Thread: Resawing with table saw. No thicknesser or Jointer available- Can I sand?

The short answer is yes - I regularly cut 120-200x50mm stock into 10mm thick slices at work for parquetry tables then run it all through our wide-belt sander down to 7-8mm.

HOWEVER, depending on what timber you're using, expect LOTS of bowing and cupping.

I mainly use crown-cut American Oak and if I'm really lucky I might get 5-10% that doesn't move; the rest can have anywhere from 5-25mm of bow over about 1m and up to 4mm cup over 180mm. For my use that's not an issue, but that much movement might be a problem depending on what you plan to do with it. American oak is particularly prone to move when cut, many timbers will be quite well behaved.

Also, make sure you alternate which face you cut if you're planning to do more than a single cut down the middle - it helps even the internal stresses in the timber and keeps it mostly straight and flat.

Hand-planing would be a far more satisfactory way of cleaning up your faces, imo - I hate sanding! The problem you encounter when book-matching is that the grain runs in opposite directions for the two pieces, and may give you a hard time if there is significant run-out, depending on the species and the plane you choose to use. If your saw leaves a fairly good surface, and your glue-up is very neat, scraping may be all you need (depending, again, on the wood itself)....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Hand-planing would be a far more satisfactory way of cleaning up your faces, imo - I hate sanding! The problem you encounter when book-matching is that the grain runs in opposite directions for the two pieces, and may give you a hard time if there is significant run-out, depending on the species and the plane you choose to use. If your saw leaves a fairly good surface, and your glue-up is very neat, scraping may be all you need (depending, again, on the wood itself)....

Cheers,

A good quality sharp fine toothed (say, 60 or 80 tooth) blade in your table saw should give you a pretty good surface strait off the saw. A lick with the handplane, and voila. Or scraper.

The difficulty with sanding is that if you do more than light final smoothing, it is very hard to get a perfectly flat surface. Smooth and flat are quite different criteria. If you have access to an industrial sander, like Elan, disregard this para.




Fair Winds

Graeme

I do it all the time as well. Squaring up before you start really helps but with a new blade you can get 3mm. Scrapers are the go IMO. That said I mainly cut quarter sawn stock.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

A good quality sharp fine toothed (say, 60 or 80 tooth) blade in your table saw should give you a pretty good surface strait off the saw.

Only problem with lots of teeth is that you end up needing lots of motor to go with it. I have, on several occasions, brought 7.5hp of panel saw to a complete stop while resawing with a 400mm 60T blade. High tooth count also means smaller gullets which means the chips aren't cleared fast enough which leads to the blade overheating and it loses tension and starts wobbling all over the place and you get burn marks in the timber and, possibly, chunks out of the saw table... Basically it's not a fun experience (trust me on this one, I've done it)

If you're going to be doing this regularly, buy a dedicated rip blade (28-32T). Also, if your saw has adjustable speed change it to the SLOWEST for resawing

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Only problem with lots of teeth is that you end up needing lots of motor to go with it. I have, on several occasions, brought 7.5hp of panel saw to a complete stop while resawing with a 400mm 60T blade. High tooth count also means smaller gullets which means the chips aren't cleared fast enough which leads to the blade overheating and it loses tension and starts wobbling all over the place and you get burn marks in the timber and, possibly, chunks out of the saw table... Basically it's not a fun experience (trust me on this one, I've done it)

If you're going to be doing this regularly, buy a dedicated rip blade (28-32T). Also, if your saw has adjustable speed change it to the SLOWEST for resawing

I hear you, Elan. But could not all the issues that you raise also be symptons of trying to saw too fast. Slow the timber infeed rate to something that the saw is comfortable with and those problems go away.



Fair Winds

Graeme

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I hear you, Elan. But could not all the issues that you raise also be symptons of trying to saw too fast. Slow the timber infeed rate to something that the saw is comfortable with and those problems go away.



Fair Winds

Graeme

Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't help a bit. I've actually found that dropping the blade speed is more effective than dropping the feed rate.

Lots of good advice here, but it's hard to be more specific without knowing how you intend to handle the veneers, if in fact they are veneers.

I've re-sawn various sizes of timber on the TS using a 42 TPI thin kerf (1.8 mm) combination saw and got a good surface. The thin kerf blade reduces the load on the motor and helps keep blade speed up. I'm glad to have it when making deep cuts, such as are common when re-sawing. When cutting veneers (usually about 3-4 mm to start with) I edge glue the laminates with PU glue immediately to the desired width and then run them through a drum sander. Job done. If you don't have a drum sander, I am guessing that it is still best to edge glue first and then to scrape/plane/sand one surface flat (the one you will glue to the substrate).

If you can tell us the size you are trying to cut and whether you will need to edge glue, the experienced blokes here (not me) can likely help further. Initially I assumed you were cutting veneers, but you could equally be cutting 20 mm boards from a larger piece.

Although still a novice, I can assure you that if you approach a job like this with a plane that is not very sharp, grief can likely be anticipated.