I bought some 8/4 white oak (quarter sawn) (mucho dinero) expecting to get 1
3/4" thick stock. By the time I take the bow out, I'm getting 1 5/8" stock. :-( I suppose I'd have to find 10/4 to get 1 3/4" thickness.
I will say that the clear stock I'm getting is good and running about 8% moisture content. I thought about re-sawing some 1/4" stock to laminate the boards up to 1 3/4". When I put the 1/2" 4 tooth timberwolf bandsaw blade on my new Jet 14" bandsaw with the riser kit, it shakes and bakes. I swear the blade is bad. The 3/8" timberwolf blade I took off didn't act up. :-(
Some days, things just don't work out the way you want. Tomorrow will be better. I really need to get to the bottom of the 1/2" blade though.
I'm not cross cutting. I can get 1 3/4" thickness out of the board but there is up to 1/8" bow in the long direction, In other words, the board is not straight.. I must have 48" long boards that are absolutely straight. I have flattened one board with a combination of hand planes and a thickness planer. It yielded 1 5/8"
Last night I jointed one side of another board (on a jointer) in the long direction with the wide side of the board down, and it is going to yield 1
5/8".
The boards are absolutely flat, straight, and no twist in them when I get through. I've never worked with quarter sawn white oak before. The wood is the best I could get my hands on, and is 8-10% moisture content.
I'm building a rocking chair, so the wood must be absolutely straight. I will either use the 1 5/8" or else resaw some boards to 3/8", glue them on to the 1 5/8" stock, and then plane them to 1 3/4" I only need 4 boards that thickness, so it won't be that much of a job if I go that direction.
I posted my message to see what other guy's do when confronted with this issue. Thanks for responding.
The other issue is I'm new to using a bandsaw and I'm having a little problem with the flutter method of tensioning the blade. I think I've figured that out though. Ripping 8/4 white oak is not much fun on a 10" table saw, the band saw is the way to go. You can carve those big old pieces of oak up any way you want to, with no binding or kick-back.
smooth, straight surfaces, I'm getting 1 5/8". I bought the wood from the only source of 8/4 quarter sawn oak I know of in Houston. The wood is 2" thick in the rough state. I think the mills are cutting it too close. The bow in the wood is 3/32" to 1/8", but the rough surfaces are irregular enough to require more planing than I expected.
I know why chair makers mill their own wood. :-) The extra 1/8" is only a matter of proportion and appearance. I had already change proportions of the pieces to "lighten" the appearance of the craftsman style. I may just go with the thinner pieces and see how it turns out. I'm going foe more of a Greene & Greene influence rather than craftsman any way. :-)
to thickness, but the boards I looked at had about 1/8" bow, so I opted for the rough so I could straighten the wood. The pieces I've straightened are gorgeous, just a bit thin.
I planed the prototype posts for the chair to 1 5/8" and have decided to go with that thickness in this case. In the future, I will go to mills that will make it the thickness I want, but then I may have to deal with moisture content..
The mill saws to a standard which will give 1 13/16 ( fat seven quarters) planks from 8/4 nominal. Anything above that you should consider gravy, or be prepared to pay extra for.
With a band mill, expect 1" real. With a circular, 1 1/16.
The issue I have is not just the yield on thickness. I need absolutely straight material for this project and I will not accept it not being straight after I'm through. I'm losing the thickness when planing the boards lengthwise to straighten them. By the time the thickness is cleaned up to provide 1 3/4", I've had about 3/32" bow in the boards lengthwise (49" long).
I'm not complaining, just trying to see what my options are in the future. I'm not quibbling over price, I paid $7.40/ board foot for the 8/4 quarter sawn oak. I would gladly pay another $1 or so in order to get the thickness I want in the future. I know that trees do not grow straight and that while drying, the boards move. This is 8 to 10% moisture content, and I really am happy with the wood. Like I said earlier, the wood is gorgeous after I get it straight, smooth and square. I almost hate to start cutting on it.
Lots of sapwood? That's an unconscionable amount at half board length. Only suggestion for the future is to avoid sapwood, because the wood curves toward it. I assume you crosscut and ripped rough prior to the first jointer pass, so it's not the sawyer, it's the grader you should blame. S/he shouldn't have allowed what must have been in effect a slab to grade that high.
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