What Tool To Cut A 1" Maple Billet?

[Fanatic1]

Hi, i need to cut 2 maple billets, wide its 1" and i need 1/2" or less,what its the best tool to make that? i visited a wood worker because i dont have good tools, only a delta band saw 9" its like a toy for that, and the guy told me, its impossible, i cant do that, any advice?

Edited May 12, 2006 by Fanatic1

[Setch]

You need a bandsaw and a resaw fence. The other option is a handsaw and some elbow grease:

Whatever you do, you'll have to be *insanely* carefull if you need to get two 0.5" pieces out of a 1" billet - I you have to take into accoutn the width of your saw kerf and the material you remove to clean up the saw marks. With a handsaw that can easily be .25" or more.

[Fanatic1]

im trying with a handsaw and im sweating like a pig and the cut its not straight but well its the best option that i have.

Thanks Setch

[ryanb]

Doing it with a hand saw in maple is a real chore... especially if you only have a standard crosscut saw. A rip saw is what you need and makes a huge difference, but it is still a lot of work and takes some skill.

The other way is to spend a pile of money for a 18" (or so) professional bandsaw designed for doing resawing.

[Mattia]

You need to find someone with a decent bandsaw who can resaw that for you. Hand-sawing is an option, but honestly, not a great one. You do need rip blade to get anywhere, and it's very, very tiring, and chances of wandering and ending up with finished pieces that'll be very thin are pretty high. I've resawn small pieces of maple before, headstock sized, for matching veneers, but I wouldn't serious consider hand-resawing...

[Daniel Sorbera]

You need to find someone with a decent bandsaw who can resaw that for you.

IMO this is the only way to go for resaw if you don't own the equpiment.

Look in the phone book for local cabinet maker shops. I found one close to me that has a 20" bandsaw and a 36" (somwhere around there) drum sander, and of course tons of other very nice big tools I can't afford including a big CNC router and a very nice jointer. Really nice guy too, you can deffinitly make some friends and learn alot from cabinet makers, it's basicly the same skils as guitar making.

[j. pierce]

I've hand-re-sawed things. No fun, (although getting to break out the handplanes afterwards is always a joy) and if you want to squeeze the most thickness out of two pieces it's a pain. I used a relatives framesaw/bowsaw type thing, and had great luck with that, and am looking to make my own.

Like this: http://www.hyperkitten.com/woodworking/resaw.php3

But I'd second (or third?) finding someone with access to a bandsaw to do it for you. For me, that turned out to be a small, local hardwood merchant who sells wood to cabinet and fine woodwork makers. They've done things like thicknessing and resawing wood (that didn't even come from them) for free. THe level of service and the nice attitude from them was terrific, and it's the first thing that kept me coming back to them for wood, even though they don't always have what I need. (That and they're willing to sell me less than 9 feet of mahogany at a time.) I'd look in the classifieds section of the paper, as well - there are several folks listing general carpentry and wood services in my local paper, many of whom are geared more towards other tasks, but often who have the gear and are willing to do things like this.

My area just got a new (after the old one had a fire a few years ago) community wood-working shop - it's like being in shop class when you were a kid (which none of the schools in my area seem to have anymore) access to a nice finishing booth and all the big tools, plus a chance to meet other woodworkers in the area, and learn from them, or take classes to learn things you didn't know you wanted to know! I had no idea this was around until I saw an ad in the local weekly paper. Might be worth checking out if your area has one as well? You could try putting an ad on Craiglist or any community bulletinboards as well. I met a fellow who's a much better, and better-equipped, woodworker than I, but just got his first guitar. He thicknessed and resawed soem stuff for me, and I did some setup and electronics work on the junky used strat he got.

[MP63]

One option a local hardwood supplier told me (who no longer does resawing, and good luck finding one who does, that won't charge you $60 for it), was to use a table saw set high. Then flip the peice to cut the other side. There will be some waste but it will be closer than a hand saw.

Edited May 16, 2006 by MP63

[SawDust_Junkie]

I have used this method, MP63, on a couple of small pieces, and while it does work (somewhat) it is limited by the size of your table saw. I don't know about most people here, but I suspect most of us only have a 10" table saw, some may have a 12" saw.

This means you can only raise the blade to a little over 3" in height. So, using this method, you can only "resaw" a little over 6", and there is definitely some planing that needs to be done after the initial cuts.

The problem I ran into is that when you use a table saw like this the blade never "exits" the wood in the cut. This bogs down the saw and makes kickback more likely. It felt really dangerous to me when I did it. I also have had some instances where the bogging down of the saw caused some burning of the wood.

But as stated before it will work.....

[ryanb]

Yeah, avoid the table saw thing if you can. I have done that a number of times. With a powerful saw, dragging down the motor isn't so much of a problem, but it IS quite dangerous as far as kickback. The blade tends to get pinched (the wood often curves after being cut) ... especially when making the second cut. When it kicks back and throws the piece, you will understand the warning. (It's amazing how much a running saw blade can bend!) Not to mention that you have to be really careful of your fingers with small pieces. You can't use the stock splitter/guard since it isn't a through cut. If you happen to have one of the replacement splitter devices (that works without the guard), this would be a good time to use it. You will also need a zero-clearance blade insert.

As mentioned, you can normally only get 6" this way. Almost every (non-benchtop) bandsaw can cut that thick, so resawing on the bandsaw just makes more sense usually (if one is available). If it's over 6", you can't make it through anyway on the table saw. (However, you can cut as much as possible and save a lot of cutting with the hand saw. It's a lot easier to just finish the cut by hand -- using the existing kerfs as a guide.)

[Calum_Barrow]

I think table saws are great for resawing unless you need it to be really precise, as they can remove a lot of wood (at least the one I have access to does; I think its 24"). It's a great table saw, I cut all the stuff on my guitar on it. I took veneers off both walnut body blanks, I cut the maple fretboard with it, I cut down the tapered sides of the neck with it, I thicknessed the headstock with it. It's great, it's not mine, but it belongs to a very good friend who's been a joiner/carpenter/builder for like 40 years now.

But yeah, table saws are great; they cut it really straight and smooth.

[Mattia]

I find table saws relatively frightening/dangrous, what with the kickback and all that. Make bandsaws look like tame, safe little puppies.

[Jalien21]

did you just say a 24" table saw blade? wow, dude. that's pretty deadly. i've ripped thicker things on the table saw before. when you have it so that the blade isn't exiting the wood on top, stick a wedge in the back after you've pushed it through a bit, it'll take the pressure off of the sides of the blade and everything will be much smoother with less chance of kickback. and use a sharp blade.

[Calum_Barrow]

I'm sure it's 24". It's massive. When I say table saw, I mean it's on a cast iron base bolted onto a concrete floor. I believe it's about 50 years old or so. It may be more of a buzz saw. I'll get some pics of his shop next time I go.