Thread: Aussie Iron Bark Kicking my A$$ Help Appreciated

If you have to remove 8mm I'd be looking for someone with a carbide tipped bandsaw blade bandsaw and remove most of that 8mm and then you'd be down to a belt sander.

Originally Posted by BobL

If you have to remove 8mm I'd be looking for someone with a carbide tipped bandsaw blade bandsaw and remove most of that 8mm and then you'd be down to a belt sander.

The 8mm only gives 4mm each side (or 6/2mm etc.) which is not a lot on a 1.5M length if it is not already flat.

Originally Posted by Camelot

"I need to take off around 8mm of material to get the thickness I need for the benchtop, hence my first thought is to find a planner capable of doing the bulk of the thicnkessing."

So to make up your 7M length you will be end butting your planks, which is a big area for movement, also depending on how badly your timber is twisted/cupped/bowed you will be lucky to get away with 8mm reduction. I have the machines you need for this job, but I am on the Sunshine Coast , which would mean getting them to me (so maybe too far you), would not charge you anything, but if we hit anything then you would need to replace the blade/cutter.

That is an unbelieable offer! I am truly bowled over! Thank you.
I am in Mt Mee so Sunshine coast is no issues at all. We are on one income at the moment (kids) with a mortgage etc so you are truly a hero, but I cant let you do this for free. I believe soliciting work etc will be against the forum rules so would love to discuss a rate with you. Even if its just a lot of beer (or whatever you prefer) and a set of replacement blades.

Originally Posted by Camelot

The 8mm only gives 4mm each side (or 6/2mm etc.) which is not a lot on a 1.5M length if it is not already flat.

I agree. I will measure the cup/twist of each board using a straight edge and cut to an appropriate length before I bring them up to you (1.5m was just to make it easier to put it through my little combo table saw / jointer).

For the reference of others who might be facing a similar problem, what sort of machinery do you have?

Thanks again Camelot, I will be in touch!

bloody love this forum!!!

Peter

"For the reference of others who might be facing a similar problem, what sort of machinery do you have?"

I have a number of machines, but for your job just 2 or 3 types of machines will be needed, I have 2 planer/jointers one is 200mm spiral head and the other a 500mm 4 blade, so if the finished width can be say 195mm ish then the spiral head will give a better finish, once we have the width of the plank milled (thus establishing a reference surface) I would look to use my Altendorf F45 (to save time) with it's 3.7M sliding bed to make the planks straight and parallel, then the last operation would be putting them through my 500mm spiral head thicknesser, where we can also do a light pass on the widths to remove to panel saw blade marks.

I have dimensioned ironbark with hand tools - HSS and PM-V11 blades. It takes regular sharpening, but if you don't mind that, it's quite efficient. The tricky thing is not just that it's ironbark, but getting past the weathered exterior. If you're working with a nice piece in the flesh of it, it takes long, smooth shavings, or in the case of a scrub plane, meaty scallops per pass.