FastForward
Oud Junkie
Posts: 225
Registered: 6-2-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
How to cut braces from a large block?
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
Oud Junkie
Posts: 275
Registered: 1-24-2009
Location: Bat Hefer, Israel
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy
|
|
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
Oud Junkie
Posts: 1212
Registered: 1-20-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: g'oud
|
|
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
Oud Junkie
Posts: 225
Registered: 6-2-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
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
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
Member Is Offline
Mood: happy
|
|
When I buy blocks of sitika spruce for the bracing, I always use a table saw to cut the braces, quick and accurate.
|
|
|
SamirCanada
Moderator
Posts: 3405
Registered: 6-4-2004
Member Is Offline
|
|
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
Oud Junkie
Posts: 225
Registered: 6-2-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
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.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbprobrown/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
