smoothing after resawing

[Mitchell Ristine]

All, I do not own a drum sander. What is the best (fastest) way to smooth boards after I resaw them on the band saw (they come out quite rough). My ros with #80 is the best idea I came up with. Well, a supermax 16/32 is really my BEST idea, but I live with someone who disagrees.

What do you fellas do?

[John TenEyck]

For boards thicker than about 1/4" you could run them through your planer after resawing. I used to do that before I got a drum sander. For shop sawn veneer, you can start with one jointed face, then saw off your sheet of veneer on the BS. Glue down the smooth side to your substrate and, after it dries, run it through your planer to smooth the sawn surface. For parts too wide for your planer, you are pretty much stuck with hand planes, a router sled, or a belt or ROS.

I suppose you could use a dado set or a straight knife in a molding head in your TS to smooth the sawn surface of thicker stock, too. Just leave the outer 1/8" or so on both edges, and then rip those off after you have cleaned up the "center" portion of the board.

John

[Andrew Hughes]

For me it depends if my pieces are not very thick I handplane them or scrap them with a card scraper. Thicker board get to face the jointer then planer. Is it worth the time and money to keep blades new and sharp. Yes

[John TenEyck]

Forgot to mention in the first post that some BS blades give a very smooth surface, one that a ROS can clean up quite easily. When I ran a Woodmaster CT carbide blade I got surfaces like that until the blade began to dull a little. The Laguna Resaw King is another blade capable of producing a very smooth surface, as is the Woodslicer (although it dulls pretty quickly). With no drum sander I would focus a good deal of my effort towards getting the smoothest surface possible off the BS.

John

[Mitchell Ristine]

This is the blade I bought.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQQM50/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Perhaps a better blade is needed?

[Brian Holcombe]

I've been planing mine even down to .100".

[Edwin Santos]

I've been planing mine even down to .100".

Hi,
Do you mean with a power stationary planer, or with a hand plane? If a power planer, what is your technique for keeping the veneer from popping up into the knives and getting shattered?
I've been using double stick tape at the leading edge on a carrier board, and paying attention to grain direction, but I'm always looking for other techniques.
Thanks,
Edwin

[Brian Holcombe]

Machine planer, I keep a very close eye on grain direction in the first few passes to judge how it's cutting. As it gets close I take light cuts (.020"~).

[Zachary Hoyt]

I used a DeWalt 733 for several years to plane wood down as thin as 3/32 or so after it was resawed to rough thickness. I found that a piece with consistent grain runout would plane safely as long as I fed the piece in with the proper grain direction, but if the grain went two ways it would tear up once I got below about 1/8". I used a piece of wood as an auxiliary floor in the planer, since the head didn't like to go down that low. I did have some pieces get eaten, but a lot survived too and it was a lot cheaper than buying pre-surfaced instrument wood, and a lot faster than finishing it off by hand. If I was making a guitar I would resaw three or four sides and end up with two or three that made it. Now I have a drum sander and it's much nicer, but the planer will work if it's what you've got.
Zach

[John TenEyck]

This is the blade I bought.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQQM50/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Perhaps a better blade is needed?

Got any photos of the cut surface using the Olson blade?

This is the kind of surface I could get with my Delta 14" using a Olson MVP (bi-metal) 1/2", 3 tpi, in white oak about 5" wide.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-79a35hD3DrDpAY6mgnoyLqVa6zWBMzhMGULy188lFQ42723Keg aM7KAEtSSKhxNmKwmL2zMFcg_l_gd_GFaIdTZQxqYHtZEE2TAk Fz6nJpdnI18Bjfj0Ig-5KmUmBgMMKxAXMmbbgXfDHvxEzj5sMw0xEVy_tU9NWwkDHP_zc kZ2150df7S0z51OhobIgge8vSQeHja6Y-cA_sVOM8hsqFsuXCXpPP7Fk6EMMYwbceSkOHzVoQwfiiVhjWQ1 SKbhyjAF5TZZp1oNwfOKJk_-NV0k7O-hplNZp5zLOtqdSuftboLdBFR37eoHMKdpE2ccOMT6xtmi979h-jrcBieA-Zg8ph-1dgAHGLrbwTl-6pzGjLldaBk3lUiSJyinPcBY2bfUpsgZ-SkkYWRK0cKmIjr5kTRF6gF0hYDUYPKKXOwpz25ztwLNSUBdHC3-X0fSaGLpUKlp6JxsMadb4O1nflytSBcVd9MVO5PWvKMD1-KEL72Lv14kdmLhgWXzilAMIruXsIew_IhoSnNwqSmYPoAIY8tg ChD60RK3o6haJ6nsMEueiMDYbNfFEpExzOP5gkGUchEtRYOEzn QgwNBlIbz58ylZGihEcdZrF-W1adZaJJTiJCTPdrPChTwvW8S2OACU2_eBEGnxHxjygtX5yHph 7RdAVfl3A=w835-h626-no



John

[lowell holmes]

I run mine through my thickness planer after re-sawing.

[roger wiegand]

You don't say what kinds of quantity you're talking about, but for my hobby level work a hand plane is quick and easy. I bought a drum sander when I did all of the cherry trim for our house, over a thousand feet of boards, but for furniture work I still hand plane after using the drum sander to take off the small wobbles from the bandsaw. It wouldn't be much more work to start with a jointer plane and do it without the sander. Now that I have (finally!) learned to set up and sharpen a plane it goes quite quickly and produces a superior surface.

[keith micinski]

Everyone has missed the obvious answer. Get rid of of your wife and get a 16/32.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Everyone has missed the obvious answer. Get rid of of your wife and get a 16/32.

Forget it. Too expensive.

[Jim Becker]

I use my thickness planer after re-sawing slightly thicker than final, but don't generally do things really thin. About 3/16" minimum and rarely less than 1/4"/6mm. If I was going to do that a lot, I'd want a drum sander or similar.

[Al Launier]

Usually I'll start with a much thicker board than needed, joint one side, plane the other to have two good reference sides, resaw o/s in thickness with good side against fence, plane the rough cut side o/s, plane the original good side to finish thickness, alternating sides if preferred to balance stress.

[Robert Engel]

A high quality blade and well tuned bandsaw will eliminate a lot of clean up work. If you can afford one, a carbide blade is the best way to go IMO but you can get very acceptable results with a resaw blade.

The planer is fraught with some issues planing thin wood. It can be quite a surprise (and a disaster) when piece of wood explodes in your planer. Figured wood, wild grain wood or getting the grain direction wrong increase the chances of a grab. Personally, I would not run wood through a planer <1/4" thick.

But before I had a drum sander, this was the way I did it. Key is nice sharp planer blades, very light passes, paying very close attention to grain direction, set planer to slowest feed rate. I've used both a sled lined with sandpaper & double sided tape.

If possible, the easiest solution is rejoint after every pass, glue the veneer to substrate & then do the planing.

[Brian Holcombe]

Given Robert’s post I should comment that I’m working to .100” in quarter sawn material. I don’t usually work with highly figured woods.

[Carlos Alvarez]

The Olson blades leave a really rough surface. I switched to Woodslicer a couple years ago and would never go back. They come out quite smooth, the saw cuts faster, and the blade seems to last "forever" so far. My first resaw with one was on 6/4 Wenge over 10" wide, and I no longer had to worry about overloading the motor as I did with Olson blades.

[Alan Schwabacher]

If possible, the easiest solution is rejoint after every pass, glue the veneer to substrate & then do the planing.

With limited equipment, this seems the most robust method.

[Nick Decker]

The Olson blades leave a really rough surface. I switched to Woodslicer a couple years ago and would never go back. They come out quite smooth, the saw cuts faster, and the blade seems to last "forever" so far. My first resaw with one was on 6/4 Wenge over 10" wide, and I no longer had to worry about overloading the motor as I did with Olson blades.

Agreed, although I haven't tried Olson blades. I've read here several times that the Woodslicer blades don't last long, but I have yet to have one get dull. Of course, we may be talking about quite different usage levels. I'm a hobbiest and don't go through the board feet that some may be talking about. I just resawed some Bubinga the other day and the Woodslicer still went through it like when it was new. Smoothness was quite acceptable and, as always, a nice quiet cut. This was on my 14" Rikon.

[fRED mCnEILL]

When I resaw with my kerfmaster 3 tpi blade I can then sand smooth with my Festool ROS with 150 grit. You need a better resaw blade.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Agreed, although I haven't tried Olson blades. I've read here several times that the Woodslicer blades don't last long, but I have yet to have one get dull. Of course, we may be talking about quite different usage levels. I'm a hobbiest and don't go through the board feet that some may be talking about. I just resawed some Bubinga the other day and the Woodslicer still went through it like when it was new. Smoothness was quite acceptable and, as always, a nice quiet cut. This was on my 14" Rikon.

Oh, I didn't know they had that reputation. My current one has certainly outlasted the Olson it replaced. It has resawn a bunch of board-feet and currently shows no signs of being dull. That said, lately I've only been using it for flat cuts on minor things like maple and bubinga. Maybe it's not up to cutting wenge any more?

18" Jet here, so a 133" blade is $35-ish but well worth it.

[Andrew Hughes]

Olsen's pro series blades have been very good for me. I had spell where I used them on both my saws. There's still no magical one blade that does it all.

[John C Cox]

All, I do not own a drum sander. What is the best (fastest) way to smooth boards after I resaw them on the band saw (they come out quite rough). My ros with #80 is the best idea I came up with. Well, a supermax 16/32 is really my BEST idea, but I live with someone who disagrees.

What do you fellas do?

I use my Supermax 22/44.. It's clear to me that they disagree with the 16/32 because it is just too small for the job. ;) ;). And the other reason they disagree is that it's clear you need BOTH the 22/44 and a Laguna dust collector or it won't work right. ;) ;). Then - it's a given that they will agree. ;)

But before that amazing piece of equipment - I used my Stanley #4 and #5 planes to do the job followed by block sanding to avoid it going all wavy...

[Wayne Cannon]

I second John's emphasis to focus first on the bandsaw and technique. Then you won't have much ripple to remove. Even without changing brands of blades, a well-tuned saw and a slow, uniform feed rate will give you a big boost toward smooth cuts right off the saw, requiring only minimal sanding. I got my biggest improvement from a coarser, skip-tooth blade and a slower, smoother, feed pressure. Applying too much pressure and too fine a blade will cause the blade's gullets to fill, causing the blade to meander/oscillate resulting in an unnecessarily ripply cut.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I second John's emphasis to focus first on the bandsaw and technique. Then you won't have much ripple to remove. Even without changing brands of blades, a well-tuned saw and a slow, uniform feed rate will give you a big boost toward smooth cuts right off the saw, requiring only minimal sanding. I got my biggest improvement from a coarser, skip-tooth blade and a slower, smoother, feed pressure. Applying too much pressure and too fine a blade will cause the blade's gullets to fill, causing the blade to meander/oscillate resulting in an unnecessarily ripply cut.

This is a good point, I addressed just the blade but the machine's tuning makes all the difference. I went to a bandsaw class then came home and spent about 90 minutes tuning it all up to perfection. Such a HUGE difference.

[richard poitras]

I use my Supermax 22/44.. It's clear to me that they disagree with the 16/32 because it is just too small for the job. ;) ;). And the other reason they disagree is that it's clear you need BOTH the 22/44 and a Laguna dust collector or it won't work right. ;) ;). Then - it's a given that they will agree. ;)

But before that amazing piece of equipment - I used my Stanley #4 and #5 planes to do the job followed by block sanding to avoid it going all wavy...

What Laguna dust collector are you using with your sander?