Heh ... I suppose this is a loaded question. I'm putting down designs for a variety of projects; boxes, a magazine holder, etc.
I can easily get 1/2" and 3/4" thick boards that are up to 4" or 6" wide, but boards that are 12" wide usually only come in 1" or more thickness.
Making a jewelry box out of 1" thick wood isn't quite what I want. So, what I need is a way of getting nice wood (maple, oak, cherry, etc.) that is upwards to 12" wide and only 1/2" or 3/4" thick. And in some cases, it would be nice to get it even thinner, like 3/8".
So ... the loaded question ... can I buy this stuff, or do I need to buy a good bandsaw and a good planer to cut these from larger boards?
"mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net" wrote in message news:YradnTeNvbP5swXZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...
If you are buying less than 3/4" wood now you are probably paying 3/4" prices or more. Cheapest way out would be to buy a planer and mill to what thickness you want. Eventually cheaper would be to add the BS and have more yield.
Me, I'd glue up narrower stock. For one thing, you need quite a bandsaw to resaw 12" stock, or at least a riser block. And planing down 12 wide 1" stock to 1/2 inch always seems like such a waste..
Yeah, like others point out...plane, etc. But I would not plan on buying 3/4" 1x12 and taking off a 1/4" on a BS.
The question that come to mind is that if you are using (need) 12" wide stock why is the 3/4" such an issue. IMO, a box with a depth of
12" (or even 10" maybe 8") should have walls of something more than
3/8". . When you get down to say 4"-5" deep 1/2" starts to work. Again, just my opinion.
I use 1/4 inch stock for jewelry boxes also. My Jet 18 weill saw 10 inches. My ridged planer will take 12 inch wide.
Are you really needing 12 inches of width? If so find a seller that will do custom milling for you. I've gotten some exotic stock mailed to order and had the 4/4 boards resawn and planed down to 1/4.
I recently took some boards to a place that does custom milling to use their wide belt sander. After they milled my pink ivory and zebra wood to size I had them take an alder plank down to thickness for shaker boxes.
You should also look at book match> Heh ... I suppose this is a loaded question. I'm putting down designs
In my experience a 12" wide board that is thinner than 1/2" or even
3/4" is going to cup like crazy, especially if you are buying from somewhere online and having it shipped in from another area. I'd glue it up from narrower boards.
It isn't the depth that drives my interest as such, but the variations of the grain in the woods I've seen. Most of the time, the grain goes along the length of the wood and has ample width for the needed height of the box. But some grains would look really nice is I cut the board at an angle to the grain, or even having the grain biased upwards.
As I said though, the thinnest I can usually get nice woods in is 1" or thicker.
If its set up properly and has a sharp blade. I resaw frequently however, you still need to plane or run the pieces thru a drum sander after resawing them.
Rewsawing will save you money, particularly when the primary thickness you use is 1/2". Its a horrible waste to plane a 3/4" board down to 1/2" when you have 2" wood available to resaw.
Yeah, I wasn't really looking at 1/4" for a large box, but rather for the sleeves in a magazine holder for the bathroom. Using 1/2" for the sleeves would be fine, but I'd still need the overall width of the holder (and sleeves) to be about 12".
The sleeves for my current project would need 12"x12" boards (overlapped and slanted with 8" deep stops). I could use 3" wide boards, which I can of course easily get in most any thickness I want, and join them.
I was just wondering how easy it would be to get my hands on 12" wide so that I could cut it to a nice length without having to do any joining as such.
But of course ... it WOULD be a decent excuse to get a bandsaw and a planer!
Understood. Any decent hardwood supplier should be able to provide them. I've gone through entire stacks of boards at 'home improvement centers' and not found one that was straight or flat. Then if I found one after a few days at home it was warped.
PS have you thought of veneered baltic birch plywood? Str> Yeah, I wasn't really looking at 1/4" for a large box, but rather for
"mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net" wrote in news:bpWdnUsiDanh9wXZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
Let's be honest here. Leon's new, $2500+ European bandsaw, properly tuned, will do this just fine, no problem. A made-in-Asia saw, at $600 or less, out the door, may have some challenges.
How many boxes do you want to save money making? ;-)
There are a lot of us looking for an excuse to purchase new-to-us tooling. If you're one of us, then warm up the truck, and start looking about. But if you want to save $200 on hardwood, there may be better ways to approach the problem.
If you want our support in buying a new saw, you've got it! The Visa bill comes with your name on it, however.
Patriarch, former owner of a good Jet 16" bandsaw, and user of a Ridgid thickness planer...
your obviously trying to get permission from strangers to buy a new large expensive power tool!-)
My strategy has always been
1) learn to make do with what you have for the one off job
2) if you have to buy, buy the best you can afford. if you can't then follow number 1
3) always tell your wife or SWMBO that your mak> In article ,
"mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.net" wrote in news:EuGdnSFpWNkMPAXZnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
I'm not the king of bandsaws here, or anywhere, really. My limited experience shows that the 14" Jet and Delta machines I've used were much less stable than the bigger, heavier duty machines elsewhere. That made the most difference when the wood was harder, fancier, or more 'valuable' (less replaceable, required by machine or operator error).
I intended to buy a Laguna bandsaw three or four years ago, and had set aside the money, but LOML decided to take up machine quilting. After helping her spend a light $1500 to 'get started', I purchased a Jet 16" saw instead. It worked well, with tuning and accessories and new blades and all, with all the goodies running close to $1000. 10" under the guides, though, is all that it would resaw. A family friend in the trim carpentry business bought it from me this last spring, when he had a big project for it...
You're going to have to figure out the 'good enough' part. Bandsaws are fairly safe, fairly easy to use, fairly predictable, relatively low maintenance systems. And you'll be into one of the sweet spot machines at about $800, taxed, delivered and accessorized.
And you'll still need the $400 planer.
You can do this if you want. Just be aware that you need to do a lot of boxes to save the $800 or so on wood costs.
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