resawing #2: first test of the new jig!

This will bing lot’s of great wood your way. super sled

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Lookin’ good, Gary! You’ve gotta be excited about that!

-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.

Gray I am doing the same thing. I have 300 BF of Alder that I got from “socalwood” (great wood he has) and each day I walk by it and give it a bit of a pat. Watching it dry… waiting… invisioning…

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Hope you guys don’t mind, but I edited in some pics after your comments. I didn’t think I had them online yet, but it turns out I did.

Jim – thank you very much! I’m hoping you’re right.

Mike – VERY!

Kindlingmaker – Nice! I haven’t seen or worked with alder yet. Maybe in a year, when the various woods I’ll soon be resawing and setting up to dry are ready, I’ll be a much better woodworker, and more worthy of working in them. I’ll keep practicing until then!

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

Gary, it sure is fun to mill your own wood, isn’t it.

Are you aware that limbwood isn’t what you want to use for making lumber? You need to use only the main trunk, and save the limbwood to turning, or firewood due to the twisting/warping due to the internal stresses.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Really a good idea but it’s must be said you have also made a very neat job of this I like the plywood you used,it looks vary nice.Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Looks like that sled works great. How are you going to do the pigger pieces in the pile? Rip them with a chain saw?

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I’m thinking that if pieces are no larger than a couple feet long, warp/twist should be pretty minimal.

One thought Gary on getting pieces to use earlier. If you only want a few, you can always bring them inside and keep them near an air conditioning unit or a dehumidifier. You could probably use them in just a few months. also, the thinner you slice them the sooner you could use them.

I realize you probably want to keep nice 1” slabs, but just in case you thought you’d be tempted to try them out earlier, this could work. Last, you might need to keep contraction in mind. maybe you dont’ really need 4/4 material, but once it dries, it might shrink some. You seem to research pretty well and already know what you want to do, but I figured I’d throw this out there just in case. thanks for another fun post!

Great looking jig!

One suggestion, draw a scale on each end so that you will know exactly how much you are moving the fence before each cut.

Do you have a method of adjusting for blade drift?

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Very nice jig!

Perhaps you could get a splitting maul and a wedge to make the bigger pieces more managable. When I’m splitting firewood with a hydraulic splitter and find a nice piece, I’ll get it as square as possible then finish it up on the bandsaw. This works well for thicker blocks. You have inspired me to build a nice jig like that. I’m currently drying some honey locust, sasafrass, ash, maple, and walnut. Nothing like free project wood!

-- Jeff, Dayton, OH

Julian – I was aware, but had completely forgotten. Thanks for the reminder! I’m going to try it anyway for a lot of small things, like jewelry box lids – stuff that can’t possibly warp all that much :)

Alistair – The wood is baltic birch. It’s always gorgeous, with laser straight, perfectly matched plys, and it smells really nice when you cut it.

Topamax – I’ve been thinking of creating a little Alaskan mill. Basically, it would be a metal framework that clamped onto a chainsaw bar on both ends, and slid along a rail that sat over the large logs. I’ve seen it done other places, and at least once here on LJs. I will need a bigger chainsaw at some point, though!

Hokie – I’ve been thinking the same thing. I can only resaw about 2.5’ lengths on this thing, and that’s a bit of a stretch. I think because I have so much of several kinds of wood now (olive, eucalyptus, fig), I can try a few different experimental drying locations, in and out of the house. Of course I will report back my findings. And yeah, I will be making thinner pieces, too. In fact, on my lunch break today, I cut a piece of veneer, around 1/16” thick! It’s fig, and already bulging and warping all over. I gave it to a girl I work with who paints. She’s going to let it dry under some books to keep it flat, and then use it as a canvas :) Thanks!

Gary – I have one of these which I’ve been planning for months to incorporate into the jig, but I just can’t find it. I think it’s in the dining room, which is a mess right now :) It comes with rulers that go in both directions, so I can put 0 up at the 0-clearance edge facing whichever way I ultimately find comfortable. I think what I might end up doing, however, is picking up some small metal rulers, routing a channel just deep enough to hold them, and securing them in place such that the sled rides right over them. Zero can be based on the back edge of the sled, so the rulers won’t really be in the log cutting area at all, and I won’t have to rout the channels that far. As for blade drift, so far I haven’t had any. The blade isn’t touching the wood when I stop pushing. It slides between both sides, rattling a little bit. It’s a 1” thick blade, and tensioned pretty well, and I push slowly to give it time to cut cleanly. Is it possible I’m getting 0 drift? Perhaps I’ll get some in harder woods? If so, the fence can angle 8° either way. I suppose I can see how it’s drifting, and then move one ruler to compensate. A question I have about drift, however, is this. How can there be drift? If it keeps drifting to one side, wouldn’t it keep getting farther off its center line? Is it just that it will walk to one side, then stop walking, or walk that way, then back, then out again, making a sine wave pattern? I’ve never fully understood what’s meant by drift. Also, isn’t detensioning and retensioning the blade going to introduce a different drift? Thanks!

Jeff – We had a hydraulic back home. Here's a pic. It was a constant summer chore growing up, preparing for winter. I’ve probably split a few hundred small tractor wagon-loads. In oak, I’d usually get some pretty crazy twisting as the split followed the grain around limb areas and whorls. Even when it split straight, it would usually be jagged when viewed from the side, like a zig-zag pattern, following the rings, and cutting back diagonally across each. I’m hoping to build a little Alaskan mill like this, but smaller. It works like this, and this, though I’ve seen similar concepts used along the grain. My 16” electric may prove a bit inadequate, however. Even if I manage to split things like the 3.5’ tall olive stump I have in the back yard, I wouldn’t be able to get it on my band saw jig. It’s just too long, and still too heavy. For the really big stuff, my plan so far is to get boards slabbed as well as I can on something like an Alaskan mill, and then make and use a router-on-rails system, run around to true up one face. Once one side is nice and flat, I can always run it through the planer, unless it’s over 13”, in which case I’ll flip it and do the router trick to the other side.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

drift is when one side of the blade is sharper than the other ,
and it ( the blade ) tends to favor that side .
if you cut 90 deg. straight in , the blade wants to go to the side it favors ,
and can travel sideways as it cuts .
to compensate for this you turn your cut aproach to acomodate this .
rip fences that are 90’ to saw are fine when the blade is new ,
but as they wear out ( knots and other things ) they tend to ” drift ” to one side or the other .
one way to check this is to take a straight scrap , ( say a 1×2 ) and run a straight line with pencil down its length .
cut it free hand and see if is still 90’ to table and blade , or did you have to move it right or left to get it to cut straight ? that is how you can cut straight if you have a fence that you can adjust out of 90’ to blade and table .

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

gary, Thanks for taking the time to make this video for us to see.

-- Ron, Michigan

I thnk it would be pretty easy to build a small one. Poke a couple holes in the bar. Bolt on a piece of angle iron and away you go. Shouldn’t need that big frame to keep it flat and square when riping small logs. It would just maintain the width of the plank.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Sounds like you have a good plan. I’ve ripped a few small slabs with a chainsaw and always wondered how well the Alaskan mill would work. I believe with a ripping chain, it would do a good job. Ripping with a crosscut chain results in stringy chips and a rough surface.

Sounds like you’ve split a lot wood! I’m working on splitting about 7 cords as a result of hurricane Ike last fall. My uncle lost about four white ash and 3 black cherry. Lots a BTU’s!

-- Jeff, Dayton, OH

The new jig seems to work great. I enjoyed seeing that nice slice come off. If you want to speed up your drying time, I’ve read about some home made kilns. I don’t have any experience with them myself, but I have read several articles by wood turners who have made them. The were drying out rough turned bowls, but I don’t think it would be so different doing the kind of pieces you are cutting. As I remember, some of these were pretty compact and powered by a single lightbulb, and with some sort of drainage system.

-- Mike, American in Norway

small kilns are easy to make. A solar kiln and even a dehumidification kiln couild be built for under $500.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

Nice video Gary.

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

Be carful Gary. Pretty soon you’ll have to build storage for all the resaw planks! Nice job on the jig.

Rick

-- If at first you don't succeed...Don't try skydiving

Hey Gary I just had a thought. You talked about recessing metal scales into your jig. Well, you could hold them in with small magnets. This would allow you to adjust them for blade drift.

The first thing I do when I install a new blade, it to test it for drift. Very few have no drift at all.

Watch the end of this video, where he goes into drift.

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-13-bandsaw-setuptuneup/

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Great Jig Gary I have to make one!!

Thanks so much for posting this.

-- Rj's Woodworks,San Jose & Weed Ca,

last pic on the band saw makes no sense

you have to treat the log and lig, and machining the log much like a jointer and in the last pic, after several passes you still have the “rough” face to the jig, when in fact, you should have a “dressed” “jointed” side to the jig

?

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

to be honest

thats almost dangerous

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

david – Thanks for the info on drift. It seems to me that the thing I often here (i.e. set it and forget it) is untrue about drift after all, if it’s a function of sharpness. I’ll have to run a quick test soon to see what this blade is doing, if anything. Meanwhile, slabbing to 1” is hardly precision work, so it’s not as critical.

Ron – You’re welcome, and thanks for watching!

Topamax – There was someone here on LJs who made a mill with just some square metal tubing, bolts, and angle iron, and it was quite simply constructed, but worked well to slab even long logs. I’d like to design something easily maintainable, safe, cheap, and simple.

Jeff – Shows what a newb I am! I didn’t realize there were different styles of chain. I’ll look into that now. Thanks! Oh, and I’d never even heard the term ‘cord’ until recently. To us, it was just ‘piles’ :)

Mike and Julian – Yeah, I’ve read somewhat extensively on home and solar kilns, but I don’t know if I have it in me. I’ve built a pretty big shed, 20’ of large log storage shelves, and with all the log piles in a 0.18 acre lot, I’m running pretty low on room!

Mike – thanks!

Rick – I have 2 of the 5 shelving units open still. We’ll see how long that lasts!

Gary – I like that idea. My Incra router system has a stainless steel ruler that sits on an a matched-width strip magnet running down a channel in the aluminum extrusion. I think it would be easier, though, to pick up some neo ring mags with beveled holes, countersink them into the shallow grooves I’ll rout in the board, and drop in the rulers. Thanks for the idea! I’d actually seen that video, too, but I guess it didn’t stick with me. The info here on sharpness has helped me understand better. I had a small benchtop Ryobi band saw that isn’t even worth mentioning, and if I had to give it a name, I’d call it The Drift King. It couldn’t cut a straight line even in balsa!

Rj – You’re welcome! I’d like to see it when it’s done.

roman – yeah, in a subsequent post, I mention that I learned (all on my own! ;) to flip it around after cutting the first slab off. It did feel a tad unstable having a round bottom, but I was basing a lot of what I was doing on this video, which I watched a few months ago while dreaming of resawing one day. Thanks for your concern! I appreciate the words of warning and wisdom I get here.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

Roman

What you are saying is that one should make a flat face first then secure that flat side against the fence and then resaw on the other side?

What about the curved “bottom”? Wouldn’t if be just as important to have a flat surface on the base of the jig?

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Lee – For me, I followed jointer/saw table rules, and put the bow upward on the bottom. This should go even for things like finished planks being thinned on the band saw. I had to cut one the other way, with the cup upward, and when it got past the one contact point, the whole thing rather dramatically see-sawed, with the back half slamming down on the jig, and the parts already cut popping up. It held, but you shouldn’t really have stock doing that in your tools. With 2 contact points at the outer edges, that first slabbing of the fig log was stable as could be.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

cut one face/bark side off…...turn 90 degrees and cut another face off, turn it again with a “square” chunk of wood that fits into the sled…..........then cut your timber/lumber slabs…...just like they do at a sawmill

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

It’s good for making straight lumber, but for a lot of things I’m considering, I don’t want flat edges on the pieces, but rather natural bark on both long edges. If I joint the bottom so it rests better, I’ll have a bark edge, and a jointed edge. That’ll be good for some things, but not all the artsy things I have in mind.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

If you want to rip with a chain saw. Buy a set of carborundum cut off wheels for your moto dremal tool. then cut the rolled over section off of every other alternate pair of teeth on the saw blade. you end up with two cutters and two scrapers alternating the length of the blade. the saw will cut and clean itself twice as well as it will with an ordinary grind. I will try to put a picture of what i mean on here in a couple days. When I moved to Oregon this last time I built a chainsaw mill that cut all the Douglas fir beams for my house up to 22 ft long by 6 by 16 inch. I learned a lot. Kerosene is the best thing to lubricate and clean your rip blade just spray it on while cutting from a squeeze bottle.

-- Tool Maker

MY daddy-in -law used to be a logger. He told me the kerosene trick for cutting fir because of the pitch. Think it is necessary for other woods like maple or alder?

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

if you think about doing this often, you might consider buying something like this http://lumberjocks.com/daltxguy/blog/9154

the reasons are:
1. very low maintenance costs (with chainsaws you will eat through chains and saws very quickly, as this is hard work)
2. accuracy – you get dimensional timber right off the machine
3. quarter sawn timber
4. efficiency – thinner kerf

the only reason (IMHO) to have a slabber is if you want slabs

-- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...

T.S. I’m pretty dumb about different kinds of wood so I cant say about kerosene on non pitchy woods.

-- Tool Maker

waukez, I am too:-)) But I can attest to the kerosene working for pitch in fir. I was removing an old growth stump that was about 4’ across. It was right behind he house where we wanted to put a patio. I mentioned how the pitch was pluging up the chain to my daddy-in-law. He told me about the kerosene trick, my wife took a squirt bottle and squirted while I cut. It made a big diference.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

when I did achitectural concrete forming, we used kerosene on the forms to prevent the concrete from sticking to the forms

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

My dad used linseed oil on the farm, but it never worked as good as i thought it should. I was the scraper cleaner ;-((

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Excellent ! : )

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

I’ve tried this on my bandsaw. Do you get waves on the stock? I have a lower grade band saw. I cut up some poplar and maple. I just couldn’t keep it nice and flat. Any tips?

-- Hold on! Let me get the board stretcher!

I’m no expert yet, Matt, but it sounds like 1 or both of 2 things. First, make sure the blade is tensioned properly. If it’s loose, it can wobble a lot back and forth. Second, a wider blade is better. The wider the blade, the harder it is for it to walk left and right in the cut, and the more blade there is both to strengthen it up, but also to be held by the cut passing by the blade, which helps hold it straight. My old benchtop had a 1/4”-3/16” blade, and it didn’t just wobble. It walked way left and right of my intended cuts. I’m using a 1” blade here – much stronger, and stays much truer. The pros who cut veneers and very thin sheets from logs use very wide blades, like 2”+. Those things are starting to get toward circular saw blades for stiffness, and they don’t walk anywhere.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

Thanks a lot boss man. What kind of blade are you using?

-- Hold on! Let me get the board stretcher!

It’s a 1”, 2TPI “Timberwolf” blade from Suffolk Machinery. Best bet is to give them a call and talk to a rep. He was super patient with me, and asked me many questions, and then made a recommendation, and I went for that, and it works great.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

Alrighty thanks a lot bud.

-- Hold on! Let me get the board stretcher!