Thread: Two questions about cutting veneer

Originally Posted by waveink

I have a piece of figured Black Walnut that's 260mm wide and 1500mm long and I want to cut it into 2mm veneers. I have a pretty well set-up bandsaw and am currently using a 1/2" 3 tpi bi-metal blade and I have also made a tall auxiliary fence to clamp to the metal fence. Using this set up I have cut 100mm wide sections straight and true down to about 6mm, but now I want to fine tune for veneer cutting.

My two questions are: 1. Is there a better recommended blade to use for cutting these veneers (wider, more or less tpi)? and 2. Should I set up the cut so that the veneer is on the fence side (so I can set the fence and repeat the cut with the same set up), or the veneer on the other side of the cut so that it's falling away from the blade, in which case I would need to reset the fence for each cut? I understand that there are no kick-back issues with a bandsaw - and it would seem to make sense that I'm trying to aim for as consistent a thickness as I can get out of the veneers for joining etc, but it just seems a bit wrong to have the thin cut on the fence side.

Thanks for your help - pete

If the blade produces a finish that you can glue straight down it would be fine. Personally I use a 3/8" 6 tpi blade for veneers. The veneer comes off between fence and blade and the cut face on the stock is rejointed before cutting the next veneer.

EDIT. Oh I should add I use a 3/4" 3tpi bimetal blade for veneers wider than about 100mm.

I use a 1/2" 3TPI bimetal blade for cutting veneers (and pretty well anything else). It should be reasonably new and free from resin. (Mr Muscle oven cleaner will help here.) As Mic-D said, the veneer comes off between the blade and the fence.