Thinking about feather board timber layout

[Glider]

Having always used plastic magnetic feather boards, I'm about to cut some veneers on the bandy and I prefer to support the timber against the fence over its entire height. The internet gurus recommend using stacked timber feather boards, so I now have a few to make.

I'm thinking of using some European Beech and laying out the timber to align the grain along the fingers. Am I right in supposing that the long grain fibres will provide optimum elasticity?

Whaddya reckon?

mick

[artme]

Oregon- Douglas Fir -makes excellent featherboards.

[RoyG]

Oregon- Douglas Fir -makes excellent featherboards.

I've had a fair bit of success making feather boards from good quality Hoop Pine. I used to buy furniture grade Hoop Pine from Lazarides (not sure where I can get it now they're gone) to use as secondary structure in furniture, and there's always scraps and off-cuts that can be used to make feather boards. I seem to get the longest lasting finger boards if I use a piece of Hoop Pine that has a quarter sawn face. i.e. the growth rings on the end of the board will be at or close to 90 degrees. That way the saw cuts for the feather board are parallel to the growth rings, an you get the strongest feathers on the feather board. If you use flat sawn stock, the feathers can be a bit weak or brittle. When I ran out of Hoop Pine recently, I also found that a small scrap piece of quarter sawn Qld Maple produced a fairly durable feather board, although not as durable as the Hoop Pine.

Roy

[Sawdust Maker]

Oregon- Douglas Fir -makes excellent featherboards.

wot he said


PS yes along the grain

[mark david]

Hi I don't think you really need to worry about featherboards when resawing on the bandy, all you really need is a good solid tall fence, ideally curved so you are able to steer it through the blade.

[doug3030]

Hi I don't think you really need to worry about featherboards when resawing on the bandy, all you really need is a good solid tall fence, ideally curved so you are able to steer it through the blade.

I find that the featherboards really help. Tall fence, definitely but if you have the featherboards in place as well it is really hard for anything to go wrong, particularly if you are resawing from very large boards.

I recently was resawing some very large pieces of Oregon, a camparative lightweight of he timber world and it was nigh on impossible to keep the cut straight until I got the board narrow enough to fit a featherboard into the track on the bandsaw table. without the featherboard the board was coming away from the fence and the geometry of the situation makes it impossible to get it back onto the fence. to even try actually forces it away as the front of the fence exerts pressure on the board.

You might be ok with small boards but once you go to the big stuff its another game altogether.

Cheers

Doug

[Glider]

Thanks guys. The plan is to cut 200mm wide veneers 3mm thick from a piece of New Guinea Rosewood. I suspect I'm going to need some serious guides to maintain an even thickness.

mick

[doug3030]

a piece of New Guinea Rosewood.

What a waste of a fine piece of timber

Send me the rosewood and I will send you some oregon?

Doug

[Glider]

What a waste of a fine piece of timber

Send me the rosewood and I will send you some Oregon?

Not sure what you mean Doug. I plan to cut veneers from the Rosewood. Rather than being wasteful surely it's putting the timber to good use.

mick

[mark david]

I resawed some narrower sheoak boards to veneer a demi-lune shaped table and used a drum sander to get a uniform thickness after bandsawing.

Thanks guys. The plan is to cut 200mm wide veneers 3mm thick from a piece of New Guinea Rosewood. I suspect I'm going to need some serious guides to maintain an even thickness.

mick

[doug3030]

Not sure what you mean Doug. I plan to cut veneers from the Rosewood. Rather than being wasteful surely it's putting the timber to good use.

mick

Sorry Mick, I misunderstood your intent. I thought you were saying that you had decided to make your featherboards out of rosewood. Now that would have been a waste. On rereading the post now I see that cutting the rosewood is the job you want the featherboards for

Cheers

Doug

[mark david]

I am all in favour of resawing timber into veneers it is the best way to use a valuable resource.
You can't do a lot with a single board but cut into veneers you can cover a whole dining table.

The most valuable furniture in the world is veneered such as, the Badminton cabinet veneered in wood and stone (worth $40 million dollars)

[Glider]

The most valuable furniture in the world is veneered such as, the Badminton cabinet veneered in wood and stone (worth $40 million dollars)

Forty mil eh? Pretty expensive shuttlecock cabinet. Do you reckon I could buy the plans online?

mick

[mark david]

Geoff Hannah could probably knock you up a copy, you might have to wait 20 years for it though.

Forty mil eh? Pretty expensive shuttlecock cabinet. Do you reckon I could buy the plans online?

mick

[doug3030]

Forty mil eh? Pretty expensive shuttlecock cabinet. Do you reckon I could buy the plans online?

mick

http://www.liechtensteincollections....22004204020813

Its not a plan as such but if you are any good you could make one based on the picture

Cheers

Doug