A slab Gage for the Band saw log slicer/Resaw Jig

Ok, Now I get it. It took me a minute to see it but, yes, it’s good one.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Yeah, Tom…I blinked a bit there too, but now I get it. Bob doesn’t spoon feed us like Niki. He leaves a bit of it up to you to figure out. Nice!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Bob, I built a sled like this from an idea out of a woodworking magazine. Unfortunately, I can’t find that issue or remember the magazine title. But what the maker did was attach the log to the vertical fence (I did mine with screws) and then run it through the blade. The sled rides in the slot on the right side of the table.Your next cut will be of whatever thickness you choose just by moving the vertical fence (and log) to the left a bit. He was cutting boards down to 1/4” thick, I think.

My problem is an old cranky Craftsman bandsaw with a 3 1/2” cutting height and a 1/4” blade. (Hey, it was free and I’ve only invested into bearings so far). My blade keeps tracking thru the wood strangely as I need a wider one. I’ve given up on trying it (getting dangerous here) and sent the jig to the scrapbin. I am eyeballing a new, bigger bandsaw and will recreate this sled then. I’ll look thru my magazine pile again for you guys too. The sled did work…the saw did not!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Dadoo, that is the first sled I made and used with some success with my 14” band saw.
If you look carefully at my new gage jig you will see the backer I used was from the older style jig.
The problem I found with the older style was that there was no way to keep the log co planar and most logs are tapered from end to end.

My new one relies on the just cut surface to determine the thickness of the cut instead of the saw blade to get the width. I was getting tapered cuts with the old one,
This one eliminates that.
In a real mill they cut the tapers off in the first operation then slice the cant into boards.
There is another portable mill that uses 2 saw blades.
One cuts sideways and the other cuts vertical to produce rift sawn lumber.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

duplicate ???? sorry

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

OK I get it now. My jig was along the lines of yours in pic#4. There wasn’t support though for the left side of the log and it tended to relax, binding the blade. That and the fact that I was attempting this with inferior equipment. Thanks for clarifying this Bob.

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Bob,

That is just really neat, that you can take a log and make your own lumber out of it! I hope to get into this some day…

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

Hi Tom,
I cut a few birch trees off my property a couple of years ago and blocked the logs into 4-5 foot lengths .
I have them piled in my back yard.
I set a couple of logs down on one end in the earth to “spalt” and give me some neat black lines where the wood rot just begins to break down the lignin in the wood.
That’s what I have been slicing up to get some patterned veneers and slats for box making and the llike.

Birch is pretty plain untill you let Ma nature paint it up a bit.
It seems like I have been making jigs for this project forever and never getting to the end where I can start making some boxes but I am gaining on it now.
I have recvently glean som elm and box elder that will met the same fate as the birch. <g>

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

The elm and box elder should be interesting to open up! Great jig.

I’ve let some of my birch rot just a little too much!

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA