Advice, please? - on when or whether to use bandsaw, planer, or table saw

[rudy de haas]

I have some Santos mahogany pieces that are about 1" thick, from 6.5" to 10.5" wide, and from 34" to 55" long. What I want to make is a collection of five cabinet doors (two pairs and a single, flat panels, nothing fancy) measuring 28" high, 13" wide, and about 9/16; thick.

My band saw will cut a maximum of 7.25" - so most of the boards cannot be trimmed to thickness on it. In addition it produces a very rough cut edge - as I hope you can see in the photo. I don't use it much for resaw so I haven't worried about this much before but my first question now is whether this is natural with bandsaws in hardwood, something to do with blade (3/4" resaw blade) tension (I adjust by "twanging" and have no experience to support my guesses as to what is right), or a result of pushing too fast to too slow, or??

336332

My table saw cuts 3.75" - so I can cut a 1/4" veneer off a 1" board (to leave 5/8th) if that board is less than 7" - most are not.

My planer will handle all of the boards (13" blades) - however, that's a lot of sawdust and I'd prefer to keep those 1/4" veneers for some future use.

Do I:

Just cut the boards lengthwise to an average 4.75" width and use the table saw to trim off a 1/4" before planing and jointing?

Just make lots of sawdust planing and jointing from 1" to 9/16th?

or something else?

[Rich Riddle]

Where do you live? There is likely someone local to you who would allow you to resaw on a larger bandsaw. If you are in my area, it would be no problem at all.

[rudy de haas]

Lethbridge, Alberta - I have a friend with an 18" bandsaw that will do this, but he's in Vulcan - an hour's drive one way - and, of course, part of the fun here is doing everything (or as close to it as possible) myself. My wife doesn't know this, but the whole project is more about learning than about getting it done.

[Rich Riddle]

I would look at the wood and determine quality. If it's good wood, it's worth the drive to keep the 1/4" veneer that size. If it's run-of-the-mill wood then I would plane it. An hour drive here isn't much at all. I have to drive an hour away in a few minutes for less than what you are doing.

[Andrew Hughes]

I can't say what's the best option for you Rudy.But that resaw surface doesn't look that bad to me.I always resaw on my bandsaw I just think the tablesaw can produce too much heat inside the cut.That may add to cupping.I know other swear by it. So that's all I got.Good luck.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Is it possible for you to rip the boards down to a dimension that will allow the bandsaw to resaw the boards? Then send it through the planer to clean up the saw marks and you end up with 2 pieces instead of planning all that wood away. I've never resawed before which is why I asked and not suggesting.

[Alan Schwabacher]

If you bookmatch the resawn panels, it will give you a good excuse to rip the stock down to a width that fits your bandsaw.

[Robert Engel]

I don't make shavings unless the wood is not valuable or I'm in a hurry.

In your case, going from 1" to 9/16, that is 3/16 difference. Minus the thickness of your saw blade in the case of the TS 1/8", this will only leave 1/8" extra material.

As you probably know, its a good practice to leave panels thick as long as possible in order to allow for cupping when you resaw it.

My recommendation is take a skim cut of 1/8 off both sides leaving 5/8 - 3/4" thick. Now you have material on each side later on for final surfacing/flattening.
Plus you never know if there will be a little tear out or defect you need the extra material to correct.

If the wood is particularly unique in grain (which it doesn't appear to be) then you could take a 1/8" veneer off one side to save for future.
For the wider boards, use the table saw and follow with a hand saw to complete the resawing.

[Prashun Patel]

I would rip the wider boards to 7 1/8" (since some are narrower anyway it isn't a big deal to preserve the width of the biggest planks).

Then I would get a good blade for resawing at your bandsaw.

This is a skill worth developing, IMHO.

Other people may have a different method, but I have found it easy to joint, resaw, joint, resaw... This way, you end up with a perfect face and a bandsawn face on each slice. The jointed face can be glued to your substrate, and then the bandsawn/show face can be planed to thickness using any of a variety of methods. I find this more reliable than trying to plane thin sheets.

"Saved" veneer (I do it too) can be prone to warping, so make sure you resaw the pieces thin enough that they can be easily clamped flat without having to rejoint, but thick enough to allow some surface planing after glue up.

[rudy de haas]

1) I like your idea about using the TS to cut part way from each side and then finishing with a handsaw. I'm lazy, but perhaps not that lazy..

2) the wood is actually a twitch over 1" thick, and I use a think kerf blade for this kind of thing. (the short length means the riving knive (1/8th) isn't much
of a problem.) It isn't thick enough to make two panel pieces from one length tho.

3) and, you're right, the grain is tight but long and wavy, so no bookending (I think) indicated.