounds like the most "perfect" option

[glenn bradley]

Jigsaw blades that are long enough for this are available. If your jigsaw's performance running a blade that long would be questionable, then I'm with Bill Thompson as you indicate you want to keep the cutout and not lose it as spoil to drilling or routing. If cutting through the outer edge is less desirable than losing your spoil, I'm with Vince and Aaron on the router template after jigsawing the bulk out.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I'll look around for longer jig saw blades or narrower sawzall blades. We really don't want to drill the center into a massive pile chips, the piece will be 8x10x10/4. That's a pretty good sized piece. I'm also wondering if he's been able to find one solid piece of wood or if he's edge glueing two narrower ones together. If the latter, then I'm going to suggest he bandsaw out the center of each half before glueing them together.

[johnny means]

Does less than 2 bf of maple warrant the expense and trouble? Remember that any blade or bit yoj might use is worthas much as the board you are trying too salvage.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I'm not sure. That's around $12 in wood and a lot of stuff that he usually does are smaller pieces (scrollsaw work and the like). I think it will depend on the trouble factor. If he can glue it together after removing the center from each half, then I think the trouble factor would be small enough to attempt it.

[Chuck Saunders]

you could mount on a faceplate and core it out. You could also rout it out from both sides

[Paul Atkins]

I'm for cutting the bandsaw blade and silver brazing back together. Not as much trouble as you think.

[Wes Grass]

Before they even had a bandsaw, my grandfather cored dies by drilling a chain of holes around the profile with a thin web between them. And then sheared the webs out with a cold chisel. If he could do this with a block of tool steel I don't see why it couldn't be done with maple.

Hint: He used a pair of dividers to get the hole spacing accurate.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Instead of a chisel, you could use a coping saw. saw through the webs is a lot less to saw through than the whole solid perimeter.

[Jack Camillo]

...bow saw, recip saw if radius allows, coping saw...
+1 on any of these

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Your thoughts may be short of realistic. If you rip the piece in two and joint it for re-gluing, you should be able to cut out the center and put the two halves back together. 10'4 maple may have some stresses built up. If you successfully core out a hunk from the center, you may relieve stresses that cause the piece to check anyway. A good glue joint should not be noticeable in maple.
If you must core it out whole, 10/4 is only 3 1/2" thick. Use a 1/2" diameter up cut spiral straight bit in a router and do half from each side. If the area to be removed is so wide the router may fall in, replace the base plate with a wider piece of Lexan that will span the crater.
fmr

[george wilson]

I agree about putting a bandsaw blade through a drilled small hole and silver solder it together. I have done this to saw thick aluminum with a metal cutting bandsaw.

I don't think you should attempt to use a scroll saw as the blade will probably distort and not cut wood that thick. Wouldn't use a Sawzall either. You could end up ruining the whole piece of wood.

[David DeCristoforo]

We recently had to make a slnk cutout in a 4" thick wood countertop. What we did was to make an "inside" template so that we could cut a groove about one half an inch deep with a router, using a 1/4" straight bit. Then we drilled a series of 3/16" holes until we had a wide enough "slot". Next we "plunged" a Sawzall blade into the slot through the rest of the thickness and finished the cutout, trying as much as possible to "hug" the inside of the groove. Once we had the center cut out, we went to work with large ball bearing guided flush cutting bits. I have several of these. One is a 1" diameter with a 1 1/4" cutting length and a top mounted bearing. Using the outside face of the original groove as a bearing surface, we went as deep as we could with that bit. Then we flipped to top over and used another bit, a 1" diameter spiral bit with a bottom mounted bearing to finish up. That bit has a 3" cutting length so we just had enough depth to clean up the walls of the cutout. The "falldown" piece was made into a rather chunky cutting board.

[Michael Wildt]

If you have a guiderail saw like a Festool setup then you could probably use that as well.

[Kevin Herber]

This thought is way out there. What if you drill a hole near the end, inside of what you want to remove. Then do a pry to split along the grain from the end to the hole, essentially creating a check. If you split it just wide enough to pass the bandsaw through, then glue and clamp the split back together the split ought to be invisible.

I've never seen or done this, but the idea popped into my head.

[Paul Atkins]

Hey, I'd try that!

[george wilson]

Kevin,that sounds VERY iffy. What if the wood doesn't split exactly the way you want? I'd never try that if I really wanted to save the wood.