Good Morning Friends,

When you resaw boards, what width do you prefer to saw in order to have a smooth and accurate cut?

w/ a tall fence width or a carriage is governed by what you can handle safely...

¾ and on up is usually no problem... less than ¾ w/ some forethought and the right push/carry accessories... have at it...

If your talking on a band-saw Ralph I'm limited in vertical capacity to ~6"...thickness of board(s) depends on how they might be used in future and if it's coming from re-cycled or dry material versus wet  logs..

 

With my 10" TS, 4" width is max...thickness, I've done 1/4" with satisfactory results

My bandsaw limit is also just a hair under 6".  I use a pivot type of "fence" and a "WoodSlicer" blade.

2 hours ago, Ralph Allen Jones said:

what width do you prefer to saw in order to have a smooth and accurate cut?

 

Whatever width I please.

I'm confused at your question.

 

I'f I'm resawing from rough sawn ( chain saw) cants  I will  use a sled to get a nice surface on one side   - - run that across my 12" jointer and then back to the saw with  the jointed edge on the table for a reference I'll often re mount my sled ( that runs the length of the rough cant) for a reference against the fence.   Then Joint the other fresh cut face and I'm golden from there on.

 

If I'm resawing logs I use a chalk line to  get started.

 

 

Edited November 4, 20169 yr by Cliff

I try to use a board thick enough to get two pieces when it is resawn.  A 3/4" thick board can be sawn into two 1/4" boards accounting for the waste when they are run through the thickness planer to sweeten the sawn surface.

Usually try to have enough on each side to let me balance it straight up.    Have done down to 1/2"  thickness with 1/4" being cut off.  i just take it slow, no need to rush a cut.   

And no,  I don't use a fence,  drift changes a lot during the cuts.    Usually use a 1/2" wide blade, but have been know to use this 1/4" one ( until it broke) 

Doesn't seem to do too bad of a job.....

So this thread just helped me solve the problem of re sawing a wider board on my band saw. The re saw capacity on my saw as others have said is just shy of 6". You could re saw a taller piece in two operations. Say I had a 10" board and wanted to make a book matched panel or two 10" wide panels for separate doors. I could first rip the board to 5" then re saw those two pieces. I would then have four pieces that were 5" wide each. If I carefully matched the pieces together at glue up I would end up with a 20" panel. More common would be when I am building a raised panel and need panels that are wider than 5 3/4" like maybe 7" or 8".  I could take an 8" board thick enough to yield the needed panels rip it down the middle to give me 2 4" wide pieces and depending on how I reglued the pieces back together I could get a couple different grain patterns. Sorry for thinking this out loud but I've just managed to get a little more mileage out of the band saw.  Thanks guys 

14 minutes ago, Kelso Chris said:

So this thread just helped me solve the problem of re sawing a wider board on my band saw. The re saw capacity on my saw as others have said is just shy of 6". You could re saw a taller piece in two operations. Say I had a 10" board and wanted to make a book matched panel or two 10" wide panels for separate doors. I could first rip the board to 5" then re saw those two pieces. I would then have four pieces that were 5" wide each. If I carefully matched the pieces together at glue up I would end up with a 20" panel. More common would be when I am building a raised panel and need panels that are wider than 5 3/4" like maybe 7" or 8".  I could take an 8" board thick enough to yield the needed panels rip it down the middle to give me 2 4" wide pieces and depending on how I reglued the pieces back together I could get a couple different grain patterns. Sorry for thinking this out loud but I've just managed to get a little more mileage out of the band saw.  Thanks guys 

I do this exact same thing quite often to flatten warped boards, cut drawer holes in rails of tables, cut through mortises through stool seats, etc.

This was a redwood stool I made, it was from a 14" wide plank. It was warped from corner to corner. so I ripped into 4 narrow boards and if you look closely you can see the rip cuts at the center of the through mortise for the legs.Then I cut the mortises before I glued the boards back together.

Herb

When I bought my Jet 14" from a guy on Craig's list, he said it would NOT resaw properly and he had done everything he could do, no help. When I got it home, I got the book out and started looking at the adjustments. NOT ONE was properly adjusted. He had installed ceramic guides and had a wax lubricant.I got it sawing great, but never used the lubricant. I was told by others not to  use lube of any kind.

 Before I do any serious resawing, I check all adjustments. The max on mine is 6 and a quarter inches.

If you ever have a blade break.................you'll never forget it. Scared the H out of me and jammed part of the mechanism. 

When all else fails...maybe use one of these...

 

what will somebody think of next...

Do you suppose he has tried a plunge cut?

Thank you all for replying to this thread and I am pleased that you enjoyed it. 

I prefer to resaw 4" boards out of 8 quarter stock so I then can glue up and plane down to 3/4" for raised panels that are mirror matched. Sure makes for some nice looking panels.

On my mill I can resaw a 26" board paper thin.