Bandsaw for resawing up to 200mm oak beams...or do it by hand?

[Simon A Wells]

Hello!
Been looking at the different threads on here on bandsaws and wondered if anyone could help me?

I am a hobby woodworker who's workshop is a double garage shared with bikes and family treasures!

I am looking to resaw up to 200mm oak beams into 1/4 and 1/2 planks, similar with larch. Plus the odd log to be air dried.

Would prefer hand resawing ( I have a Disston d8 rip saw...) but does not seem realistic when projects include:

Large porch.
Car port
Replace raised decking 2m off ground
Firewood storage and shed
Bike shed
Office storage / book shelves / storage for climbing kit refurbishment
Wardrobes, bedside cabinets etc.
Kitchen ( probably mainly sheet goods for carcass) just shaker doors.
Wood for children’s projects such as boxes etc.

The nearest sawmill is several hours away (live in the Highlands) so getting the saw mill to cut may not be practical.

Axminster seem to charge a lot for Highlands delivery so looking to Record Power as some of their retailers can deliver to the Highlands at a reasonable cost.

My assumptions:

1. Getting saw mill to do cuts takes away flexibility as projects develop / start / I make errors and need more.......
2. Resawing by hand is hard work, so will not happen?
3. Bandsaw faster and so it will get done?

I assume a 14inch bandsaw will be sufficient?

Which saw would you recommend for a hobby woodworker to resaw 200 mm beams in oak and larch?

Option 1:
https://www.recordpower.co.uk/product/premium-14-bandsaw

Option 2:
https://www.recordpower.co.uk/product/sabre350-14-bandsaw-230v

I'd rather keep the price low as I need to upgrade the workshop dust extractor but I don't want to regrett a cheap purchase as I struggle with an underpowered machine.

I already have the rutland 255mm table saw built into a large assembly bench for smaller rips and cross cuts, plus the rutland planner thicknesser for preparing stock.
https://www.rutlands.com/products/table-saw-255mm
https://www.rutlands.com/products/planer-thicknesser

I generally work with hand tools when possible / faster but appreciate the speed of machines when set up. Wood work is my down time / destress, so don’t like machines with noise and dust but they are better at some jobs, I suspect this is one of them.

Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[Spectric]

I would say that option 2 is your starting point, the sabre 350 is a better machine than the older BS350 shown below on the left for the extra bucks. The sabre range have a better fence, bearing blade guides and a blade tension lever to make changing blades easier. You also have that storage space below.

For a similar price as the Sabre 350 you could look at the older BS400 wich has a 2Kw motor compared to the Sabres 1.5Kw and 2 inches more cut.

Either way the blades supplied should be placed straight into the bin, search for previous threads on this topic and Tuffsaws get great reviews and a source of info if you give Ian a ring.

 

[Jameshow]

I think you'll struggle with that unless you go for a really big resaw. Especially if the oak is dry and really hard.

How about a sawmill you could possibly make one if you know a good welder plans are freely available?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If I had any number of pieces that size to cut down I think I'd be looking at a bench saw with a 200mm cut.

 

[Tris]

That's some hefty timber to lug through a band saw
Sounds like you might be better off with a chainsaw mill, my set up is a 20" Hyundai with a Chinese copy of an Alaskan mill, probably under £300 still.

You could still pick up a reasonable s/h band saw and come in at less than the Record saw

 

[deema]

You need a Resaw for that type of work. A Wadkin PBR is probably the best saw for your needs. They do occasionally come up secondhand at very low prices, and when you’re done there is always a ready market to sell it back on.

The problem with the saws you’ve proposed, and indeed most bandsaws as opposed to a Resaw, is you can’t achieve the tension needed in the blade to maintain a straight cut. You really need a blade 30mm+ wide and for lots of oak that will be dirty a blade with carbide teeth….which isn’t cheap!

 

[RobinBHM]

I assume a 14inch bandsaw will be sufficient?

Which saw would you recommend for a hobby woodworker to resaw 200 mm beams in oak and larch?

they wont work, the gullets on narrow blade bandsaws are far too narrow for ripping 200mm

I know a guy who does timber framing and he bought a £2k Wadkin 24" bandsaw and he got nowhere it just didnt work, the blade wouldnt stay parallel

add in the fact a 200mm oak beam will weight a lot more than the bandsaws you mention............


What are you hoping to achieve by cutting down 200mm beams -Its unlikely would would get very usable wood

 

[paulm]

Even if you have a good bandsaw with enough power and clearance it will be a struggle to lift and handle and process that kind of timber through the machine. The cut accuracy may also be challenging due to blade wandering/bowing and you will likely need to put the timber through a planer thicknesser afterwards to clean it up and dimension it more accurately.

A better bet maybe something like this https://www.screwfix.com/p/makita-h...yuU1G46exxFjJb116GkaAqF_EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Cut on one side of the timber then flip and cut from the other side.

Regardless of machine or tool used to cut the resulting planks will often bow, twist, split etc as the tensions are released in the cut timber, so again a planer thicknesser may be useful, but then you would need a chip extractor too !

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

For large oak beams I have used a track-saw from both sides/all 4 sides - which while a track saw might not go all of the way through a thick beam - it is fast and achievable and safe if you use multiple increasing depth passes (so that any warping/bending or easing of the stock while you cut can be assessed as you go), and the track can be secured such that the cut is close enough to 90deg into the body of the beam regardless of the surface flatness.
For my cutting I then finished the cut with a hand saw - far easier to cope with after initial straight cuts were completed with the track saw - both in terms of manual labour and in terms of keeping the cut in the correct pre-cut slots.

Cutting the required long lengths for something like a car port, on a home bandsaw, from a long thick beam, might be pretty difficult?

 

[Simon A Wells]

I would say that option 2 is your starting point, the sabre 350 is a better machine than the older BS350 shown below on the left for the extra bucks. The sabre range have a better fence, bearing blade guides and a blade tension lever to make changing blades easier. You also have that storage space below.

View attachment 195622View attachment 195623
For a similar price as the Sabre 350 you could look at the older BS400 wich has a 2Kw motor compared to the Sabres 1.5Kw and 2 inches more cut.

Either way the blades supplied should be placed straight into the bin, search for previous threads on this topic and Tuffsaws get great reviews and a source of info if you give Ian a ring.

Thank you!

 

[Simon A Wells]

I think you'll struggle with that unless you go for a really big resaw. Especially if the oak is dry and really hard.

How about a sawmill you could possibly make one if you know a good welder plans are freely available?

Yes, I use a 16'inch chainsaw for cross cutting fire wood and some modest tree feeling. Using a chain saw mill would be noisy and grim and the kerf would reduce the amount of usable timber and need a lot of cleanup on the show faces? Do you have any plans you'd recomend?

 

[Simon A Wells]

they wont work, the gullets on narrow blade bandsaws are far too narrow for ripping 200mm

I know a guy who does timber framing and he bought a £2k Wadkin 24" bandsaw and he got nowhere it just didnt work, the blade wouldnt stay parallel

add in the fact a 200mm oak beam will weight a lot more than the bandsaws you mention............


What are you hoping to achieve by cutting down 200mm beams -Its unlikely would would get very usable wood

"What are you hoping to achieve by cutting down 200mm beams -Its unlikely would would get very usable wood"

Simple really...usable wood!

 

[Simon A Wells]

You need a Resaw for that type of work. A Wadkin PBR is probably the best saw for your needs. They do occasionally come up secondhand at very low prices, and when you’re done there is always a ready market to sell it back on.

The problem with the saws you’ve proposed, and indeed most bandsaws as opposed to a Resaw, is you can’t achieve the tension needed in the blade to maintain a straight cut. You really need a blade 30mm+ wide and for lots of oak that will be dirty a blade with carbide teeth….which isn’t cheap!

Thank you, I looked at the price of a used Wadkin PBR, the cheapest I saw was £4800 plus vat, so it is out of budget and hard to get up to the Highlands

 

[RobinBHM]

Simple really...usable wood!

deeping green timber that is then going to be seasoned is fine, although air drying timber is slow

the best solution is some sort of chainsaw mill if you have access to plenty of free logs

a bandsaw wont do what you want


If you are wanting to deep air dried timber to convert into usable boards.....you are most likely to fail

 

[Fitzroy]

I ripped 240mm deep oak sleepers on my Startrite 352 it was very hard work. Blade wandering was an issue and man handling the timbers also an issue. I ended up having to hand plane one edge flat(ish) so the cut stayed in the same place and installing infeed and outfeed table with rolllers. Even then the saw would bog down and I’d have to stop cutting, back up the timber and start again.

From a 120mm wide sleeper I could rip three boards at very roughly 40mm, from these I achieved a finished thickness of 30-34mm due to the amount of wander in the cut.

I managed it but it was a lesson in frustration. I made a desk which needed me to rip down 2 sleepers. That was enough, each cut was 30mins of sweating and swearing.

If I had to do it again I would but I would not spend £1200 on a similar sized bandsaw and expect it to be anywhere near easy.

Fitz

 

[Simon A Wells]

That's some hefty timber to lug through a band saw
Sounds like you might be better off with a chainsaw mill, my set up is a 20" Hyundai with a Chinese copy of an Alaskan mill, probably under £300 still.

You could still pick up a reasonable s/h band saw and come in at less than the Record saw

Do you know ow the 'brand' the chines saw mill was?

I have a 16inch husqi chainsaw I use for firewood and small trees etc.

Don't like using it due to all the PPE and risk of certainl death etc, but it might be different in a mill


Thank you

 

[Simon A Wells]

I ripped 240mm deep oak sleepers on my Startrite 352 it was very hard work. Blade wandering was an issue and man handling the timbers also an issue. I ended up having to hand plane one edge flat(ish) so the cut stayed in the same place and installing infeed and outfeed table with rolllers. Even then the saw would bog down and I’d have to stop cutting, back up the timber and start again.

From a 120mm wide sleeper I could rip three boards at very roughly 40mm, from these I achieved a finished thickness of 30-34mm due to the amount of wander in the cut.

I managed it but it was a lesson in frustration. I made a desk which needed me to rip down 2 sleepers. That was enough, each cut was 30mins of sweating and swearing.

If I had to do it again I would but I would not spend £1200 on a similar sized bandsaw and expect it to be anywhere near easy.

Fitz
View attachment 195640
View attachment 195641

Thank you, very useful and informative.

 

[Simon A Wells]

For large oak beams I have used a track-saw from both sides/all 4 sides - which while a track saw might not go all of the way through a thick beam - it is fast and achievable and safe if you use multiple increasing depth passes (so that any warping/bending or easing of the stock while you cut can be assessed as you go), and the track can be secured such that the cut is close enough to 90deg into the body of the beam regardless of the surface flatness.
For my cutting I then finished the cut with a hand saw - far easier to cope with after initial straight cuts were completed with the track saw - both in terms of manual labour and in terms of keeping the cut in the correct pre-cut slots.

Cutting the required long lengths for something like a car port, on a home bandsaw, from a long thick beam, might be pretty difficult?

Thank you!

 

[clive griffiths]

I used to hire a mill. There was a guy from West Wales that would travel with a portable mill ( woodmizer) he would tow it behind his land rover , I would rent it for the day he could mill a fair amount of timber and well worth the money , Have a look if there is anyone up your way that has one.

That is the only way to safely mill timber of large dimensions.
Clive.

 

[clive griffiths]

Forgot to say I was milling fallen trees.
Clive.