Band Saw help

Re: Band Saw help

Ron in Drums PA

>Keep your eyes peeled in the local classified, if you are lucky you may find a used one at a good price.

Re: Band Saw help

Hawaii Turner

>David,

I think that you would be better served by a chainsaw then a bandsaw. To do what I think you want to, would need a full size bandsaw with enough height and power and some fixture to keep the log from rolling and damaging the blade and more importantly, you.

A chainsaw could replace your bowsaw completely. You would;

1)cut log to length

2) split log to remove pith

3)make a parallel cut to establish thickness

4) after lating out a circle with a compass, cut at least 8 facets around to form a crude circle before mounting it on the lathe.

Many of us with bandsaws, still do it that way when we turn large pieces of wood. The last benefit of a chainsaw is that you can take it with you for wood hunting.

If, for any reason (your children) you can't use a gas chainsaw because of the noise, get an electric one.

Aloha,

Doug, who has a 32", a 42" chainsaws and a 16" electric chainsaw + 2 bandsaws, and used them all this past 2 weeks.

Re: Band Saw help

David

>I wondered even as I wrote my post if a chain saw was my answer.....I hate those things....but I guess it wouldn't be much more dangerous to use than a bandsaw.

Re: Band Saw help

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>Actually, I don't think I will catch much flack when I say that a chainsaw is WAY more dangerous than a bandsaw.

Bandsaw - maybe accidentally cut off a finger or two

Chainsaw - Amputate a foot, sever a femeral artery, Kill you!!

That said, a Chainsaw is definately what you need. With a need for realatively small turning blanks, you could get buy with an electric or gas in the 16" range. This a decent used on can be had in this size for much less than you will get a bandsaw for.

Check your local pawn shops - when you find one in your size and price range, grab a friend with chainsaw knowledge and have them look at it, or post info here and get opinions. (Note: need to remind folks of you price range or you will get tons of "Get a New Husky.... or Get a New Stihl" responses.)

I did eventually find an old 10" Craftsman BS that I tuned up and with a good Timberwolf "AS" blade on it, it cuts 6" thick slabs just fine. But I would not be able to get them to that point w/o a chainsaw.

Mark

Mark

Re: Band Saw help

Carole in VA

>"but I guess it wouldn't be much more dangerous to use than a bandsaw."

Listen to Mark! Chainsaws are waaaay more dangerous than a bandsaw. A band saw seems rather innocuous, but ANY tool meant to cut wood (even your bow saw) will do a number on you if given the chance. A chainsaw just doesn't need nearly as as much of an opportunity to get you good! I use mine, but I will always be a little scared of it. As long as I am a little scared of it, I pay close attention to what I am doing and think thru each cut.

Re: Band Saw help

David

>Understood - and thanks for the continuing comments. In retrospect, I guess I'll do a rephrase on the level of danger for both tools. Basically, I find chainsaws and bandsaws scary and intimidating. I don't think there's any danger of me losing respect for the tool, but at the same time, that doesn't stop a chain from breaking and zipping around at a million miles an hour, or stop me from slipping, or prevent a band saw blade from snapping and flying off, or etc.

I've got a table saw, and I use it when I must, but I really, really hate it - another machine that would have your hand in a nanosecond if you gave it the chance.

I'm pretty good with an axe, but not good enough to cut blanks....

Re: Band Saw help

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>David,

Again, I am no expert on Bandsaws or Chainsaws, but....

A broken chain is a very rare experience on a chainsaw and in my opinion would not be all that catastrophic. Chainsaws are more dangerouse when they are working just fine but handled improperly, etc.

A broken blade on a BS is scarey as hell, and Noisy, but seldom dangerous to the operator. Once broken or comes off the wheels, it stops.

Mark

Re: Band Saw help

John K Jordan

>I think the band saw is about the safest power saw since the blade is always moving down, holding the wood against the table. (This is as long as the wood is supported, i.e., do not try to cut something like across a round log!) There are no forces acting to move the wood in any other direction. Other saws (table, chain, radial, skill, etc.) can catch and throw wood or blade at you or pull you into the blade. I guess a hand held jig saw and reciprocating saw is also pretty safe.

A 14" band saw such as an inexpensive Delta with a riser block will let you cut things about 12" thick. I use mine constantly to prepare blanks from quite large down to small spindles. I cut some flat with the chain saw then do most of the rest on the band saw. If the log section is less than 12" long, all of it can be done safely on the band saw.

Great also for resawing boards - once I resawed a 12" length of 2x12 douglas fir into four boards. The band saw is safe for cutting even very small stock that you wouldn't put near a rotating.

The only problem I've had with my band saw is with cutting a lot of thick, wet green wood. The sap tends to build up residue on the blade and must be cleaned often for certain woods.

If you get a band saw, I can highly recommend the Band Saw Handbook by Mark Duginske. Before I read this book I had no idea how to properly tune the saw, for example, why it is better to set up the saw for coplanar tracking instead of tracking the blade in the center of the tire.

Note that you can cut some pretty big stuff on a hand-held reciprocating saw as well with an extra long blade, but it is much harder to get a straight cut in thick materials since the blade tends to flex. I've used mine to cut railroad ties in half.

JKJ in East TN

Re: Band Saw help

Mike-in-Michigan

>Electric chainsaw w/a nice homebuilt bucking table would be my choice.. maybe 50-75$ total. Check out local pawn shops... split the log with a maul & wedge, make up some cardboard templates to draw some circles of different sizes. Draw biggest circle you can on the blank, then cut 6-8 facets around the blank to make rounding it out easier.. that or just turn end-grain hollow forms (IE the wood is already near round)...

Personally for 10" & under plus only 2-3 a month, don't see how it could be much easier with other methods, just more expensive.

Re: Band Saw help

David

>Mike - I guess I'll show some more ignorance here (it isn't like I've been hiding it...). What is a bucking table?

Re: Band Saw help

John K Jordan

>>bucking table

I assume he is talking about what is often called a sawbuck, dictionary: "a framework for holding wood that is being sawed". It just gets the wood off the ground and provides a way to keep it from rolling around while cutting. A safety and back-saving and sawchain-saving thing.

I believe the term "buck" comes from the logging industry. from one resoure, "Once the tree is on the ground, the limbs are normally removed, then the tree is "bucked," or cut into smaller pieces." A common procedure in the woods is to buck with the log off the ground, resting on other wood.

I can't find it at the moment, but there was one notable post recently from someone (in Peru?) who used large pieces of "cheap local" tropical wood to make a sawbuck. Zounds!

JKJ in East TN

Re: Band Saw help

Richard Allen

>Hi David

When I first read that you were using a bow saw to cut bowl blanks my arms hurt, just thinking about it. I would use an electric chainsaw to process green wood for turning on a Jet mini.

Please note that you can process wood on a lathe. That is put a log section on the lathe and turn it into a ball shape. (you have to work in from both sides with the tool rest as the banjo can tend to get in the way).

Once the log is "ball" like, remount it so that the pith is perpendicular to the lathe. Most timber has the pith to one side.

Part the ball through the pith. This ends up taking a bit of time and requires many widening passes. A stout parting tool is needed and try to get the center of the tool rest as close to the cutting line as you can.

Part away the pith, leaving you two bowl blanks. One blank should be smaller than the other, as the pith is seldom in the center of a log. Plan on using that bow saw to cut the last inch or so of the "ball" in half.

Good Luck

Richard

Re: Band Saw help

David

>I guess I should close out this link at this point - Thank you very much to all of you for your help. I'm not completely certain what direction I'll go just yet, but I'm betting there is a chainsaw in my future, plus some etc.

Maybe Playskool makes a chainsaw....

Thanks once again!!!!

Re: Bow Saw & Chain Saw

Glenn Madsen

>The last time a saw drew my blood, it was a bow saw. I was using it because in that situation, it was the least likely to be lethal.

A sizeable branch of a sweet gum tree had 'self-pruned' onto my storage shed, and in cutting it up, I fell with the saw in hand, spraining an ankle badly, and cutting a sizeable, but not deep, gash in my hand.

Lesson: Use the right tool. Set up for safety. Try not to work when tired or angry at the injustice of the world.

Aftermath: The sweetgum was removed last week, with backhoe and chainsaws, by folks who do this for a living. The big chunks are awaiting the application of turning tools by folks who do such things for fun.

Re: Band Saw help

GeeSeaWhy

>Before I bought a bandsaw, I used a 7" portable circular saw - multiple passes, widening and deepening the cut around the log until the blade would go no deeper. It won't get through a 10" log, but it did leave considerably less wood to be hand sawn.

Just another possibility...

Graeme