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Thread: why do you resaw?

  1. #1

    why do you resaw?

    Hi all,

    I’m a new member here and this is the first time to post, but I’ve been enjoying reading and learning from this forum for a long time.

    I’m posting this because I have a question about resaw. I understand that resaw by a bandsaw is needed when we want to make veneers or bookmatch. That’s fine. However, for the dimensioning purpose, we have an option to purchase boards with different thickness, instead of resawing a thick board to thinner ones. From my local shop, I can buy 1-inch boards about 20% cheaper than 2-inch boards. Including the labor and saw blade costs, buying thicker boards (and resaw to thinner boards) do not make much sense in terms of cost. Buying 2-inch boards may give us more flexibility because we can dimension it in any ways we want; 2-inch thick legs, 1-inch thick table top, ¾-inch frames, 1/4-inch drawer bottoms, etc. But if we have a space, buying both thicker and thinner boards could be both cost and labor efficient.

    I have a 14-inch bandsaw and I have seen bigger bandsaws are very popular for hobbyists. I’m just wondering how often and why you do many resaws, unless you do many veneers.

    Thanks,

  2. #2
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    i have a 20" bandsaw that gets used a lot because I had a guy come mill a bunch of my logs so I use it a lot to cut up cast offs that were too small to mill anymore, but too big to throw away. Also I just made a bunch of drawers, and used it to resaw 1 1/4" to 1/2" which I don't know of anybody local that sales 1/2" solid oak. But I think you're right that if you're using 1 or 3/4" just buy it that way.
    Only one life will soon be past
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  3. #3
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    book matching and veneers are why i do it. i have done it because a project was working on mainly used 8/4 but needed a few smaller pieces that i was able to resaw some of the 8/4 to get them from.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    I resaw about 500 board feet of Maple and cedar a year. I buy the cedar rough , resaw and plane it to 3/8" thickness to make small boxes which I sell.
    No PHD, but I have a DD 214

  5. #5
    I have a small bandmill, and saw my own lumber. Having a bandsaw that will resaw makes better use of my lumber. If you have a source for local lumber, you will see why. If you just buy planed lumber maybe not. I just prefer to buy some equipment rather than wood. It makes work fun when you can cut down a tree, slice it up, and then build things.

  6. #6
    Personally, I concur with your conclusions: resawing for dimensional purposes is not worth it for me.

    I resaw for bookmatches or laminations mainly.

    I do resaw to thickness sometimes. When thicknessing down a board by more than 1/8", resawing the bulk off saves the planer some work.

  7. #7
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    I'm building a cherry rocking chair for one of my grandchildren. You can't easily buy cherry S4S in the thicknesses needed.

    I have a board that was 2 1/2" thk. X 8"x 96". I was able to make a large part of the chair from that one board that has the same grain.

    You can't do that at the BORG. Resawing is required, whether by hand or machine, to do this.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Prashun Patel View Post
    Personally, I concur with your conclusions: resawing for dimensional purposes is not worth it for me.

    I resaw for bookmatches or laminations mainly.

    I do resaw to thickness sometimes. When thicknessing down a board by more than 1/8", resawing the bulk off saves the planer some work.
    I agree with both of you.

    The only other exceptions I'll add: (1) The occasional "free wood" I'll get from friends, family, or the side of the road (I've found people throwing away huge chunks of hard maple, for example). (2) Resawing to get thin wood for small projects (like a box).

    But normally, resawing for dimensional purposes (as it has been put) is kinda risky because the wood often moves quite a bit. You may not net what you need from a thicker board if it goes wonky after resawing.

  9. #9
    Thank you all for quick reply.
    Yes, I really like the idea to buy rough lumbers and dimension them by myself, but living in the east Maryland, I haven't been able to find a source of such lumbers. I can frequently see tree-cutting fellows cutting down trees in residential areas. Some of the trees looked so nice and I was salivating and wonder where it would go...

    If I can get these lumbers, a big bandsaw and resaw make a perfect sense.

  10. #10
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    I am a pure hobbyist woodworker I really like mission style furniture. I tend to use hardwood veneer plywood for cabinets I will often times use 1/4" trim on top of the plywood to give the appearance of a frame and panel on the sides of the cabinet. I can get 2 or even 3 pieces of 1/4" trim from one 4/4 board by resawing it. I know of no source for 1/4 hardwood, so I make my own.
    Larry J Browning
    There are 10 kinds of people in this world; Those who understand binary and those who don't.

  11. #11
    Hi Larry,

    Can you laminate 1/4 board on a plywood sheet without the problem of dimensional change of the solid wood? I wonder how the plywood copes with the expansion and shrinkage of the solid wood layer. I thought the veneer has to be thinner than 1/8 to avoid this problem. Maybe you can get away with it if you laminate the both side? But then you are not saving anything because 2x1/4 would be a 1/2 solid wood board....


    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Browning View Post
    I am a pure hobbyist woodworker I really like mission style furniture. I tend to use hardwood veneer plywood for cabinets I will often times use 1/4" trim on top of the plywood to give the appearance of a frame and panel on the sides of the cabinet. I can get 2 or even 3 pieces of 1/4" trim from one 4/4 board by resawing it. I know of no source for 1/4 hardwood, so I make my own.

  12. #12
    Join Date
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    As Larry indicates above, resawing from the same board allows you
    to "wrap" grain from the same board around legs.

    This emulates riftsawn lumber that may not be available.

    I mainly resaw for drawer fronts, for best matching.

    It's important to remember that resawing can be used on
    much thicker materials to make thin, robust strips that
    are stiffer than standard veneers.

    I attended a 9 day course of instruction with Paul Sellers,
    and this method was displayed on making table legs,
    so that adjacent legs would have book matched grain.

    All four "facets" of the legs then had vertical grain displayed,
    even though the stock had been riftsawn.

    The resawn strip was glued between the adjacent legs.
    The bandsaw was used to rip the dried assembly down the middle,
    resawing the applied veneer.

    The legs were then rotated 90 degrees away from each other
    to expose the freshly cut, bookmatched faces.

    It was simple, efficient and striking in appearance.

    http://paulsellers.com/2013/06/venee...-matched-legs/

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Browning View Post
    I am a pure hobbyist woodworker I really like mission style furniture. I tend to use hardwood veneer plywood for cabinets I will often times use 1/4" trim on top of the plywood to give the appearance of a frame and panel on the sides of the cabinet. I can get 2 or even 3 pieces of 1/4" trim from one 4/4 board by resawing it. I know of no source for 1/4 hardwood, so I make my own.
    I can buy 1/2" and 1/4" hardwood from my local supplier, but the cost is the same as buying 3/4 thick finished flat stock. When I need 1/4" material for flat panels, I will resaw the 3/4" thick boards and plane the sawed side to 1/4. That gives me 1/4" material at half price.
    Lee Schierer
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  14. #14
    It's cool for fine casework aesthetically, but you can just buy veneer too. I seldom resaw even though I have a dedicated resaw. I'll get to it sooner or later and do a run of bookmatched work. I mostly steam bend instead of laminating curves.

    I think the whole resaw capacity thing is overblown. Resawing can get pretty nerve wracking in widths over 6". 6" wide veneers are fine to work with and keep in mind that the wider the cut, the more tiny alignment errors get magnified, resulting in wedge-shaped boards. The alternative is to be extremely fussy about sharpness and setup, which takes time. If you're resawing fine woods for guitar plates it's worth the effort to get that 9" cut dialed in.

    I live in Los Angeles and there is no availability of local woods and no backyard sawmills to buy from. All my wood comes from a hardwood dealer.

    Machinery choice has everything to do with the type of work you aspire to do.

    That said, a 20" band saw is a fine thing, regardless of whether it's used for resawing. It can do an amazing range of work and to accurate standards.
    Last edited by Loren Woirhaye; 07-30-2014 at 11:27 AM.

  15. #15
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    On a few rare occasions I have resawn thick stock to get good color match and grain match, but mostly it's for veneers or bent laminations. Often ime splitting a piece of 8/4 can yield 2 cupped and useless scraps which can't be flattened, it's a gamble at best. Better off to look for sequenced matched hardwood in the thickness needed than resaw, but not many regular dealers sell wood that way.

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