OK -- I know they're two different tools with different main purpose. However -- I have ~300 bd.ft. of black walnut. Most of it is rough and some is S2S, all of it is a full 1 1/8" thick or more. Although I like hand tools I can't see planing that much lumber just to surface it much less to get it to a full 1" or 3/4" thickness. I think a bandsaw would be more practial since I could use it for other things including (I hope) resawing / surfacing the lumber to thickness. I'm thinking about getting a 14" and a riser block or a 17". Either would have to be 120 volts. How practical would surfacing on a bandsaw be? Or would I be better off just getting a planer? BTW most of the boards are 8 - 14" wide. I also have some oak that's 16" wide that will need surfacing also. Thanks.
Also your wood is too big for a 14" bandsaw to resaw. I have a 14" w/ riser block. I wish I had a 17 or 18 bandsaw for the amount of work I do with a bandsaw now. More HP and a bigger throat with a better resaw capability.
The fact that you have wide boards requires hand planing to keep them wide. If you split them up, an 8" planer will still be required, since
6" will be too narrow. Then you will be able to use one of the 13.5 inch planers.
If you have a small shop, I would look at one of the combo units that will do jointing and planing. Get a good unit, not a half ass unit. I saw the reviews on the Jet, and it was ugly... The europeans make nice combo machines. One dollar, one footprint and two uses... With these machines you can get a 12 or 14" jointer/planer... And no they won't require you to pour a reinforced concrete pad like the old
Well.......... This is one of those chicken and egg questions; and it appears as though you are making a purchase decision based on your acquisition of quite a bit of Walnut.
You might think downstream from the walnut about which tool would benefit your style of woodworking in the future ... AND... do you have an acquaintance of buddy who has the other tool? You might be able to pay him for a saw blade or share sharpening and still buy the preferred tool (some of my buddies will do anything for a 12-pack). Personally, I would go with the planer because even with decent band- saw re-sawing you are still going to have to surface the wood eventually. From you comment, hand surfacing that much lumber seems like a daunting task and I agree.
A couple of thoughts:
1) Re-sawing with a band saw, especially with wider stock, isn't all that easy for a beginner. You will get the knack down but you could screw up some nice walnut learning.
2) With the 14" to 16" widths you mention, keep in mind you are looking at buying a 15" or larger planer. When you make the move from
12" or 13" planers up to the heavier duty 15" machines the price goes up quite a bit. But there are some good affordable machines in the $1,000 or so range. If you decide to go with the planer you might take a look at one of these:
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are both essentially the same machine, just dressed up a little different. The "P" version has a few more features for the same current sale price. You can spend a lot more for the same capability, with yellow paint, but the Grizzly planers are good machines. I have had the Polar Bear version for about 1-1/2 years, it has planed quite a bit of hardwood and no complaints whatsoever. Our son-in-law has had the other version for about seven years and it has been a good machine too.
Yeah - I saw one of those the last time we were at the Springfield Griz store and it is a good looking machine. More money but a lot more machine.
Also, regarding the machines I mentioned - If you can spend about $250
- $300 more, you can get the same machines with the spiral cutterheads. Much easier to change blades, and the blade inserts are rotatable providing more life per inch of edge. I didn't do that but now wish I had. I might do a retrofit later.
A lot of times if you have wood that is slightly wider than the planer bed you have a couple of considerations:
- Is that 1" or so good, usable wood? I buy quite a bit of rough sawn stock but the outer 1/2' to 1" is rough and even split.
- If the wider stock isn't the norm for you, sometimes you can rip and re-glue. Granted you lose a little wood in the process but how often to you really use 15" or wider stock in your personal shop.
because it had 13" resaw capability with no riser block. I heard quite a few bad stories about riser blocks when I was working at Woodcraft. OTOH, a 17" will have more power.
But you'll still need a planer - bandsaws don't leave a planed surface.
Resaw about 3/32" or 1/8" over the size you need and joint and plane the rest. Use a woodslicer blade from Highland Hardware for the resawing.
Agree 100%. The planer is the right tool for this job. However, in taking that much meat off of that much lumber, you're gonna wish you'd bought a dust collector too (assuming you don't already have one). :-)
It just occurred to me that my aging mind shifted to oranges while others were still talking about apples ;o)
The rough cut stock I was talking about above is what I can get from a couple of local sources. It is usually in the 2-1/2" to 3" thickness range because I build some fairly stocky rocking horses from time to time. With lumber this thick it is pretty easy to skin a "straight" edge on the table saw and flip it to straighten the other side - then to the jointer. This is easier because the mill guys is buy from usually provide a pretty straight band-sawed edge; but that edge might be cracked and a little shaggy from the drying process. Trying to resaw wide stock on the table saw is "possible" but might earn you a concussion - if not worse.
Actually I love to get lumber in the 1-1/8" to 1-1/4" thickness range. From there it is pretty easy to choose the exact thickness I want with the planer or jointer/planer combination.
OK -- I know they're two different tools with different main purpose. However -- I have ~300 bd.ft. of black walnut. Most of it is rough and some is S2S, all of it is a full 1 1/8" thick or more. Although I like hand tools I can't see planing that much lumber just to surface it much less to get it to a full 1" or 3/4" thickness. I think a bandsaw would be more practial since I could use it for other things including (I hope) resawing / surfacing the lumber to thickness. I'm thinking about getting a 14" and a riser block or a 17". Either would have to be 120 volts. How practical would surfacing on a bandsaw be? Or would I be better off just getting a planer? BTW most of the boards are 8 - 14" wide. I also have some oak that's 16" wide that will need surfacing also. Thanks. ================================================================================== A band saw will leave a finish that needs to be planed.
I vote you get the band saw, far more useful and needed tool than a planer. If you have a good source for rough cut lumber, then, you will need a planer AND a jointer in addition to the band saw, but a band saw is a must have tool imnsho. If he plans on resawing 16" lumber, he will need one hell of a band saw, and, will need one hell of a planer and jointer to surface it when finished. Actually, I would cut down the 16" stuff anyway unless I had a specific reason for that width.
Planers of course are needed with rough cut lumber, but most lumber yards carry dimensional lumber that is already surfaced. Once the lumber is surfaced, a planer is just going to change the thickness of the lumber, which is cool if that is your objective. Drawers for example generally have 1/2" or 5/8" sides. I've found Popular in 1/2" size but other woods not so much. Lots of uses for 5/4 stuff and that is also hard to find, and expensive when you do.
Personally, I would buy the best (most expensive) band saw I could afford, assuming I could afford a good one. I would take the lumber to someone that has a planer that can handle 16" stuff and pay him to plane it. After my shop was fully stocked with quality stationary equipment, and I had lots of experience building stuff, I would think about getting a good jointer and planer (both needed together).
I have the spiral cutter head machine, it is the way to go. I'd like to have one on my jointer now that I see how sweet they are. You can rotate the carbide blades so you get 4 times the life of regular blades, plus, there is no adjustment. Each blade fits, period. You don't get them sharpened, you by a new set for around 60 bucks or so. This is way cheaper then sending blades out to get sharpened 4 times. Also, you get like 10 extra blades so if one gets nicked, you can replace it free. I guess it would need nicked 4 times as with just one nick, you could just rotate it?
There are many other advantages to a segmented spiral cutter head.
"CW" wrote in news:O7adnQczi9c2iGTSnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:
Thanks for all the opinions. I did resaw on the table saw. NOT NOT FUN. All the time I thought "there are so many ways this could go terribly wrong." Nothing happened but I WON"T do that again. JUST PLAIN SCARY. Since the bed has a few thinner (3/4") pieces I decided to make a router sled to get them down to size. I got a jointer early on - in retrospect I would've been better off with a band saw. My good ol' gal said I could get both but a vehicle will have to live outside all year and I hate scraping in the morning. Maybe it's time to put a 220 outlet in the garage. Hmmm - that opens up a whole new arena of tool possibilities :)
Garages were originally the stalls for the horse and the carriage. Both a good paint job, and maybe some hail coverage, is all the coverage a _car_ needs, and they're cheaper.
4fingers wrote in news:XnsA08AB55EAAB8Aasdasdasdasdasdasdas@69.16.185.250:
I was looking at block heaters a few weeks ago. The ones I was looking at for my car seemed easy enough to install and not very expensive. If you're worried about scraping, spend a coupla hundred and put one of those in. Want to save electricity? Put it on a timer on only turn it on about 2-3 hours before you leave.
Oh, and it's always a good idea to run a good anti-freeze washer fluid. That'll help with the scraping if your engine is warm enough to keep your windshield from freezing up again.
There, now you can use your garage for what it's intended. You can send a check for the extra space. *wink*
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