Squaring Lumber

[Doug Hepler]

Dear Steven,

I have to chime in here with a minority report. My stationary power tool complement relevant to this issue is a Laguna 14-12 band saw (normally with a 3/4" blade), and a 13" planer. (I also have a drill press, and table-mounted router.) For 12 years, until last April, when we "downsized", I had a good TS, jointer, etc., so I have years of experience with a full complement of stationary power tools. I chose to change my style of work somewhat to accommodate the smaller shop.

I did spend a day getting the wheels on the band saw coplanar, adjusting the fence, and learning not to "horse" the work through the band saw. My routine is to rip with the band saw, and smooth/square the edge with a hand plane. If you are not already familiar with using hand planes, a good bench plane is expensive and may take a while to learn how to use properly (you can buy a fence for them). However, the Veritas Iron Edge Plane is inexpensive and works right out of the box. I think anybody can learn to use it. Actually, my band saw will shave a nearly paper thin cut off a 3/4" board and does not drift measurably over 24-36".

Before I had the planer, I used to square up stock with the jointer and/or hand planes. I only bought the planer when I had a lot of stock to work up in a garage workshop in Florida, in the summertime. I'm in my 70's and decided I was too old for flattening oak in the summertime.

The point is, Steven, if that's what you want to do, go for it. I do miss my TS occasionally but so far I have found workarounds if I just think a while.

Doug

[ian maybury]

Doug sounds like a very nice example of how bandsaws create differing realities for different users. Even a good example of a medium sized bandsaw used sensitively can be a very precise tool (in the straight rip context we're talking about) - or not if it's horsed or asked to make overly deep cuts in especially tough woods. While knowing what you are doing (or being a switched on new user) helps, bigger and heavier ones (especially when armed with a good carbide blade) tend to get commensurately less sensitve to issues that may lead to problems with getting a straight cut...

[mark mcfarlane]

FWIW, if I was starting a new shop with only 2 cutting tools, I'd go for a good tracksaw and a 12" planer. $2000 gets you a workable setup, e.g a Festool tracksaw and a Dewalt bench top planer. You can cut the live edge off a board and make it very straight with a tracksaw, and using a home-made sled with wedges (plenty of examples online) you can actually use a planner as a face jointer, then remove the sled, flip the board and thickness it.

If you are doing panel glue-ups and the tracksaw isn't making perfect joints (e.g. slightly off 90 degrees), you can glue up the two panels, resaw with the tracksaw along the glue line, and re-glue with a perfect match (because you are regluing the cut you just made, even if it is crooked or off of 90 degrees it is the same on both sides of the cut and they will go back together perfectly unless there is wiggle in your tracksaw).

Not answering your question, just another approach...

If your primary use of the bandsaw is to resaw 8/4 or 6/4 into thinner stock, you probably still need the bandsaw, but if you are mostly working with 4/4 lumber a tracksaw and a planner can go along way.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I think that you must have some way to "plane" the top. As Doug mentioned, you can use a hand plane. I own a planer, but not a jointer. I use a sled to make the first surface flat. I expect that a jointer would make that much easier, but I do not have room for one. A planer sled can be easy and cheap to make.