Thread: Jarrah slices wanted

The question needs to be asked, Why 3mm thick?

I'm sure if they were not stabilised reasonably soon after cutting then they would cup and possible crack.

bugga you take all the fun out of it, fair go 1st question...

Its what the wifes laser cutter will cut nicely. and in turn these pieces will become flatbeds in '48 F100 pickup trucks also laser cut
The original plans have the bed also in MDF but after persevering, a lot of swearing, the wife going inside as it was getting 'hot' in the shed I am hoping someone will come to the party.

I cut 1 piece out of 200x 200x 19 jarrah but that lot of jasrrah has followed me for nigh on 25 years.

Originally Posted by Tonyz

Got no idea where this should go....Wanted to buy/timber milling/???
I would like to buy 10 slices of Jarrah 200mm x 150mm x 3mm yes 3mm
I do not have the expertise or skills in cutting on me band saw... I tried

let me save you some $$ and get you sorted to do this job yourself.

First up, you are cutting 150 mm deep -- the grain is running along the 200 mm dimension, not along the 150 dimension.
I've successfully sliced veneers off 250 mm wide Aust Red cedar using a 14" band saw.
if at all possible orientate your baulk so the slices you are cutting are quarter sawn -- that will eliminate most if not all of the potential cupping.
get yourself a decent band saw blade -- one with deep gullets and a very low (perhaps 2) tpi. I used to live in Sydney, so Henry Bros in Vineyard was my first choice for blades. Not sure what you have on the Lower Eyre Peninsula, but Henry Bros ship Australia wide. Henry bros stock a 1/2" x 2 tpi carbon steel blade which is probably suitable for your needs.

tension the blade using the flutter test -- there will be an appropriate youtube vid for this
set the table so that the cut is at 90 degrees to your wood.

have at it.

I know you said you wanted 200 x 150 x 3 mm, but you will probably want to cut much longer slices -- say 1 to 1.5 m long -- for reasons of safety and also allowing you to dock the slices to final length.

Run the thick (say 4 mm) veneers through your thicknesser (before docking them to length) to bring them to the final 3 mm thickness

Have I forgotten any of the encouragement you need?

You need someone to cut it out slightly over size then thickness sand it to 3mm thick with a wide belt or drum sander.


Rob

well that was my thinking but Ian made a good point of cutting longer pieces, finishing on the thicknesser then cutting to length.

think I will try that first.

Yes, leaving it longer till the last is one way to machine it but who's thickneser gets close to 3mm ? Anything under 5 and My thickneser eats and spits out pieces. Well behaved wood may just work at 4mm with mine sometimes. Risky though.

Id like to know if those smaller cheaper thickneser can do thinner stock or if helical head cutter are better as well ?

One thing that may be possible to try is to machine a length to 5mm thick then glue it to a 20mm machined board just at the first 20mm in at the front . Would the feed rollers take the whole thing through machining the top sheet down to 3.1 for sanding? Then you cut the end off releasing the sheet.

Or would the feed rollers push the thin sheet on top into a hump and destroy it ?

Try chalk on both sides for extra grip between sheet and bottom board. ?

I think you'd probably need the bottom rollers set up high so no friction from the lower table and have a good amount of extra length for the mess at the end that will happen .

Rob

Edit . Maybe gluing the sheet 20mm in from both ends is the best way .

Thicknesser = blades slicing / shaving timber

drum sander = could this do the same more gently and greater accuracy. Carbatec have one (I am not buying) that gets down to 6mm thick, so piece of 19 mm laminated MDF then using double sided tape stick a piece of thinnish Jarrah and run through until required thickness achieved.
The bugga is most of this laser cut model is from 3mm MDF and do you think thats stable in this weather?

Originally Posted by Tonyz

Thicknesser = blades slicing / shaving timber

drum sander = could this do the same more gently and greater accuracy. Carbatec have one (I am not buying) that gets down to 6mm thick, so piece of 19 mm laminated MDF then using double sided tape stick a piece of thinnish Jarrah and run through until required thickness achieved.

They say 6 mm for this model! Carbatec 635mm Wide Drum Sander - Twin Drum | Carbatec

They don't know their own stock capabilities! Or they have changed it since I bought the same thing from them . Maybe the added stops for the depth of cut allowed ? I don't see why though.

I have that machine bought from Carbatec and it turns thick wood into thin matchsticks if you want . 1mm veneers is not a problem . 5 down to 3mm would be easy .

Its a really good machine .
Its made me some serious money in a time saving way and I don't use it for sanding surfaces that have anything to do with something that will be receiving a polish or paint job .

Originally Posted by Tonyz

The bugga is most of this laser cut model is from 3mm MDF and do you think thats stable in this weather?

Should be stable if its kept indoors and dry . Sealed would make it better.

Originally Posted by auscab

but who's thickneser gets close to 3mm ? Anything under 5 and My thickneser eats and spits out pieces. Well behaved wood may just work at 4mm with mine sometimes. Risky though.

One thing that may be possible to try is to machine a length to 5mm thick then glue it to a 20mm machined board just at the first 20mm in at the front . Would the feed rollers take the whole thing through machining the top sheet down to 3.1 for sanding? Then you cut the end off releasing the sheet.

Edit . Maybe gluing the sheet 20mm in from both ends is the best way .

I think you are over thinking this.

Place a 3/4" (nominal) thick piece of laminated MDF or laminated chipboard in the bottom of your thicky. Attach a batten at one end of the board so that the bed protector doesn't get pulled through the thicky.

run the thin stock through the thicky using sharp blades and all should be OK. I've done down to sub 2 mm using this method.

No need for glue or double sided tape.

Just keep the pieces being thicknessed long enough so that any snipe can be cut off after thicknessing.



I suspect Tonyz's biggest challenge will be purchasing a suitable blade for his band saw and eliminating blade drift.

I've made a couple of sleds for machining thin stock. I used laminated chipboard with 240 sandpaper glued on top. It takes stuff down to veneer thickness on a thicknesser or sander.

Originally Posted by ian

I think you are over thinking this.


I suspect Tonyz's biggest challenge will be purchasing a suitable blade for his band saw and eliminating blade drift.

how about lack of confidence at present.
Bit of background. We have a large laser cutter that we custom ordered from China, cant fault it amazing fine stuff it can cut & engrave. We are in process of building a mobile shop that we will eventually cart to markets, country fairs, cruise ship markets etc
We recently saw a US business getting out of laser plans they sold and bought our set. over 300 plans all up from star wars figuerines size of most little toes up to car & truck plans. Being a Ford man there was a '48 F100 that when finished would be almost 500mm long. Amazing detail. hence the Jarrah, but just as well the US outfit shut up shop trying to get pieces to match slots and holes did my head in yesterday.
The chassis is 1 length around 450 long there are 2 pieces around 300 long that clip in each side supposedly. Not a bees chance in hell, get the first slot matched and the other end would be 2mm out., then the wheels....each wheel consists of 6 rings, that fit together but there is a diameter difference of 2mm variation.

fair crack of the whip...

I as going to just assemble it from 3mm MDF but then thought hey why not go full out and make my version

Originally Posted by ian

I think you are over thinking this.

Originally Posted by ian

Place a 3/4" (nominal) thick piece of laminated MDF or laminated chipboard in the bottom of your thicky. Attach a batten at one end of the board so that the bed protector doesn't get pulled through the thicky.

That's How I get my thicky to do under 5mm . Its got stops so the table wont go closer than 5mm to the blades. I had a chipboard Melamine covered piece with a cleat across the end and waxed it up so wood slid better. Thats how I destroyed some woods trying to get down to thin .
Maybe its my thicky as well though . Smaller with rollers closer together may be better . Helical head I would think could be a lot better again .

Originally Posted by Tonyz

. We have a large laser cutter that we custom ordered from China, cant fault it amazing fine stuff it can cut & engrave.

Interested in knowing what you have? Any supplier links

flock Iam in trouble the whole file has disappeared, must be somewhere but ???
may take a few days to hunt it out ..
briefly, we had purchased a std 50 watt engraver from ebay after seeing a mate in Adelaide had one, finally it arrived and would not talk to our computer, tried all sorts of things, finally brought mate from Adelaide over with one of his mates.

Nothing da nada etc etc, E bay said work it out with supplier/seller we sent videos, emails etc for 3 BL***y months I was facing writing off $2k plus
Mates mate phones us one time and through his business contacts had found a Chinese laser company that would custom build to your specs. He had done this and was amazed at the clear english understanding this Chinese business had.
His finally arrived and hells bells it was large, but what it could do was fantastic.
We did some sums shifted some $$ around and ordered exactly what this guy had received including genuine chiller and not water cooler etc the seller even had recommendations for shipping agents the whole shebang.

We can slide a 600 x 900 x 3,, MDF or acrylic and press the cutting program and away it goes. Growing into a nice LITTLE money earner, We figure if we can make $100 clear profit a week bingo.