Thread: Anyone built a roubo frame saw?

It looks interesting so I had a look for kits but little to be had under $300 and for what they are I reckon its a rip off. More looking and this bloke did it for the cost of a bandsaw blade.
Poor Man's Roubo Style Frame Saw Using a Bandsaw Blade [Woodworking Tool] - YouTube

Regards
John

ps Found this on how to set up for the cut.
The roubo saw and kerfing plane in use. - YouTube

As John said, there is really no need to splash out a heap of cash if you just want to see what a frame saw can do for you. I made one using a bit of bandsaw blade: 3 Frame saw.jpg 6 Tidied up.jpg

The only other piece of hardware required was a 3/8 x 6" bolt, so the cost came in a little under $300. It's described in this thread (post #33).

It works fine for boards up to about 250-300mm wide, but the 600mm blade is a bit short for anything wider, you can't get a decent long stroke going. Also, the 1/2" blade is hard to keep straight. I'll make a bigger brother and use 1" blade if I ever need to resaw very wide stock, but I'm becoming less enthusiastic about that sort of exercise as the years mount up.

I skipped through some of the video John pointed to, it got a bit tedious, so I probably missed what prompted him to include those two cross-pieces to hold the blade straight - haven't seen that on any other frame saw & question the need. The frame looked unnecessarily heavy to me already. Keep it as light as you can, no point in pushing excess weight around & adding to the job. I saw a lot of frame saws being used in Viet Nam years ago - they were about as basic as it gets, but did the job very well. Bamboo was the choice for the compression members: bamboo frame saw.jpg

A big saw like these blokes are wielding is a two-man job, but they were slicing that small log of white cedar up like it was balsa....

Cheers,

I made one (I'll post a picture later) using a 600mm ECE saw blade from My Tool Store. I'm quite happy with it for small resawing jobs.

This is what I enjoy about this forum. I'm not too interested in an expensive saw kit especially with the postage costs.

I just wasn't sure where or what sorts of blades I could get locally and wanted to see what size blades and handles others had used.

Thanks for the links very useful

I'm thinking a 1" blade would be best for straight rip cuts and I'm just not sure on length as I don't want it to be two person operated saw and I am 6,4" so can get some leverage to get some momentum going.

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Originally Posted by delbs

......I'm thinking a 1" blade would be best for straight rip cuts and I'm just not sure on length as I don't want it to be two person operated saw and I am 6,4" so can get some leverage to get some momentum going...

Yes, I agree it's better to have something you can use by yourself, you'll find your friends & relatives are suddenly too busy to pop over after a session or two re-sawing large boards.

It's not powering the thing that is the problem, it's keeping the saw following the line you want to saw to, particularly at the back. Having two people operating it isn't for extra power as much as for extra guidance. That's why avid frame sawyers use "kerfing planes" (saws) to put a good kerf on both front & back along the cut line & give the frame saw something to follow.

So that's another tool you'll need to acquire/make......

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Yes, I agree it's better to have something you can use by yourself, you'll find your friends & relatives are suddenly too busy to pop over after a session or two re-sawing large boards.

It's not powering the thing that is the problem, it's keeping the saw following the line you want to saw to, particularly at the back. Having two people operating it isn't for extra power as much as for extra guidance. That's why avid frame sawyers use "kerfing planes" (saws) to put a good kerf on both front & back along the cut line & give the frame saw something to follow.

So that's another tool you'll need to acquire/make......

Cheers,

This is interesting and new to me. Ah so if i have a kerfing plane at a fixed width I would know the kerf that I place around a board could be always 15mm then once cut and planed know the board is 10mm for example.

This was a good write up about it.
The Kerfing Plane Part One - THE UNPLUGGED WOODSHOP TORONTO

Well I do have plenty of new guinea rosewood so I could try my hand at making one if I know where to get blade from.

Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks
Nathan

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So wouldn't a panel gauge or even a few traces with marking gauge pressed heavy do the job to create a line for the blade to follow?

Or the cutters in something like this

Antique Vintage Oak Coopers Kerfing Saw Woodworking Barrel Tools | eBay

Or your own kerf plane actually removes stock to create the kerf line which is deeper than what guages do ?

Looking around for details on making one

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Originally Posted by delbs

So wouldn't a panel gauge or even a few traces with marking gauge pressed heavy do the job to create a line for the blade to follow? .....

......Or your own kerf plane actually removes stock to create the kerf line which is deeper than what guages do ....

The latter. In my experience, you need a kerf at least 15mm deep to keep the blade tracking. I've used the technique for donkey's years when breaking down rough wood on my bandsaw. Until a few years ago, I had a pretty pathetic thing that couldn't put enough tension on the blade and was apt to wander at will in a deep cut. I discovered that running the piece over a thin-kerf blade on the tablesaw was the solution. The deeper the kerf the better, but 25-30mm is usually enough to keep the bandsaw blade tracking.

A gauge will give you a line to follow, but you'd be scratching away for quite a while with a gauge to get that sort of depth!

Originally Posted by delbs

.......Or the cutters in something like this? .....

"Coopers kerfing saw" ? How names get corrupted! What you have linked to is called a "croze", it's the tool coopers use to form a rebate around the top of a barrel in which the lid or base is captured when the barrel is hooped up. It usually has a cutter vaguely similar to the cutter on a hand router, much, much wider than would be desirable for making guide kerfs for resawing.
Edit: I first thought the blade in the ebay tool was a ring-in but on checking my book on old tools, they had both saw blades for defining the rebate & router blades for removing the waste. In any case, crozes are designed for working inside a circle, so I think you would be better off with something like Mr. Unplugged's design for straight cuts along a board.

Your best bet would be to cut up an old derelict hand saw for the blade - you want to waste as little wood as possible, so no point in making the kerf any wider than necessary. Make the teeth BIG, so there are large gullets to hold the sawdust during long passes. I've been getting around to making one myself, and plan on trying something like 1-2tpi. A simple saw with a fixed-width fence would be the easiest to make, but I will make mine with an adjustable fence to make it more versatile. When I find that round tuit that is. I'm sure there's one in my shed somewhere.......

I just came across this YouTube video of David Weaver playing with a frame saw.
It is quite a beast. I assume he made it himself.

Resawing - Frame Saw vs. a Fast Hand Saw - YouTube


Cheers Yvan

I made a few six years ago with parts from Dieter Schmid, Germany. The Japanese blades are particularly good.
Frame Saws, Bow Saws, Turning Saws | FINE TOOLS

The only trouble I had was quite bad vibration on my first saw. Eventually it was traced to the slot for the saw blade. The kerf of a western saw was too wide; used a Japanes saw to cut the slot on Saw #2 and the problem went away.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I made a few six years ago with parts from Dieter Schmid, Germany. The Japanese blades are particularly good.
Frame Saws, Bow Saws, Turning Saws | FINE TOOLS

The only trouble I had was quite bad vibration on my first saw. Eventually it was traced to the slot for the saw blade. The kerf of a western saw was too wide; used a Japanes saw to cut the slot on Saw #2 and the problem went away.

Thanks for this

As I have a few pieces big enough I'm keen to make one solid handle and plane design as the unplugged woodworker does.

Did you get the rip or cross cut Japanese blade and did you cut it to length of make your plane the length of the blade you bought?

I can't justify the cost for the kits from the American sites plus shipping for a kit to make a kerf plane just so the other roubo saw I haven't built yet or bought will track true lol

Just finding the right blade or blades for both the Roubo saw and kerf plane is ideal and I'll have a crack at getting some rectangle steel tubing and tap and die to thread some M10 screws I already have

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Originally Posted by delbs

...
Did you get the rip or cross cut Japanese blade and did you cut it to length of make your plane the length of the blade you bought?
....

I got the "Universal Use" Japanese frame saw blades from Dieter Schmid as they seemed more cost effective than specialist rip and/or cross cut blades. They work well.

I have not made a kerfing plane.

Also, I made two smaller saws by cutting a 600mm blade into 200 and 400mm lengths. The smallest saw gets more use than anticipated.

Um, it seems unlikely to me that you'd ever use a frame saw for crosscutting - you can only saw what will fit within the frame. I s'pose you could crosscut a very short board, but these are essentially ripping/re-sawing tools...

Cheers,

I only intend to rip cut. I'm confident I can find the steel brackets and bolts and make a frame to tension on. I don't know which blade to get or a largish 2nd hand band saw blade

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