Thread: Recycled pine - milling it down

the kerf from a table saw will waste more material than a bandsaw kerf.

without seeing your "a bit rough in places" 190 x 65 in the flesh I'd guess that it will be about 185 x 60 after "straightening" which in turn will deliver around 2, sticks 89 mm wide if your "a bit rough" is not too rough. Each pass through the table saw will loose 3-4 mm of width just in the kerf

If it's straight and not twisted you should be able to rip it up the middle on the tablesaw into two pieces just over 93 x 65. A quality dedicated rip blade will do the best job, if you don't have one I'd probably give the whole job a miss. You could then resaw those pieces on the bandsaw into (say) a 44mm and 19mm - what you can achieve will depend on how straight it is and what sort of result you get off the bandsaw. You can then take it progressively down to final dimension on the table saw, how many cuts you need to do will depend on how straight the timber was initially and the result off the bandsaw. If the tablesaw isn't capable of a 93mm cut in one pass you'll need to cut just over half the depth and then flip the piece and take a second pass. The Incra TSLS is a huge advantage when doing all these operations.

Use featherboards to guide the stock and the usual safety provisos apply. Hope your tablesaw and fence are well setup otherwise you'll be pushing it uphill.

If the timber isn't relatively straight or has a twist you can cut it down to just over your minimum required length and see what it looks like. If that doesn't help too much, well good luck.

Many thanks for the thoughts so far - I hadn't thought about the blade on the table saw, I will have to check that (I think it's the default blade that comes with the SawStop, not a rip blade).

My thinking in wanting to use the table saw was speed, and accuracy - I'm not sure how accurately the bandsaw will cut (I have little use on it yet, and thus unsure of how good/accurate it is - it's the Jet 16" unit with a stock blade in it).

Appreciate the ideas and thoughts!

It may be a job for both types of saw - the table saw will need to have a depth of cut of 90mm. Assuming the timber is already square (and that the roughness is just the surface finish rather than being all over the place straightness wise) you'd start with two rips to make 2x 89x65. From there it would have to go on the BS if the TS won't cut 89mm deep.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

It may be a job for both types of saw - the table saw will need to have a depth of cut of 90mm. Assuming the timber is already square (and that the roughness is just the surface finish rather than being all over the place straightness wise) you'd start with two rips to make 2x 89x65. From there it would have to go on the BS if the TS won't cut 89mm deep.

Yes - something else I missed that wise words have picked. Maximum depth of cut on the table saw is 79mm, so it'll be a case of using the right tool at the right time!

Thank you all!