Well I usually think thing through before I wind up with something like this, but the fact that I have a 10" blade on my tablesaw did not dawn on me before starting down this road. I want to slice through the blank perpendicular to the boards and veneer to create strips to add more veneer to make a pattern like graph paper. I can think of 2 ways to possibly do this. One is to cut one end using a mitre gauge at 90 to true up one end, cutting half way through the blank (4" tall) then flip it and cut the rest of the way through. Now I have a face that can ride against the fence and I can cut my 1" strips using the same method, cut half way and flip and cut the rest of the way. The other method is to use the bandsaw, but accuracy will suffer and I'd probably have to joint both faces of each strip. The intention is to add veneer between each strip to create the grid. I want the grid to be accurate, so I'm leaning towards the tablesaw method. The grain of both wood and veneer runs up and down as it sits on the saw.
I try to come up with some reason not to use my band saw. I am terrified of 10" blades sticking way out of the saw.
I think you are going to need to joint the sawed face what ever you do. On my band saw the kerf is half the circle saw kerf so I have some thickness to joint away and still come out equivalent. And my saw is accurate. There is no question I would joint the first edge, saw, joint, saw, joint. But this would leave me with a band sawed surface to deal with before gluing in the veneer spacer. Because my saw does not leave deep tooth marks I would try sticking 80 grit paper to a flat surface and sanding the tooth mark away. This face would not have to be perfect to accept the veneer and still leave an "invisible" glue joint.
I'm lucky enough to have a 12" tablesaw, but if I didn't have one, I'd find somebody who does and take this behemoth over there to rip. You're not likely to have perfect alignment of your over/under cuts no matter how rigorously you try to set it all up. Bandsawing, jointing and planing will get the job done, but you're going to lose a lot of material and the surfaces will likely suffer somewhat, if not blow up in the planer. It actually would be possible to get glueline rips on a bandsaw with a perfectly tuned saw and a killer blade, something like the ones Torben used to sell. It'll be a bit of a physical workout no matter what.
Bill, I am totally with you regarding a naked tablesaw blade sticking that far up. I will try some test cuts on my bandsaw (once I get a new starter switch that is on the way). I have a new blade and would use that to get the cleanest, straightest cuts I can. If they come out good, a light pass over the jointer to true them up would probably work. I still worry about getting things lined up good due to the possible inaccuracies. Thanks for your input.
'Thanks Ellis. I think this might be the way to go. I want to keep the accuracy tight if I can, and the tablesaw might be the best solution. I have a couple of places locally that might have a 12" saw that I think I can use. I just tried the flip cut to trim the ends using my Accu-Miter miter gauge. It came close to accurate, but I still had to take a couple smidges off with my jointer to clean them up. Double passes may wind up wasting more wood than I would like as I want to keep the final product as large as possible. I will give a few calls to folks around here to see if there is a 12" tablesaw available.
If you lack a simple line switch get thee to Home Depot and get any high quality on/off switch in the electrical supply section. Get highest rated amps they have. Should any nay sayers disparage this choice I will counter that such a switch has switched my 1 HP band saw motor for decades after the original "motor" switch failed.
You will want no more than a 6 tpi blade and saw very slooooowly as such a blade will get its gullets clogged and hence wander if you push too fast. I can readily sand out the saw marks with 80 grit after I slice. You don't need to sand them all away to glue on veneer.
...that slight variations are perceptible to the eye. I don't know what you're up to here, but if accuracy is important, I wouldn't figure on jointing too much off.
Well I usually think thing through before I wind up with something like this, but the fact that I have a 10" blade on my tablesaw did not dawn on me before starting down this road. I want to slice through the blank perpendicular to the boards and veneer to create strips to add more veneer to make a pattern like graph paper.
Michael, consider resawing the thickness (on a bandsaw) down to the level you can manage on your 10" tablesaw. Then you can do each slice in one pass and accurately. No need to go looking for a 12" tablesaw.
I am aware of that and right now have the jointer set to just take the barest cut. I'm thinking that the bandsaws kerf is much narrower than the 1/8" kerf of the tablesaw and if I get a clean enough cut, then I could actually maybe lose less wood than the tablesaw kerf. I am waiting on the switch for the bandsaw. Bill mentioned a good one from HD, but this is an 18" Laguna saw with a fancy switch. One module of this switch blew (I went through 1/2 hour troubleshoot with a great tech on the phone) and I have to wait on it before I can fire it up again.
I have a MiniMax 16 with a 1-inch Lenox Tri-Master carbide blade that gives me very smooth cuts when re-sawing. Your saw equipped with a quality blade and set up properly should do the same. Bandsaw is probably the way to go.
Well I finally got the switch from Laguna yesterday and installed it. Put a new 1" 3 TPI resewing blade on and tuned everything up good. Did a test cut and found that my cuts were almost jointer smooth. So I got the blank sliced up yesterday and veneer added between slices and it all looks great. Accuracy was dead on. Thanks for the advice again Bill.
Quite a ways to go on it, and I'm not sure how it will all go. Tricky part is the turning coming up, we'll see if that works and if the piece holds together. If it does, then the second part of the turning will need to be done. I would give it a couple months before I have a finished piece. We'll see. I am always trying something a bit out of the ordinary, and this is along those lines and I never know if it will really work.
