Looking for suggestions: Sizing 4 x 6 x 1/8" stock from lumber on a budget

[Luke Pighetti]

Hi all,

I currently have the little 10" craftsman bandsaw, an older Delta contractors saw with a nice Freud thin kerf hardwood blade, a CNC router, and a mini-lathe.

I'm trying to figure out a good workflow for taking rough sawn lumber (exotic hardwoods and burls) and going to a 4 x 6 x 1/8" piece that is ready for lamination to make more interesting 1" thick blanks before going onto the CNC router.

I would like to be able to do edge gluing as well to make the laminations more interesting.

I will add tools to the stable if necessary, but I'm pretty tight on budget right now and would like to add less than $300 in tools.

The catch is that I'd like to be able to prepare the thicknessed stock fairly quickly, and it's pretty important to me that the faces are parallel within about 0.010".

How would you approach this given the tools and budget at hand?

My first thought was table saw > disc sander > glue

[Mark Bolton]

Find a local shop to prepare the blanks for you and sub it out. Spend your time doing the work you can do profitably rather than chasing what your not equipped for?

[Jim Becker]

Preparing stock that thin would normally be a careful resaw followed by a drum sander. (most thickness planers are not workable to stock that thin) I agree with Mark that subcontracting this work out might be the way to go. Alternatively, sourcing "craft" stock might also be an option.

[Grant Wilkinson]

How thick is the rough sawn that you are starting with? If you can resaw it on your bandsaw to get rough thinner pieces, you should be able to use your CNC router to take them down to the 1/8" you want with good accuracy.

[Luke Pighetti]

I looked at the prices of thin dimensioned lumber and these guys are selling curly maple at about $120/bf, it's hard to stomach but it is an option. Does anyone have a preferred supplier of thin dimensioned lumber?

The rough sawn is anywhere from 1" to 3" thick to start.

I have considered subbing out the work but I do want to be able to really select which parts of the wood to use and cut, especially when its time to use a burl.

What if I changed the thickness requirement to 1/4"?

[Art Mann]

I think this is one of those decision where you need to either go all in or sub out the prep work to someone else. I am actually doing the same thing you want to do. Here is a list of the equipment I use and what I use it for.

Jointer - This is used to flatten the lumber, at least on one side, and to create a straight square edge. You might use your CNC router as a substitute but you will have to have a clever fixture to prevent rocking of an uneven piece. You can use a table saw with appropriate sled to make one edge straight and square.

Bandsaw - Obviously, I use this tool to resaw the material to thickness. It is possible to resaw fairly narrow boards with a table saw by running the board through, flipping, and running it through again. A 40 tooth general purpose blade will not cut it. You need a 24 tooth thin kerf blade and you may still get burning with a weak saw motor. I have some experience doing this and I want to warn you it is dangerous. Running lumber through that way is begging for a kick back. I don't recommend it but if you do it, take all precautions. Of course, the thinner you saw, the harder it is to get a good result.

Table saw - I use this saw to cut material to width and to make edges parallel.

Surface planer - I glue up my thick veneer to the substrate and then cut to final size. I then run the whole thing through the planer to make the lamination smooth and make the whole board a constant thickness. This solves the problem of trying to plane really thin material. You could use the CNC router and a surface planing blade to do the same thing but it is a real pain.

Drum sander - I sometimes use this either with the planer or as an alternative to it.

Random orbital sander - finish work.

You can accomplish almost anything with minimal tools, given enough time, but the process isn't very fun. The CNC router can be made to do lots of things but it only does a few things well and material prep is not one of them. If I were you, I would at least budget for a resaw band saw and a jointer and you really need more than that.

If you could let us know what the final product is like, maybe someone could help you locate a suitable supplier. For example, there are several companies that prepare blank awards plaques from fine hardwoods that are ready to carve. If I were interested in that kind of work, I might buy from them even though i have everything it takes to do my own fairly efficiently.

Here is an example of what I have done using the tools I have described (among others).

Table names.jpg

[Art Mann]

Quite by coincidence, I was on another forum and stumbled across this link. I don't know the first thing about them other than someone with a Shopbot recommended them. Their prices seem favorable. Might be worth a look.

http://www.thinboards.com/Default.aspx

If you happen to try this company and like them, please let me know.

[roger wiegand]

You could go the route of instrument makers and resaw on a bandsaw and then use a home-built thicknessing sander to smooth the wood and take it to final dimension (many plans available on luthiery sites and elsewhere).

With a good blade and a well-tuned saw band sawn veneer is pretty successful, with minimal sanding required (I've had good success with the wood slicer blade from Highland, I keep it for only resaw work). I will usually run the board through the planer, cut a layer of veneer, then run it through the planer again, so one side of the veneer is always flat and smooth. For 1/8" I have used my planer to take out the saw marks on the other side if I support the wood fully on a sled. The planer does eat about 10% of such pieces (much worse for burl, I would suspect). For less valuable wood this can be OK. For 1/4" thickness resawing with a bandsaw then running it through a thickness planer is a piece of cake-- I'd still support it on a sled.

By the time you do it yourself with the waste involved $120/bf may start to look good.

[Luke Pighetti]

Quite by coincidence, I was on another forum and stumbled across this link. I don't know the first thing about them other than someone with a Shopbot recommended them. Their prices seem favorable. Might be worth a look.

http://www.thinboards.com/Default.aspx

If you happen to try this company and like them, please let me know.

Art Mann, that thin dimensioned lumber is a LOT cheaper than what my supplier charges. I'm going to order a pack from them and see how it works out. You may have solved my problem nicely.

From him, $33/bf for Paduak in the size I want.
From my other supplier $66/bf same size

That said, comparing 1/4 to 3/4 from him is $33/bf vs $11/bf. And 1/8" is $66/bf!

Amazing how expensive it gets the thinner it gets... I can understand though, less material, same human inputs.

[Myk Rian]

You aren't gonna do it with a 10" BS. Plain and simple. If you're going to do a lot of it, get a 20". At the least, a 17".

[Luke Pighetti]

You aren't gonna do it with a 10" BS. Plain and simple. If you're going to do a lot of it, get a 20". At the least, a 17".

Trying to not show ignorance here... but why would you need a 20" throat bandsaw to resaw 6" tall blanks? I'd have thought a saw like the Laguna 14|12 would be fine for this job.

Certainly not the 10" craftsman. That thing is barely a bandsaw... :P

[Myk Rian]

It's the power of the saw that you need. Throat has nothing to do with it.

[roger wiegand]

It's the power of the saw that you need. Throat has nothing to do with it.

Not sure throat size and power are particularly related. I've seen a two ton 36" saw running with a 1/2 hp washing machine motor (you had to spin the wheel by hand to get it going), my 14" delta has a 2 hp motor. I agree that I wouldn't want to do it with a 10" Craftsman. The 14" delta does fine on resawing 10" boards, you just can't push them through very fast.

[glenn bradley]

Your 10" saw can resaw 4" height but, it would be painfully slow. Art M's source looks like the way to go. As he said, you either need to 'go big' and set yourself up to do it effectively (bandsaw and drum sander) or source it out.