Timber for Box Making

[galwayworker]

Hi all,
I was going to have a go at making some boxes and I have a question about buying rough sawn timber.
I don't have a planer / thicknesser so I will be getting the timber dimensioned for me. If I am looking to have a final thickness of 13mm, what thickness of board do I start off with? Can a 25mm thick board be resawn on a table saw (the guy who will be dimensioning the timber has a T/S with a max depth cut of 80mm). Allowing for waste during resawing and thicknessing of the two boards should I be looking at timber that is over 25mm?
Any advice would be great.... hoping to make something nice to grace the inside of the house & prove to the wife that my time in the shed isn't wasted .

 

[Chems]

I don't think you'd quite get that, most TS blades have a kerf around 3mm, so 13+13+3=29, and ontop of that you want to plane the marks away.

The difficulty with re-sawing stock is that you can get a lot of movement once you release the tension meaning your once flat stuff can get a bit wavy so you need to be ready for that too.

 

[Phil Sewell]

A lot of my boxes are around 12 to 13 mm. I've found that the minimum thickness to resaw to get these thicknesses is rough sawn 1 1/2 ". That's using a bandsaw.

You have to allow for quite a alot of cupping when resawing any width in my experience.

Phil.

 

[cjp]

I agree with Chems - apart from just the pure maths of it, you need to plan for the wood not behaving.

In my case, I recently made the classic mistake with some wood I'm using. I re-sawed it into two boards (don't ask how, it wasn't pretty as I don't have a tablesaw or a bandsaw!) and cleaned it up. Of course by releasing the tension it cupped a bit, so I had to plane it thinner afterwards - ended up a bit thinner that I'd have liked.

I guess the board wasn't as dry as I thought, but I could have saved a bit of work by letting it rest for a bit before trying to plane it.

So go a bit thicker if you can ,and give yourself that breathing room.

Charlie

 

[wobblycogs]

I'd love you know how you did that re-sawing Charlie as I'm in the same position of having no band or table saw. I was just going to clamp up a piece and go at it with a hard point saw. I've done a proof of concept cut of an inch or two, bloomin' hard work but possible.

 

[cjp]

If your doing it by hand, I expect others can give you better advice than me. I looked at options for this, I guess the best hand tool option would be a frame saw if you can find one.

I however, cheated. I used my Dewalt Plunge saw and track. I made an MDF jig (as my makeshift workbench has nowhere decent to clamp). This jig is basically a box, with one side longer than the other (the front apron). This long side hands down the side of my workbench. On the top of the box I place the track.

After jointing one face of the board flat I then clamped the work piece to the front apron so that it is now at a 90 degree angle to the track/saw blade. Obviously I work out where I want the cut to be and make sure the rail is parallel to the work-piece.

Then I plunge down and work my way to a 2inch depth. Then flip the piece over and take another two inch cut. If all has gone well the cuts should meet. Mine were close enough. This allows me to re-saw a 4inch board - anything wider will need the middle taken out with a hand saw.

I don't have pictures of my setup to hand, but this guy basically had the same idea, using much more expensive equipment: http://www.flutterby.net/Resawing_with_ ... rcular_saw

Disclaimer, Disclaimer, Disclaimer! Note that this setup is probably extremely ill-advised as the risk of binding and kickback is immense. And I'm by no means suggesting anyone try this. But the Dewalt track saw has a riving knife and an anti-kick back mechanism so I felt safe doing this. I would not want to try this with a standard circular saw. I think there is a good chance the saw would end up in the ceiling or more likely my torso. Also when I got far enough into the board I used wedges to stop the wood binding to the blade. Nonetheless it was still slow going, but to my surprise I didn't get any burning.

This is also not a tidy method and blade marks were obvious, so you need to clean up the board afterwards. But as a quick use of "what I had to hand" it worked for me!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[wobblycogs]

Thanks, I've got a circular saw and I did very briefly consider trying something along the lines of what you describe but I discounted it as too dangerous (I don't have a riving knife on mine). Looks like a handsaw it is then until I have the space and money to get a bandsaw. Hey, at least it will keep me fit

 

[xy mosian]

Looks like a handsaw it is then ....

Wobbly, most hard point saws have teeth formed for cross cutting, a slicing action. If that is the case with yours, then you would have a much higher speed of cut, and more fun , with a rip saw. Now I don't know of a hard point rip saw. Anyone come across one? There are however numerous places to get hold of older style saws with teeth for ripping.
HTH
xy

 

[jlawrence]

I've done it with a 'normal' circular saw. you need to take your time and judiciously use a screw driver to ensure the cut cannot bind on the CS blade. It's not that difficult to do it reasonably safely but don't rush it.

 

[Benchwayze]

Resawing was one of the prime reasons I bought a bandsaw. I just got the jitters trying to resaw on an unguarded 10" circular saw (Unguarded. so I could resaw deeper than the blade's max depth of cut of course.

The deepest I can resaw on my bandsaw is 8". Enough for most small boxes.

Now I wouldn't be without my 351. It comes in so handy for other things as well, like cutting tenons, and my nails! :lol:

IYBTYBA!
John

 

[Jonzjob]

How big are the boxes that you intend to make?

 

[OPJ]

Are you working with hard or softwoods? Some merchants offer ¾in thick sawn redwood (joinery-grade pine) as standard, which doesn't appear to have been resawn from thicker stock. I've no idea if this is cheaper than buying 1½in boards but, it'll keep your bandsaw blades from getting gummed up!

I don't think you're likely to come across many hardwoods already sawn to ¾in thick though, it's always worth asking, just in case they have some badly bent 1in boards going cheap, or something.

Yes, generally speaking, you should add 6mm wastage to the finished thickness of your boards.

 

[devonwoody]

I aim to have finished thickness of 10mm on my boxes, and have done so over the past 4 years. I try to get 75mm sawn hardwood, usually get five boards and use a small bandsaw which saws upto 6" depth.
Combined with my SIP P/T. I am usually successful

 

[PerranOak]

I rip by hand too. IT is very hard work but pleasing somehow though I do tend to go off a bit.

I got this:

Thomas Flinn & Co.
Lynx Handsaw (Beech Handle)
Size - Option: 22 inches
Rip saw - 4 1/2 tpi

Really good. It is actually like having a load of little chisels in a row.