why do you resaw?

[Susumu Mori]

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,

[Jesse Busenitz]

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.

[David Hawxhurst]

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.

[Jim Finn]

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.

[Jim Andrew]

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.

[Prashun Patel]

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.

[lowell holmes]

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.

[Phil Thien]

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.

[Susumu Mori]

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.

[Larry Browning]

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.

[Susumu Mori]

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....

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 Browning]

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....

Hmm, This has never been a problem for anything I have done. Have you had problems with this? Also, If there was a problem with expansion/contraction of the 1/4" solid wood trim pieces, wouldn't there be a problem with the face frame as well? I have never had expansion/contraction problems with solid wood face frames attached to a plywood cabinet. I have never even heard of this being a problem.

[Jim Matthews]

Hi Larry,
Can you laminate 1/4 board on a plywood sheet without the problem of dimensional change of the solid wood?

I've done it, and the results are mixed.
Not all woods are sufficiently stable with the seasons to
be cut so thick. Not all sections of the tree are dimensionally stable.

I have one drawer front made from Burr Oak that bent a 1/2" Baltic birch
into a bowl shape. I can't really use it.

My latest resawn panels are thinner, about 6mm thick or less.

It was once common practice to apply "backing" veneer to both sides
of a panel to equalize the forces.

When you're dealing with a resawn section as thick as 1/4"
that can be impractical.

http://www.joewoodworker.com/veneeri...ker-veneer.htm

[Jon McElwain]

I can buy hardwood at my local woodcraft store, but the price is usually a fair bit higher than my hardwood supplier. Woodcraft has the advantage that they will often sell S2S, S4S, 1" thick, or 2" thick for the same type of wood. My hardwood supplier will get a delivery of wood and the whole thing might be 2" thick. If I resaw, I can get three boards out of a 2" thick piece depending on the project. I also have a some wood milled when I get the chance to collect some logs from the wood bank or from a local arborist. It's really nice to be able to resaw this lumber to close to final thickness.

[Brett Robson]

I use a lot of 1/2" poplar for drawer sides and bottoms. I buy 8/4 and can generally get three, 1/2" pieces out of it. It's a fair bit of labor to do all the sawing and planing, but it's a lot cheaper than buying 4/4 stock and planing it all down.

On occasion I saw a veneer or two as well.