George Vondriska provides tips on how to formulate the board foot measure of hardwood so that you can better assess how much wood you’ll need for your woodworking project and better communicate with the salesman when you go to purchase your wood. George Vondriska demonstrates how to use an Epilog laser engraver to cut templates and inlays in your shop. George Vondriska provides tips on how to use a backyard saw mill to cut lumber from logs for your woodworking projects.
Cutting a log on the bandsaw I had the opportunity to go through some of the pieces of cut up firewood logs at my parents before they were split. If I use a really thin skillsaw blade, the table saw’s kerf will be about as wide as the bandsaw blade’s. In the past, I had no problems cutting though 12 cm thick dried maple with this blade.
Logan has some great tips and techniques for turning smaller logs into usable boards using the band saw in your shop. “Making Boards. After cutting the reference faces, you can start making boards. How you plan to use the wood will determine how thick to cut the boards. Keep in mind that the wet, rough-cut boards may warp and shrink. So don’t cut the pieces to the final thickness. Instead, I like to leave some extra material to allow for jointing and planing the wood smooth and flat once it’s dry. Adding about a 1⁄4” is a good rule of thumb. Freshly cut lumber needs to be stored and dried properly to end up as stable boards.
I’ve had perfectly acceptable results resawing with bimetal blades and great results resawing with silicone-carbide, low-tension blades. Drift varies from blade to blade, so follow this simple setup procedure every time you change blades. Because bearings can be used in contact with the blade, they can help the blade run straighter, resulting in less drift.
This will keep the log from rolling, rocking, or otherwise moving as it passes through the saw. Depending on the thickness of the log you do this process on your band saw, or move to your table saw. The band saw will slice larger logs and leave a smaller kerf, while the table saw will leave a smoother finish.
It’s surprisingly easy to mill short, small logs into furniture-grade boards, right in your own workshop, all without special equipment. “I’ve had good results using two methods for milling lumber from small logs in my shop. The simplest involves a hydraulic wood splitter – the kind used to turn logs into firewood. Clear, straight-grained, easily-split species of wood are easy to cleave into board-like billets. Most firewood splitters handle blocks up to 24” long, so when you find a good log, cut blocks to this length, even if you’re making your firewood shorter. “Regardless of how you mill your micro lumber, drying involves the same process used with other kinds of rough lumber. No matter how long it’s been since your logs have been cut, the wood is still too wet for woodworking if those logs have not been sawn into boards. That’s why you need to promote air circulation on all sides of every board, and a household fan really speeds progress. Stack your lumber with 1/2”-thick strips of scrap lumber between each piece, then direct air flow over the pile.
how to cut logs bandsaw Related Question:
What are the three main ways to cut a log?
What many don’t know though is that there are three different method to cut wood to produce different results from the log and those are sawing, slicing, and using rotary.
How do you cut wood for logs?
Similar to cant sawing, plain sawing begins with rotating and sawing the outer sides of a log into boards until the center is squared into a four-sided cant. Instead of leaving the cant as is, it is rotated and sawn to produce the maximum amount of lumber.
How do you cut thin wood slices?
To cut your wood slices, we strongly recommend you have either a miter saw or band saw. These are the best saw options to use when cutting log slices, as they can make more precise cuts with the uneven nature of a log. They can also cut thicker pieces of wood than other types of saws.
What are the 2 methods of cutting lumber?
When lumber is cut from logs, it is typically cut in one of three ways: quarter sawn, rift sawn or plain sawn. Each type of lumber is dependent on how the log is oriented and cut at the sawmill.
What is the method of sawing?
The plain sawing method is the most common. It consists of sawing boards off the log in strips parallel to the pith. These boards are then sawn lengthwise again. Every board sawn this way has a unique appearance.
How do you cut wood without a chainsaw?
Even though a jigsaw is too weak to fell a tree or cut down large tree logs, you can use it to cut scrap wood like straight planks or pallets into firewood. The jigsaw comprises an electric motor and a reciprocating blade thus the better choice compared to using your hands or feet.
How long do you cut logs for sawmill?
Care should be taken to cut the felled tree into lengths of highest possible value. Standard sawlog lengths usually run from 8 to 16 feet, with intermediate cuts at two-foot intervals.
How much lumber can I get out of a log?
An average urban tree about 20 inches in diameter at 4½ feet above the ground and with a 10-foot solid log should yield 150 to 200 board feet of lumber.
Is milling your own lumber worth it?
Milling your own lumber can produce quality material for a fraction of the price of a lumber dealer. In fact, if you purchase your own mill, like I have, you can actually make a profit off of it by selling lumber to other woodworkers and by offering to mill other people’s logs.