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I’m experimenting with resawing lumber into B&S sets.

Strictly for my own entertainment - I enjoy working with local-ish lumber, knowing where it came from, etc. I’m the same with the other woodwork I do.

Since my thickness sanding capabilities (24” grizzly dual drum) exceed my resaw abilities (somewhat upgraded 14” saw), I tend to make a lot of sawdust. For example, I just cut a 6/4 board into 4 pieces for backs. They cleaned up pretty quick on the sander. I probably could have split that board into 5 pieces, but that only gives me 2 1/2 backs.

If you do your own resawing, what’s your target thickness? Put another way, what’s your yield out of a given thickness board?

I have an Hitachi resaw and normally get 5 slices per inch. It can go more narrow on softwood but there's no point.

With my Laguna SUV I can get 5 comfortable slices per inch. So 5/4 gets me three sets, 8/4 gets me 5 sets, for backs.

For sides, I can get an extra set out of 8/4 lumber.

Anyway, I aim for 5/32 backs, 3/16 sides...

6/4 lumber is a bit wasteful as is 4/4...

I cut mine at 4mm thick then hand plane and scraper to thickness

I think Med means 3/32 for the sides.

For me, depends on the value of the wood, type of wood, planned final thickness, blade I am using, how well the saw is set up and how much I'm trying to economize & maximize. (Which is all the time lol)

Pat

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Pat

Oops...

One thing I've found about resawing - if you get too greedy you usually wind up with less.

+1 on the greedy comment. In general, I cut backs around 0.180" and sides 0.165". I use 1" Lenox Woodmaster CT blades, which have a kerf of around 0.055". That means 4 or 5 slices from 4/4 lumber. You also must consider how flat the boards are, and how rough sawn they are, assuming they are unsurfaced. Also be forewarned that the wood can warp after resawing, due to seasoning stresses. Surface checking is another recurring defect that may render the outermost slices useless.
One hard won lesson is to always joint the edge that is against the table, and make note of any lengthwise warping, especially if you use a long fence. Convex toward the fence, always.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

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John

Thanks y’all.



Oh yes, learned that one. The hard way, as usual.

Backwards plan it.
Example:
1. What is your final thickness prior to closing up the box?
2. What is the thickness that you take down on the thickness sander?
3. What is the difference in thickness from your saw cut measurement to your actual cut thickness?

For ukulele, I used to cut at .125" for final of .080-.070. Now I cut at .100"
Yes, some upgrades to the Hitachi CB75F, and some fine tuning gets me fairly close.

The best advice I ever got on that was:"Three slices you can use is better than four you can't".

Depending on species, guitar shape and thickness of the raw material, and also on the type and condition of bandsaw blade used, I normally aim for 3,7mm to 4,5mm for backs and 3,0mm to 4,0mm for the sides.

So how many slices per inch do you get sawing at 3mm, my brain hurts trying to set it out, lol...

Use this Ed. https://www.metric-conversions.org/leng ... inches.htm

3 mm is barely under 1/8". Allow for the thickness of the saw blade and any roughness in the cut.

On a good day I can get four slices from a surfaced nominal 1" board (~3/4" actual thickness) using a thin kerf resaw blade on forgiving wood. On a bad day I'll count myself lucky to get two slices from the same thickness board in recalcitrant stock on the same saw with the same type blade.

6 x 3 = 18
5 x 1,1 = 5,5

18 + 5,5 = 23,5

25,4 — 23,5 = 1,9

1,9 mm for messing around...

But

1,9 : 5 = 0,38 mm for messing around by each cut ugggghhhhhh

That’s not how I like to do it....
And I would not do this with resawing backs.
Only with sides, when the billet is kind of perfect.

I have a bunch of Imbuia floor boards that I have made several guitars from. The boards are just under an inch thick and I get 4 piece backs from them. I've definitely blown it on a few but then I have no choice either. Normally I get 4 slices on inch thick stock. That's actually pretty easy with my Hitachi CB75F resaw.

I have the same saw, what upgrades have you done? The most common one is replacing the motor it seems. I've got a 3hp motor connected to mine now.

Sorry for the hijack of the thread.
Here’s a recent vid I did for a friend; I also have an older vid on the channel showing actual resawing.

Cool thanks. I only took a brief look. So you don't use the 3in blades anymore? Why not? I know they are incredible expensive that's for sure!

I only saw the link when I quoted too so here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qr1-YEFyE8

Seems the embedded vid doesn't show up on Android.

Nope, 3" are gone. Learned from my friend a long time ago that wide blades for resawing are not required, and there's WAY MORE availability and selection of blades that are 1". And cheaper too.

Now that Hitachi is Metabo, my other friend with a CB75 used for production finally did the Carter conversion because its too difficult (at the time) to source the Stellite. I think costs are down because its cheaper to swap in a fresh blade than sharpening the Stellite a few times, which loses quality over time as well.

Hey Aaron, do you track the front of the blade with the front of the wheel like what you would do with a 3-in? Or do you put it in the middle of the tire?

Btw, nice rig!

Pat

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Pat

Gullet on the middle, as much as possible, like Alex Snodgrass. Unfortunately, the guides are big enough that I have it adjusted as far in as possible (the bottom guide), and the gullet is still a little forward with 1" blades. Works for me.

I enjoy resawing too. I'm no expert. Since I'm not doing it to sell product, I don't worry about how much time I'm using. If I really want to max out a piece then after every slice I thickness sand the saw marks out of the remaining piece. This way I'm not guessing about how much extra thickness to add for 2 sides of each piece to get the saw marks out. I'm only estimating the extra thickness to cut for taking saw marks out of one side of each slice. Of course this takes extra labor time.

I totally agree with the previous comments about getting "too greedy". It does not pay off with extra usable slices. This is especially true if you happen to have an underpowered 14" saw.