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Greetings,

I have a Hitachi CB75 that I would like to resaw some sets with, the problem is the totally whimpy fence. I have adapted a new fence with rollers and a hold down with rollers both are rigid. I have checked the fence and it is square to the table. I have checked the hold down and it may tilt outward ever so slightly. My problem is it that some pieces wiz right through and some want to bind and cause the blade to wander a bit (errrr). I want to know if any one has a nifty set up that works for them. I would love to hear about it and a picture would be awesome. I am sawing up some fiddleback Claro if this makes any differnce. I bought this saw to cut some door panels for the Kitchen I built my wife and since it's just sittting around figured I would use it to cut some insturment wood. I have cut thousands of Gunstock and to be real honest I am of cutting blanks and wanted to process some of my dry high grade in to guitar sets instead. I also have a proformax that I was hoping to use to thickness sand the pieces. What is the accepted thickness for backs and sides minimum and max. and to what grit. Do luthiers want their material sanded or do that prefer to do this task themselves to their desired thickness? Any other tips would be REALLY appericated, I hate the thought of reinventing the wheel. 

 

Thanks you,

Jim Hafferty

 

 

Jim-
Welcome to OLF!

My resawing experience is quite limited. However, having a rigid fence and hold-downs will not do the trick if the saw is not cutting 'the way it wants to'. Often the fence must be adjusted to compensate for drift in the blade.
If you do a search on 'resaw' in the archives here and at MIMF you should find some info.
There are some professional sawyers who are frequent contributors here, so hopefully you will get some expert advice as well.
If you check out the professional wood suppliers (see links at top of page) yo should be able to find info on standard dimensions, etc.

What sort of wood are you resawing?

Cheers

John

www.highlandhardware.com has some great resaw tips. Check out their library on bandsaw articles.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I've had the same problem with a couple of different saws and found if I
squared the stock it was easier to free hand it. Sometimes thats still the
case but I bought some carbide tipped blades from Grizzly and because they
tend to be more ridgid I can do better with the fence as well as free hand.
Maximum blade tension helps alot.

Greetings,

Thanks to John, Bruce and John for all of the info. The Highland Hardware link was very helpful. Having cut "miles of wood" on my other bandsaw cutting out gunstocks you would have thought I would have a clue. I guess you need to look at things a bit different sometimes.

I now have tracked down and solved several little problems, starting with my jointer. I have spent countless hours setting-up or should I say re-setting-up my Jointer, Planer and Resaw and am happy to report all is well. I can now hold a straight accurate cut on my resaw, yea....

I still have one nagging question "What size should I cut"?

I have put together a little dimension cheat sheet for myself. I just want to be sure I am not missing anything. Do all of these sizes look O.K.?

Acoustic

Jumbo - Dreadnought - Auditorium - OM - Concert

Backs: 8 - 9 X 21 - 23 X .180 Sawn or .140 - .115 Sanded

Sides: 4 1/2 - 5 X 32 - 35 X .150Sawn or .120 - .100 Sanded

Classic

Backs: 7 - 8 X 20 - 22 X .180 Sawn or .140 - .115 Sanded

Sides: 4 - 4 1/2 X 30 - 32 X .150 Sawn or .120 - .100 Sanded

Archtop

Backs: 8 1/2 X 22 - 23 X 1.0625 Sawn or 1.00 Sanded

Sides: 3 - 4 X 33 - 34 X .150 Sawn or .120 - .100 Sanded

Solid Body Electric

Carved Top

Top: 7 1/4 - 8 X 20 - 22 X .6875 (11/16) Sawn or .6250 (5/8) Sanded

Drop Top

Top: 7 1/4 - 8 X 20 - 22 X .3125 (5/16) Sawn or .250 (1/4) Sanded

Madolin

Flat

Backs: 6 - 7 X 16 - 18 X .180 Sawn or .140 - .115 Sanded

Sides: 2 1/2 - 3 X 28 - 30 X .150 Sawn or .120 - .100 Sanded

Dulcimer

Backs: 4 X 32 X .180 Sawn or .140 - .115 Sanded

Sides: 2 X 32 X .150 Sawn or .120 - .100 Sanded

So, if you had some really nice material what size(s) would you try to cut the most of?

I guess I should mention that I am cutting some very nice  Claro, Bastogne and English/French Walnut. Sorry no Brazilian Rosewood here only California Walnut. This stuff while not as rare as Rosewood is still too nice to waste and I thouhgt I should ask before making any more saw dust.

I hope I can figure out how to post a pic so I can show you my progress, until then thanks for the info.

 

Have a great day,

Jim

Jim, running my Laguna with a .055" carbide blade, I try to set the machine where I get a cut every 1/4 inch. That leaves me a fair thickness .195 for continued drying and later sanding.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Jim-
Your dimensions for the guitar sets are a bit smaller than I'm used to...check the Luthiers Mercantile or similar company website to get some minimums that are more standard.
As far as thickness- again I like to get a bit thicker sets and thickness myself after joining the back.

BTW, the most important thing if you are going to sell to luthiers is that the wood is either perfectly quartered or that you record the grain direction (in degrees off perpendicular) relative to the sawn surface...it's easier to do this when you are sawing rather than after, when you are dealing with thin material.

BTW you can use/sell some material as headplate overlays and material for solid wood rosettes as well, if you have leftovers.

Also, you could offer to thickness sides to customer spec, which might appeal to folks without thickness sanders

Cheers

John

Thanks for the quick responses. I was just cleaning up a few pieces of 17" wide Claro burl on the Woodmizer so I can get process it with the other material I have waiting.

Bruce would I need to cut Dry material at .195 also or only green? My material has been gently Air Dried for a minimum of 3 years most 5 years or more.

John, what would you suggest for a width? I checked out LMI and what they offer is 9 X 22. Do I need to go a little wide, Ok. I am selecting slabs/planks that I either 1/4'd on the Woodmizer originally or center cut slab/planks off our big mill. I can see how when you start getting thin it's difficult to see the VG.

I hope I am responding to this in the proper manner, still just a newbie to the whole forum thing.

Ah, the smell of "English" Walnut in the moring..... Marbel Cake is the best. I must say I have not smelled Rosewood but fresh English is, well, incredible.

Jim

Jim, you can saw any thickness that makes sense. For me, when I'm harvesting sets from planed billets, I shoot for one nice slice per quarter inch including the kerf.

Now sides I usually get an extra set of sides out of say a 2 inch thick billet. That's if everything is according to Hoyle. It's when things get a little squirelly wandering blade or such, that you are thankful for the slightly thicker material.

And you are correct, the drier it is the closer to finish thickness cuts you can make. I'm just trying to balance it all and get the most wood slices. I'd rather sand off an extra thirty thousandths than be five thousandths shy of clearing at final thickness.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

[QUOTE=Jim Hafferty]

John, what would you suggest for a width? I checked out LMI and what they offer is 9 X 22. Do I need to go a little wide, [/QUOTE]

Jim-
Perhaps the website is different, but the LMI catalog lists the following minimums for backs/sides:
Classical
21x7.25+, 30x4.5
Jumbo
22x8+, 32x5

Smaller stuff is usable for parlor guitars, etc but you will have fewer customers. Another possibility if you have very nice stuff is 3-piece backs.
You might want to get some guitar templates/patterns/plans so you can check the layouts on your stock.

Cheers
John