Mike's Oud Forums

How to cut braces from a large block?

FastForward - 6-6-2010 at 03:02 PM

Whats the best way to cut braces from spruce blocks.

I have a block that is 20" long and about 2" wide.

Is a band saw the best way? A table saw works but the thickness of the blade is 1/8" and there will be a lot of waste.

What other alternatives/suggestions are there.

Also, what thickness should I cut them? my final braces will be 4mm thick.

Yaron Naor - 6-7-2010 at 01:56 AM

Quote: Originally posted by FastForward  
Whats the best way to cut braces from spruce blocks.

I have a block that is 20" long and about 2" wide.

Is a band saw the best way? A table saw works but the thickness of the blade is 1/8" and there will be a lot of waste.

What other alternatives/suggestions are there.

Also, what thickness should I cut them? my final braces will be 4mm thick.


- Cut it with a band saw, the blade's width is around 1mm, so you are not loosing too much, use the fence.

- Cut it a "Bit" More than 4 mm so you can make them strait with a planer and send them to be exact and nice.
I would cut 5 mm and than work on them to be 4 mm, (it is 0.5mm from each side).

Yaron.

Edward Powell - 6-7-2010 at 04:59 AM

The "best" way is to split the wood along the grain, that way you would be sure not to get any grain run-out, and that means the strongest possible wood.

FastForward - 6-8-2010 at 11:14 AM

Thanks,

I will probably use a bandsaw. Splitting along the grain is not an option as I am too worried to break the block. I can probably try inserting a chisel between the grain and see what happens.

sabbassi - 6-16-2010 at 12:27 AM

When I buy blocks of sitika spruce for the bracing, I always use a table saw to cut the braces, quick and accurate.

SamirCanada - 7-25-2010 at 06:38 AM

In my experience its 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

You will have more waste with the table saw but with a nice finishing blade you wont have to plane much if at all to make the braces flat. The bandsaw may waste less but you will end up shaving quite a bit off to flatten the pieces. Depends on how good you set up the fence with your bandsaw really.

FastForward - 7-25-2010 at 09:37 AM

I ended up cutting them using a bandsaw. The final result is acceptable and the thickness is quite uniform across, for some of them the difference is about 0.1 mm that happened because I lost concentration and didn't push the piece against the fence well.

The bandsaw I used is pretty terrible with a lot of play, so I used a zero clearance insert which help control the thickness. The blade was dull so the finish on the edges horrible and there is some furriness and burnout. I have to do a lot of planing and the edge and I have been postponing this for a while. I guess I will do it soon as I will start bracing the top in the near future.