what bandsaw should I get for this one job?

[Tom M King]

Someone else beat me to the Laguna. It only lasted a few hours on CL.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Do you know someone with a sawmill ? You can get a jig to hold the blocks to cut the shingles....Where I live a friend has one....looks to work really well

[Judson Green]

Have you thought of just doing it on your Delta? Maybe make a overlay table, with a fence incorporated and room and mountings for your feeder. Get a super carbide whatever blade and have at it. If you just doing an hour a day or so... just a thought.

Maybe your fence is made of casters

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Someone else beat me to the Laguna. It only lasted a few hours on CL.

Out on the other coast, there is this 36" Kimwood resaw bandsaw 20 hp double power feed. Fun to look at. But a lot of money. http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/bfd/5143119644.html

[Tom M King]

Do you know someone with a sawmill ? You can get a jig to hold the blocks to cut the shingles....Where I live a friend has one....looks to work really well

I've seen those, but it would require a lot of steps. Our setup will not require the guys doing the feeding, and stacking to have to move more than a few steps each.

[Tom M King]

Have you thought of just doing it on your Delta? Maybe make a overlay table, with a fence incorporated and room and mountings for your feeder. Get a super carbide whatever blade and have at it. If you just doing an hour a day or so... just a thought.

Maybe your fence is made of casters

I found a horse and a half 1725 rpm Baldor that my Dad had this afternoon. I don't have anything to put it on but that bandsaw anyway, so I ordered a cast iron 3" pulley for it. I needed to get that bandsaw going anway. I'm going to see how long it takes the guys to run a hundred pieces through it when I get the chance. This wood cuts like butter with anything I've run it through so far. I'm not sure if we're going to use a feeder, or a sled I have designed in my head with a vacuum place holder. We'll just use a sled for this run.

[Tom M King]

Out on the other coast, there is this 36" Kimwood resaw bandsaw 20 hp double power feed. Fun to look at. But a lot of money. http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/bfd/5143119644.html

I don't know if my tractor with loader could even pick that thing up. There are some fairly cheap old, big iron bandsaws on CL in these parts, but I don't expect to go that route. I want something the guys can run for a while without me having to come down off the roof to fiddle with it.

[Bruce Wrenn]

The sawyer at the state fair used to have a shingle mill. Contact the fair and see if they could have him give you a call. (They won't give out his phone #.) Woodmizer makes a shingle attachment for their mills. You could possibly get someone who has a Woodmizer to saw them. Contact Woodmizer to see if anyone close to you has such. Check with with Scott Smith as he may have a shingle mill for his Baker horizontal saw.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I must be the dumb one in the conversation.

Describe for me the wood. You have 5" thick slabs of cypress. 5" thick x what width x what length?

And - what do the finished shingles look like? For example: 6" wide x 8" long. the grain runs from the fat 3/4" end to the thin 3/8" end. [instead of the grain running across the slope.] Or maybe - the shingles are not "wedge shaped" at all - just thin slices of wood?

And you you have to take these out of 5" thick by 6" wide x 10' slabs? So you need to cut the slabs to 8" long, then cut tapers in them to get the 6" x 8" shingles with the grain in the proper orientation?

I know how to do that, and I know the equipment that will do it, and that equipment has a high resale value %, .........but I am not sure I understand what you are starting with and what the end product looks like......... so maybe I know doodly-squat.

[Peter Quinn]

I'm thinking a 20" or better saw with the quickest blade speed you can do and a carbide blade, foot actuated vacuum clamp on a sled, 2 operators: one feed, one catch and bundle. If the average shingle is 5" width and its all cypress thats not much stress on the machine. Is the lumber green? Most shingles we get here are still pretty moist, sawing green lumber may benefit from a blade with that purpose in mind...ie they make blades for sawing green lumber with wider set to remove the mush that it creates more effectively. I know they have shingle machines, and if you find one or get use of one that may be cost effective...but the videos I've seen of them make them look like an amputee station, the bandsaw may be a safer option on your volume for a single job. Sounds like an ambitious project!

As a side note I've used a 24" grizzly at work in the past, I think that saw would be more than up to this task should you go that way.

[Larry Frank]

I would look for a shingle cutter. I have seen them at historic equipment and steam shows many times. I think you might make a deal with them to cut the shingles.

Just a thought as setting up to cut them on a bandsaw will take some time. You could use your current bandsaw to run trials as to the best way and how long it will take.

[Tom M King]

I must be the dumb one in the conversation.

Describe for me the wood. You have 5" thick slabs of cypress. 5" thick x what width x what length?

And - what do the finished shingles look like? For example: 6" wide x 8" long. the grain runs from the fat 3/4" end to the thin 3/8" end. [instead of the grain running across the slope.] Or maybe - the shingles are not "wedge shaped" at all - just thin slices of wood?

And you you have to take these out of 5" thick by 6" wide x 10' slabs? So you need to cut the slabs to 8" long, then cut tapers in them to get the 6" x 8" shingles with the grain in the proper orientation?

I know how to do that, and I know the equipment that will do it, and that equipment has a high resale value %, .........but I am not sure I understand what you are starting with and what the end product looks like......... so maybe I know doodly-squat.

5" wide. 22" to 24" long by 5" wide. 7" will be exposed. We're getting the wood sawn 4 quarters thick. We're sticking close to the old shingles, but only "improving" on the ones that failed at 131 years old-a little too thin and quartersawn. Ours will be a little thicker, and no quarter sawn individuals. Ours will mostly be the width of the widest ones on the roof, which are all still fine being thick enough and flat sawn. It looks like the soft grain eroded away enough on the quartersawn ones to allow water to freeze in the groove, splitting that shingle, but that's just my theory from what I see.

I've found a few old shingle mills, but no one who wants this much work to do. We aren't cutting the wood into blocks that would work on them anyway. 4/4 looks like the best way to get the least amount of waste, and no trouble finding a mill to do that.

I've already run some trials, and it works fine even on a saw that is theoretically not up to the task. The wood Jankas around 540 and is very stable. It's also dry.

Scroll down on the "structural" page on my website, and I believe there is one picture of the 131 year old shingles: www.HistoricHousePreservation.com

I've seen the Woodmizer shingle cutter, but our method will require a lot less footsteps, and I don't have to carry the wood anywhere else. The cuts don't have to be perfect, just fairly close. My method will allow the guys to take the wood off the trailer, and end up in the loader bucket to be lifted up to the roof with very few footsteps.

We will use three operators-maybe four. One takes a board off the trailer, cuts it to length-might put two guys on this step. Next guy takes cut to length piece and feeds it through bandsaw to cut taper. Third guy catches the two shingles at the outfeed, and stacks them into the loader bucket. "Building something is not about knowing what goes where. It's about how you get the plywood in the house."-Randolph Pierce 73 years old in 1973. I don't build stuff with a telephone and a truck.

I've been approached by a cable TV show production company about filming one of my projects. I'm thinking this might be a good one.

[Andrew Hughes]

Out here on the west coast we call that size Royals,That's a nice roof shingle.If you plan on hand nailing I got two nail strippers that are collecting dust you are welcome to use.
My roofing days are done so you would not need to send them back.

[Tom M King]

Andrew, I appreciate the offer, but I'm not a purist to the point of wearing Lindsey-Woolsey underwear. I'll be shooting these: http://www.amazon.com/Senco-N19BGBN-...+crown+staples I have Cedar shake roofs I put on 40 years ago with the galvanized version of that which are still in great shape without losing a shingle even through three hurricanes here. The originals have one hand forged nail in the middle or each shingle 15" up from the bottom. I won't be putting any on the edges either, but will play with putting a couple offset near the middle high and low on each 5/4 Heart Pine purlin to see what I like best when I get into it. Purlins are 3-1/2" wide with a 3-1/2" space between them.

[Andrew Hughes]

I hear Ya Tom the crown nailer is a good choice,we use them out here for shakes when shakes are allowed.I like the look of a wood roof done right.As I mentioned my roofing days are done tendonitis in both elbows.Shuffling boards around he wood shop is hard enough.
I saw the link of the House that's quite the project.Ill prey that it goes well for you and safe.