what bandsaw should I get for this one job?

[Tom M King]

Yeah, I know....another which bandsaw should I get, but hopefully this is a little bit different. We need to resaw 8,000 lineal feet of Cypress mostly 5" thick cuts to make shingles I can't get anywhere else. The saw may not ever be used again, or it might. The only bandsaw I have right now is an old Delta 14" with riser that someone gave me which has never even been plugged in here.

I'm leaning towards a 24" Grizzly, but also checking CL. There is a Hitachi resaw 75 listed on CL an hour and a half away, but the guy is not responding.

Opinions welcomed on saw and blade.

[Jamie Buxton]

8000 feet? I'd look to a big saw, plus a power feeder. In the old days, there were bandsaws all set up for this task, including the power feeder. Back east, you might get lucky if you ping machinery dealers.

[Tom M King]

I have some feeders laying around. 4,000 pieces 2' long. It doesn't have to be all done in one shot-no deadline. The guys will probably run a hundred or two pieces at the time. I've seen some big bandsaws on CL, but I don't want to get into changing motors. It'll probably get set up in the yard at the old house. I'm thinking a carbide blade, or several, on a 24" saw should do fine for this one job.

[Andrew Hughes]

Will a powered feeder taper the shingle? I have never laid cypress shingles I'd be interested to see how they look.

[Myk Rian]

A good old Delta 20" with a 1" re-saw blade will do it.

[Tom M King]

Yeah, I wish I still had the old Delta 20" I bought and sold for another job 30 years ago. Might go with a sled with a vacuum hold on the work piece-have done similar to that before too. I can drive a couple of hours and buy a Woodtek from Woodworkers Supply, but haven't looked at them yet.

The original Cypress shingles on the roof of this house can be seen if you scroll down on the "structural" page on my website. They were the roof on the house from 1850 to 1986, when Terne tin was put over them. Cypress shingles were standard building materials around this part of the country from the late 1600's through the middle 1800's. 16 million were shipped out of the port of Edenton from 1771 until the Revolution in 1776. They were number 2 on cargo bulk shipped out of there during that period, behind barrel staves. It's not unusual for them to last 150 years, but they have to be made out of good heartwood, and be applied properly-which is different than what is known today as standard wood shingle and shake installation.

[Erik Loza]

....The saw may not ever be used again, or it might...

Alternate suggestion: Buy an Italian saw, use it, then re-sell on the open market as soon as you are done. You'd probably get at least 2/3rds the value back out of it and if the phone calls I take are any indicataion, guys would line up to buy something like that at a discount. I can easily see you killing a cheap bandsaw or spending more time fixing a "Craiglslist Special" than actually running it. Best of luck, whatever you decide to do.

Erik

[Tom M King]

Eric, that's a good idea. Just found a Laguna LT16HD on CL for a price cheap enough for just this one job. Would that saw be enough saw....16 seems a little small, but I'm not really a bandsaw guy?

[Erik Loza]

Eric, that's a good idea. Just found a Laguna LT16HD on CL for a price cheap enough for just this one job. Would that saw be enough saw....16 seems a little small, but I'm not really a bandsaw guy?

Personally, I would go for a 20" or 24".

Erik

[Tom M King]

That's what I was thinking. At 1100 bucks, the Laguna looks like a good buy and maybe worth a try, but I'll bow to your experience, and if you say it's not enough saw, I'll go with a bigger saw. Even the old growth Heart Cypress is still a fairly soft wood. Really appreciate the advice.

[Jamie Buxton]

And a carbide blade, like the Lenox Woodmaster CT. Higher initial cost than plain steel, but the longer life makes it the less expensive choice long-term.

[Erik Loza]

The reason I say to go bigger is that you have the additional mass of the flywheels working for you and just a heavier overall machine, since you mentioned using a feeder. But, if you can get an ACM saw for $1,100 and don't necessarily care if it lasts, then I would definitely go for that over a newer Chaiwanese one. If you kill it, it was still probably cheaper and if it lives, they you flip it and get most of the cash back.

You appear to be in the enviable position of having the option of a used Italian machien available locally for a good price. That's an element not often available.

Erik

[Tom M King]

Thanks so much!! I'm going to tell the guy I will get it. Hopefully it will last, but if it doesn't it will not be a serious disaster, but a good bonus if it does.

[rudy de haas]

An alternate suggestion..

You say you have about 4,000 pieces, each 2 feet long and you want to make shingles? Do you want the shingles to be thicker at one end than the other? If so this could be a nasty job with any band saw - and before you buy anything I'd suggest you find a friend with a 20" saw and try a few.

On the other, the job is relatively easy for a shop with the right (horizontal and $100K+ ) gear to push everything through in a few hours. In your place I'd go looking for someone with that kind of tools in place willing to contract the job.

[Tom M King]

Thanks. Yes, tapered. 5/8" on the thick end. Quotes so far for farming it out have been 8k and above, plus I'd have to carry the wood there, and then go get it-so basically a dollar and above per shingle, plus two times at least more than a half day on the road. We've already run some on a friends small bandsaw, and it wasn't that bad of a job even without anything like an ideal setup. Janka is only 25% harder than Basswood.

The plan is to keep the wood on a trailer, going straight off the trailer to be cut to length, and then immediately through the bandsaw, into the loader bucket, followed by up to the roof when the loader bucket has enough in it. Tarp will go over saws at end of day, and trailer back in shed.

Plus, the wood is not cheap, and the owners feel better about getting me to do it than farming it out. We do almost everything on a house, and this is not too far out of line for what we do every day. Check out my website to maybe get an idea of what a day on the job is like for us:
www.HistoricHousePreservation.com