Cutting wood for a neck

[mhenley]

Hi,

I am trying to build a neck through guitar with the neck constructed of a centerpiece of bloodwood with quartersawn maple laminated on either side(with black veneer between). The maple came in one piece, 2" thickness x 6" width x 48" length. I would like to cut it down the middle to make two pieces of 1" x 6" width x 48" length. A friend who is letting me use his shop (joiner, bandsaw, tablesaw, drill press) suggested i use a tablesaw and do it in two passes... i thought the band saw would be a better choice. Any suggestions or any places in north houston i can pay to have this done (as I dont want to waste any more wood than is necessary)?

Matt

[rradams]

Hi Matt,

The answer to your question really depends on the equipment your friend has. If the bandsaw can handle a one inch blade and has a fence that can guide your cutting the bandsaw may be the way to go. My experience (limited to bookmatching some maple for an LP cap) maple being as hard as it is, causes the blade to wander as you cut and generates a lot of heat. I used the bandsaw because the piece I was re-sawing was about 8" wide and the table saw blade wouldn't make it thru in two passes. (Thinking about it now I could have used the band saw the cut what the table saw didn't get) The chance of having to plane out or sand out any wavering would probable negate any loss you might get from the wider saw kerf of the table saw blade. Be careful with this either way that you choose and have fun... :-)

Rubin