Best tool for cutting down the grain for 2" thick hardwood

[Watson1991]

I mill my own slabs as well with an Alaskan mill and kiln dry it in my own kiln in the workshop. To rip the waney edge of boards I use a steel straight edge and a Dewalt hand held circular saw which can do up to 86mm depth of cut. For anything thicker than this you can get the Alaskan edging jig for a small chainsaw which is really for beams etc but does fin for edging. There is no way you will be able to safely or accurately cut a waney edge on a 4" plank on a table saw. Just lifting it up to do the job will be impossible on your own. Edging my slabs is a regular occurrence for me and the method I use is the quickest and safest. P.s. I still have all my own fingers!

I'm going you go with your method of using a circular saw and a straight edge cheers. Helps your already doing what I'm looking to do!

Ive got the same set up ! Both the small edging Alaskan and a 36" double ended bar on the big mill. It's great ! I bought myself a logosol last year. Well worth buying if you mill regularly! Had 3 hours milling this morning and processed 4 25" + 8ft long London plane logs. 18 x 2" planks later I'm a happy man

 

[pike]

I've been thinking about how I do this myself lately. I used a TS55 for just under 50mm thick rough oak with a panther blade. It was fine. I've used a makita circular saw outdoors with a straight edge too. Maybe I had a blunt blade but the latter wasn't much fun.

I'm now getting the impression the safest way to do it is on a bandsaw with good in and outfeed tables. That would need plenty space around the saw. I've put my bandsaw on a mobile base and am planning some storage/feed tables, so I can have that option. Never tried putting a large slab through the bandsaw yet though.

 

[acewoodturner]

Doing it safely is the best way which comes first and the fastest method isn't always the safest! I have been using my Alaskan mill for 16 years now and for the last 7 years have been kiln drying all my timber. I don't have any outside secure storage space and I don't really want tons of wet timber drying in the workshop. I also use my timber pretty quickly so I have to go milling regularly to keep my stock levels up. Touch wood, but I have only had to spend a couple of thousand quid on timber in the 16 years. In the kind of business I am in I don't know from one month to the next the size of order that my regular customers will ask for and this year in particular its been non stop all year. I would hate to think what my timber bill would have been if I had to buy it all in.
If you want to learn more with regards to milling timber then the Arbtalk forum has a sub- section on milling.

Mike

 

[skipdiver]

Thanks people ! You've all been great. Can't believe how many people have replied ! Really appreciate it ! I think I'm going to go for a circular saw with a straight edge like a few of you have suggested.

If you are going that route, i would would knock wedges into the cut as you go.

 

[NickN]

You lot are a bad influence you know. I've just pulled the trigger on a Dewalt DWS520KTL partly thanks to this thread, which reminded me about the existence of plunge / track saws just in time for the arrival of lots of 8' by 4' OSB3 for the shed. I'd been thinking of using a jigsaw :shock: or even a panel hand saw, but given the chance of getting a nice new toy, well...

The shed also has diagonal corners (where the inner battens run across the face of a telegraph pole) so the bevel function will be great.

Hope it lives up to the very good reviews it gets.

 

[tomlt]

Somewhat unrelated but i too run a 36" alaskan on a husky 188, works well, but have only milled with it a few times. I got the bug and decided to build a bandsaw mill....

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

I've ripped waney edge oak boards 65mm thick with my T75 with no problems. Not sure how flexible you are on budget but I bought mine for 389 ex vat. I already had rails but they are about 32 pounds each for 1400mm long ones

 

[Woodmonkey]

This looks like a handy piece of kit....
https://youtu.be/MVizcb1JeG8

 

[Beau]

I mill my own slabs as well with an Alaskan mill and kiln dry it in my own kiln in the workshop. To rip the waney edge of boards I use a steel straight edge and a Dewalt hand held circular saw which can do up to 86mm depth of cut. For anything thicker than this you can get the Alaskan edging jig for a small chainsaw which is really for beams etc but does fin for edging. There is no way you will be able to safely or accurately cut a waney edge on a 4" plank on a table saw. Just lifting it up to do the job will be impossible on your own. Edging my slabs is a regular occurrence for me and the method I use is the quickest and safest. P.s. I still have all my own fingers!

I'm going you go with your method of using a circular saw and a straight edge cheers. Helps your already doing what I'm looking to do!

Ive got the same set up ! Both the small edging Alaskan and a 36" double ended bar on the big mill. It's great ! I bought myself a logosol last year. Well worth buying if you mill regularly! Had 3 hours milling this morning and processed 4 25" + 8ft long London plane logs. 18 x 2" planks later I'm a happy man

Good choice IMO. I have run circular saws agains straight edges for years and never felt the need for a track.

That Logosol sounds good. Not seen one at the shows but will have a hunt on Youtube to see how they work
Only got a small Alaskan at present.

 

[dejaa]

Hi Matt

Sound like you probably decided already to go the circular saw route.

For many years I was buying only waney edge boards, mainly oak and although it was easy to put onto the sliding table of a Felder m/c, my sliding table was limited to 2.4Mtrs cut. Many boards were nearer to 3Mtrs. Furthermore, it was much faster to use a circular saw.

I have an old mains driven Elu circular saw that takes a 260mm blade. This gives a 90mm cutting depth. Using a good quality Silent Silver ripping blade it cut through 2/1/2" like the proverbial hot knife in butter. Just have to be aware that it may close up behind the cut, so a small wedge is useful. Being a largish diameter it was fairly easy to follow a chalk line without wandering, but a 3mtr spirit level (or similar) would of course guarantee a straight cut.

Good luck
David

 

[Bodgers]

I mill my own slabs as well with an Alaskan mill and kiln dry it in my own kiln in the workshop. To rip the waney edge of boards I use a steel straight edge and a Dewalt hand held circular saw which can do up to 86mm depth of cut. For anything thicker than this you can get the Alaskan edging jig for a small chainsaw which is really for beams etc but does fin for edging. There is no way you will be able to safely or accurately cut a waney edge on a 4" plank on a table saw. Just lifting it up to do the job will be impossible on your own. Edging my slabs is a regular occurrence for me and the method I use is the quickest and safest. P.s. I still have all my own fingers!

I'm going you go with your method of using a circular saw and a straight edge cheers. Helps your already doing what I'm looking to do!

Ive got the same set up ! Both the small edging Alaskan and a 36" double ended bar on the big mill. It's great ! I bought myself a logosol last year. Well worth buying if you mill regularly! Had 3 hours milling this morning and processed 4 25" + 8ft long London plane logs. 18 x 2" planks later I'm a happy man

Good choice IMO. I have run circular saws agains straight edges for years and never felt the need for a track.

That Logosol sounds good. Not seen one at the shows but will have a hunt on Youtube to see how they work
Only got a small Alaskan at present.

Yes, but buying toys is nice. Besides, the tracksaw does give you a cleaner cut and the dust collection is often better.

Sent from my MI 3W using Tapatalk

 

[Beau]

"Yes, but buying toys is nice. Besides, the tracksaw does give you a cleaner cut and the dust collection is often better."


Can't say I get excited by "toys" as you put it. They are tools for a job and too many of them clutter up the limited space of a workshop.

Can't imagine a super clean cut is required when ripping down rough sawn boards anyway.

Sorry to be a killjoy

 

[pike]

Can't say I get excited by "toys" as you put it. They are tools for a job and too many of them clutter up the limited space of a workshop.

Can't imagine a super clean cut is required when ripping down rough sawn boards anyway.

Sorry to be a killjoy

Good point that. Unless he ends up doing more than just rough cut straight lining.

My only doubt is safety. I never feel very safe doing long thick rips with a circular or track saw. I'm thinking about cutting rough wood up on my bandsaw in future with good feed supports. I suppose there is a certain size and weight where that becomes impractical though.

 

[Adam9453]

If you're concerned then you could always add a lip to the top of the edge of the straight edge that your saw runs against, to hold the saw down in case it tries to kick.
I've never found it necessary when using a track saw but I don't process a lot of solid wood compared to you guys

 

[Wildman]

An alaskan saw mill would be my choice simple to make if you can cut and weld metal. Lots of you tube videos to give you an idea. Plank it on site and stack to season.