Ripping 2in beech on bandsaw?

[ian maybury]

I got my wiring finished and the shop powered up yesterday, and finally got to run the Agazzani B-24/NRA 600 and rotary phase converter I bought late last year - so far on a 3/4in 3tpi bimetal blade. It walked through a 9in deep parana pine trial re-saw cut without a whisker of a drift, and I can't believe how smooth it is!!!! :)

There's a quantity (about 15) of 2in/52mm thick beech in planks 8ft long and 6 - 10in wide waiting to be ripped down to 4 - 5in for planing - some have cupped a bit.

I have a 1 in Lenox Woodmaster CT and think the band saw is probably an option to do the work on, but I've never done any heavy ripping on one before and don't want to accidentally damage the blade or the saw - or get bogged down in drift issues. The option is also available to rip the beech on my (also new) Hammer K3 perform panel saw (2,500mm slider) - but it'd need a ply or MDF sled running in the sliding table slot to make the required length despite its claimed 2500mm rip capacity.

I'm figuring that long and heavy rips like this on the band saw need a good pressure roller set up to keep it firmly against a (strong/well clamped) fence, so there's some set up there too. I'm not sure that the Woodmaster will cut fast enough to make it a realistic option either.

Has anybody done this sort of work on a band saw like mine, and is it a practical proposition compared to the table saw? Thoughts? The aim here is to get the job done safely and reliably - if it's likely to need finessing then it'd probably be better for me to choose another time to experiment.

Thanks

ian

[david brum]

Ian, ripping 2" stock with your 1" blade should be a breeze. Drift shouldn't be an issue as long as everthing is properly set up. Just make sure to have adequate infeed and outfeed support, such as roller stands. There are some guys (not me) who do all of their solid wood ripping on bandsaws. Gary Rugowski wrote an article about if in FWW a few years ago. You will still need a jointer (US speak for planer) or hand tools to get the initial reference edge.

BTW, my experience with beech was that it is prone to warping after it's cut. You might want to cut your stock a bit oversize and let it acclimate in the shop before cutting to final dimension.

[Jamie Buxton]

My experience with beech is that it tends to have built-in stresses that want to try to close the kerf on the blade. Because of this, if I rip it on the tablesaw, the wood can pinch the splitter firmly enough to stop me from pushing the wood through. The bandsaw is a much better way to tackle the stuff. Your beech, grown and dried in Europe, may behave differently from the American beech that has given me trouble, but I'd still recommend the bandsaw.

If you're ripping planks that long, you'll need outfeed support, and you'll appreciate infeed support too. Roller stands can work.

[ian maybury]

Thanks D & J. The beech is of the farmed German variety, and especially the wider 150mm+ boards have cupped quite a bit. It's nicely down to 8- 10% now after a year in my workshop (which has an air conditioner in it), but it started out quite wet in parts as a result I think of being exposed to weather after kilning. It's almost perfectly free of knots etc, but some lengths get very close to heartwood. So apart from come cupping it's at the transitions between heart and sapwood that it's really moved. So it's more than likely that it could move. I've since been told that steamed beech is less prone to movement.

It's for a Schwarz-esque Roubo bench, and definitely will need careful handling David. Maple would have been nice, but it's very very expensive over here. One good point about the design is that all of the components are laminated, which (especially if the boards are matched to each other) should help tame it. It's going to need not just care in machining, but also I suspect for the laminations to be quickly glued up after machining.

I have roller stands, but have been thinking of a set of Felder-like diving board table extensions with a support leg, plus some sort of pressure roller to keep it to the fence. As above my biggest concerns (not having band sawn heavy stock like this before) was the possibility of drift/the heavy wood forcing a blade or guide problem, or maybe that it might be too slow.

Sound like it should be fine...

[bob hertle]

Ian,

I'm one of those guys who does all his solid wood ripping on the bandsaw. I generally use a 3/4-3 bi-metal blade for 2 inch rough sawn. My question is do you plan to joint an edge first? I usually use a straight-line jig on.....you guessed it, the bandsaw. My jig is stone simple--a 1.5"w x .5"t cold finished straight steel bar about 6 ft in length that bolts to the table. A platform with a dado ripped in the bottom rides the bar and has a couple of ways to hold the rough plank. This allows me to generate a straight edge or flat surface a lot easier than the jointer. I've used this jig on up to 8 x 8 rough white oak. I've no experience with European beech, hopefully it's better behaved than our American beech! If your material has a lot of drying stresses in it, you'd probably be best off to have your fence end a couple of inches beyond the blade.

Good luck with your beech!

Bob

[Rod Sheridan]

Ian, why won't your K3 straight line rip the 8 foot pieces?

I have a B3 with the 49" sliding table and it will rip a 4 foot piece with the edging shoe attached.

It's going to be far more accurate and faster than the bandsaw...........Regards, Rod.

[ian maybury]

That rail is a very nifty idea Bob. I'd not thought it through, but was thinking that if going the band saw route I'd need to joint one edge first. That'd mnake it a more or less 'slider' band saw.

I'm actually a bit spoiled for choice Rod. The K3 will handle the rips, and I even have a rip blade for the job. The one complication is that for some daft reason Felder/Hammer sell a 2,500mm long slider with a full 2,500mm rip capacity - there's no room for clamping at each end. If you put a 2,500 long piece on the slider it completely obscures the clamping slot and the handle. So to do my pieces I'd need a means to get the workpiece clamped mounted. It's actually not a big deal, in that there's at least two solutions that'll sort it fairly easily.

I was actually leaning towards using the saw, but there's a definite view about that the cupping and the slightly unruly nature of the beech can cause problems. (cuts nipping up and the like) On the other hand the slider should at least deal with the cupping very easily (place it cup down, and clamp near to the cut line), and popping in a few wedges might avoid cut closure issues??

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Ian, I guess I don't usually lose much length since I use the edging shoe, and hold the other end by hand.

Regards, Rod.

[Joe Angrisani]

Ian.... I would just add that I would cut them the way you decide, then stack them up and let them sit again for a few weeks before jointing/planing. When you rip them, you'll undoubtedly change the way the stresses are working inside the boards. Let them relax again before proceding.

[Wes Grass]

Bandsaw might be my first choice too, especially if I had help wrestling these things through it.

As for the slider, I'd think about cutting it cupped side up, with shims under the left side to level it. Better, I think, for it to want to fall away from the blade. I've used the Festool clamps meant for their guide rails in the t-slot on my Felder. You might be able to clamp the planks down with something like that if they don't extend too far past the ends of the table.

Of course, since it's for a Roubo, shouldn't you be ripping these by hand? ;-)

[ian maybury]

I fancy the solidity of a Roubo, and the bits of hand work I've done so far have shown up the importance of a really solid and flat bench - but I'm no ideologist Wes! :) More seriously - the Roubo has definite advantages so far as clamping/work holding are concerned.

Maybe if I drill some 3/4in holes in the slider I can use the hold fasts waiting for the Roubo! ;)

The shoe takes up enough slider length to cause me an issue Rod (I could compromise and shorten the bench a bit), but there's several fixes come to light - a bolt on slider extension piece (butted to the end), a secondary slider/sled running on top (delivers by far the greatest length), or (from FOG) an F or quick clamp with the shank welded to a length of rectangular bar stock that can be shoved into the T slot in in the table from the end so that it cantilevers out a some distance and hence extends the clamped length.

Thank you all very much, there's more than enough on the table to provide a solution on either the band saw or the K3, it's just a case of thinking it through. I'll venture a little trial with the Agazzani and the Wood master blade on a bit of spare beech too to get some feel for the ripping speed. After that it's hope the beech behaves......

ian

[Stephen Cherry]

I got my... Agazzani B-24/NRA 600 and... The option is also available to rip the beech on my (also new) Hammer K3 perform panel saw (2,500mm slider)

ian


Life is good, huh?

[Jim Matthews]

If reaction wood is the worry, take off the stock (full length) fence and set up a guide "upstream" of the blade.
As the wood passes, and springs away from the cut line there will be nothing to impede the movement.

If you're using rollers on the outfeed side, you should be able to run through and through alone.

Something this long may be better handled with two sets of hands. (You feed, they catch.)