Did Someone Say "Bandsaw?"

[Kees Heiden]

I want a bandsaw too!

But to give an idea about what difference a sharp ripsaw makes: For my current project I needed to resaw a few wallnut boards 50 cm long and about 25 cm wide. I kerfed both sides with my tablesaw 6 cm deep. That left about 13 cm in the middle. I thought my 4 1/2 ppi ripsaw was still pretty sharp and the first board took 20 minutes. Then I decided to give her a quick sharpen. That cut the time in half!

Sharp cures everything (almost).

[John K Jordan]

Sharp cures everything (almost).

That's a great line! I might use it. We repeat the idea often in woodturning.

JKJ

[Tom M King]

An old carpenter that worked for me back in the '80's had a slight variation on that quote. He'd say, "Sharp fixes all sorts of problems."

[Jake Rothermel]

I don't believe anyone has said this (in this thread anyways) but always be careful about sourcing pallets and what their purpose originally was. I admit I'm no expert but I have done some reading up on the subject and I was fairly surprised when I learned what kind of chemicals often goes into treating pallet wood; (think pressure-treatments for outside, saturation treatments for bugs, etc.). I can only imagine what those chemicals could do to you once you've breathed in that kind of dust. Hand tools certainly make it safe(r) since we're making shavings but anytime that wood's cut we make sawdust, too. I suppose it would depend a lot on the species of wood it was made from, too.... It might not be creosote or formaldehyde anymore, but, in some cases, it might just be worse!

There *are* plenty of untreated pallets out there; it really does seem to matter where they come from and what their intended purpose was, though. I think about this a lot when I'm looking over "free" lumber.

I guess I'm just pointing out (probably needlessly to you all) that not all pallets are created equal and, heck, some may even kill ya....

-Jake

[Dave Cav]

The other problem with pallet wood is that it's air dried and generally cut from culls that aren't good for much else. It's probably not going to stay straight. Other than for very basic/rough work I gave up on pallet and dunnage wood long ago (although we have a big granite countertop place up the road I may check out...).

If you do magically find room for a band saw, the 17" Grizzly models are about as close to a universal band saw as you will find. Small enough that blades don't cost a fortune, large enough to resaw successfully, not too expensive.

[Mike Allen1010]

Bummer. We are so spoiled here, living in an area full of hardwood trees, many of them oak. Oak can be one of the least expensive woods here, especially if green or air dried. Unfortunately, I have many tons of white oak and hickory logs in stacks since I haven't had time to saw them. If you ever get up this way give some notice and we can find and saw a few slabs of about any kind and size of hardwood you can carry in a passenger car or small pickup. One friend visited from a non-hardwood region and filled her station wagon with so much wood the springs and shocks were bottomed out for the return drive across the country. She kept trying to pay me far more than the wood was worth (around here).

There are also sawmills here that may have air-dried stock at a good price and wood dealers with a bit higher prices for KD domestic and exotics. I recently bought some 8/4 and 10/4 KD curly maple, walnut, cherry, y. poplar, goncolo alves, and E. Indian Roswood without having to mortgage the house. I cut these up into smaller pieces for woodturning.

JKJ

John, you're breaking my heart – I couldn't be more jealous living here in the hardwood desert of Southern California!


In support of your idea that hardwood lumber prices are highly dependent on geography; I recently ran across a pair of dressers built in the 1920s around Atlanta. Carcass sides/top were veneered with shop sawn Oak. After some disassembly, I found the panels under the veneer were solid, clear cherry. Who knew – kinda like discovering buried treasure? I guess in those days the maker considered cherry a "secondary wood" completely appropriate to be veneered over.


For what it's worth, please know that for an hardwood impoverished woodworker like me, your store of "tons of white oak and hickory logs" stack on your property are a mythic reality I can only dream about. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vicariously imagine what that must be like.


Best, Mike

[steven c newman]

Around here, we have these all over the place..
Amish saw mill.jpg
An Amish Saw Mill...
half logs.jpg
This one usually has a large load of logs, everytime I drive by....looked like they had a little trouble with one log's size...

[John K Jordan]

After some disassembly, I found the panels under the veneer were solid, clear cherry. Who knew – kinda like discovering buried treasure? I guess in those days the maker considered cherry a "secondary wood" completely appropriate to be veneered over.

I plead guilty of a similar indiscretion. When remodeling the inside of the house recently, we needed some wood for filler in the walls and such. The easiest thing for me to do was grab some rough-sawn cherry boards from my barn loft and hand plane to thickness. So now I have cherry inside the walls.

I've used most of the 8/4 and 10/4 for woodturning but still have hundreds of board ft of cherry going to waste. I'd say it will make great firewood but once I mentioned how well cocobolo burns (like a candle!) and one guy almost had a heart attack. (Well, I was talking about waste pieces, too small to use!)

Without the perspective of people who life in hardwood starved areas, it is sometimes difficult for those of us who basically live in hardwood forests to understand. I do know one woodturning guy, who after communicating for some time, decided to move his family to TN from the south west, wanting to move anyway but swayed in part by the wood in the area. Domestic wood for woodturners is basically free in much of the East.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

While cleaning up some debris from tree cutting there was an old piece of what looked a bit rotten stuck in the ground.

It didn't want to split. With a bit of persuasion from a wedge and sledge it turned out to be a hunk of the local bog cherry or bitter cherry. It has been laying around for years, but still looks nice inside. My thought is to saw it up into some useable stock for making some small boxes or drawer fronts.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Pallets seems to be the main "Cash Crop" for the Amish around here.....for every one of the sawmills they run...there is another farm just down the road...making hardwood pallets by the flatbed loads...and no, they do not treat them. The Mill I pictured above? 1/4 mile west of there, there is a pallet shop.

[Stew Denton]

David,

You asked me to keep you posted. I have been busy, but finally got back to the3X6 (actually bigger than a 3X6). I had waxed the ends, and it had shown no signs of further splitting, so I had put off dealing with it because of higher priorities, but decided I had to cut it, thinking I was taking a chance of splits, so went at it earlier today.

I drew a line on one side of the lumber from one end to the other, tracing the center of the core, put it on my sawhorses/workbench in the back yard and got out my old sears circular saw, set the blade to cut about 5/8" deep and ripped it end to end. I set the blade a bit deeper and retraced the first cut, and then repeated it, this time a bit more than 1/2 way through.

I then flipped he plank over and repeated the above, and ended up with two pieces. Much easier than the 7 point rip saw. I spent more time getting out and putting away tools than making the cut. Maybe 15 minutes all told.

I am not terribly fond of using them, but power tools are wonderful for rough work like that. It was in the sun and around 90 degrees. Not ideal situation to rip up a 3" thick oak plank with a hand saw.

Stew

[David Myers]

I am not terribly fond of using them, but power tools are wonderful for rough work like that. It was in the sun and around 90 degrees. Not ideal situation to rip up a 3" thick oak plank with a hand saw.

Stew

Right there with you, Stew. What good is a glass of iced tea if your arms are too worn out to lift it?