Thread: Newbie for woodworking

Hi Tim and welcome to the Forum
I am a retired Carpenter and still love to get my hands dirty doing any thing with wood. I made my lathe probably 35 years ago and have only had maybe an afternoon of tuition to develop certain techniques the rest of my knowledge is from observing others and trying things out for myself. I understand fully you not wanting to get out on your time off to join a club or what ever.
As far as what machinery you will need is something that you really need to think about. What sort of projects do want to do? Make bowls/platters or candle sticks/vases or do you want to make tables? very project may need a different piece of machinery to make it happen. Professional woodturners may only have a band saw to break down parts of a log to get a blank out of it to turn. With making tables, a bench saw would be used to uniformly cut the timber for the top to be joined together to make a larger slab while the legs would be turned from square timber that goes into the lathe to turn them to shape.
I have a 14" Bandsaw from Gasweld. It does what I want it to do as far as making bowl blanks or dealing with a part of a tree but it has its limitations. I even use a chainsaw to break down a log to get it into the bandsaw. Depending on the depth of your timber a jigsaw may be not the correct tool to use
Its a hard question to get a quick answer to but if you are determined to make a (what ever?) and you only have a limited range of cutting tools you will find that you can make it work for you. Determination has that effect on us.
I know I probably haven't given you the answer you wanted but have a think about what you may be doing and see if your funds and ability can make it happen for you

One of the most used machine in my shed is the bandsaw. I have a 14 inch one that I purchased from Carbatec.
I also have a jigsaw and find that this can cut at a slight angle in thick wood as the cut/blade is not supported.

Originally Posted by chambezio

Hi Tim and welcome to the Forum
I am a retired Carpenter and still love to get my hands dirty doing any thing with wood. I made my lathe probably 35 years ago and have only had maybe an afternoon of tuition to develop certain techniques the rest of my knowledge is from observing others and trying things out for myself. I understand fully you not wanting to get out on your time off to join a club or what ever.
As far as what machinery you will need is something that you really need to think about. What sort of projects do want to do? Make bowls/platters or candle sticks/vases or do you want to make tables? very project may need a different piece of machinery to make it happen. Professional woodturners may only have a band saw to break down parts of a log to get a blank out of it to turn. With making tables, a bench saw would be used to uniformly cut the timber for the top to be joined together to make a larger slab while the legs would be turned from square timber that goes into the lathe to turn them to shape.
I have a 14" Bandsaw from Gasweld. It does what I want it to do as far as making bowl blanks or dealing with a part of a tree but it has its limitations. I even use a chainsaw to break down a log to get it into the bandsaw. Depending on the depth of your timber a jigsaw may be not the correct tool to use
Its a hard question to get a quick answer to but if you are determined to make a (what ever?) and you only have a limited range of cutting tools you will find that you can make it work for you. Determination has that effect on us.
I know I probably haven't given you the answer you wanted but have a think about what you may be doing and see if your funds and ability can make it happen for you

Hi there,

What you have said about the afternoon of tuition, is pretty much the same as me, I had a go when I was at school 12 years ago, and I have been watching youtube clip after clip.....Just a trial and error thing that I have developed.....I know that there are things I could be taught, but I Figure if I get a grasp on the basics, when I do get to a club there is less time wasted on that and more time on better more intricate stuff.....As far as what I am making, I am sticking with the basics, Bowls, candle holders, vases as you said. I do how-ever want to venture into other stuff that I need, something like a knife block is on the to do list as mine is falling apart (20 year old pine thing) I know I need to cut the wood down into "square Plates" and also get the inner blocks to separate the plates from each other, and I can't see myself doing it with a chippy's saw, Im not that good =(.

I have a chainsaw which I am happy to use to cut down some bigger logs to fit on the lathe, just want something to cut the thinner stuff for when I want to make stuff that's not on the lathe.

Eventually I will need a planer to get the face of the round blanks smooth to glue together to then turn into multi wood bowls or vases or even candle sticks, but I think that is down the track a bit.

Originally Posted by Christos

One of the most used machine in my shed is the bandsaw. I have a 14 inch one that I purchased from Carbatec.
I also have a jigsaw and find that this can cut at a slight angle in thick wood as the cut/blade is not supported.

Hi Christos,

Thanks for that, I think I should get one, but I may just save my money for the moment and keep an eye on the classifieds. Sounds like they're a good thing!

Tim

I have finally managed to get my Bandsaw, which I bought brand new, working properly!!!

The best thing I ever did was to watch a You Tube video by Alex Snodgrass on setting up a bandsaw.

Forget anything else you may see or read about setting up a bandsaw!!! Trust me!! I know.

If you buy a new saw it is guaranteed not to be set correctly!! If you buy second hand just assume it is not set correctly.

Watch Snodgrass and go from there!!

Hi Tim, I would give the Full Boar bandsaw a miss. It is really only a toy that Bunnings put there at a price that looks like good value, but it's not. A 14" bandsaw is a good starting point, but you need to make sure it can cut reasonable height bits of wood. I had one for many years that would only cut 150mm high pieces and often found it was just a tad too small. I now have a Carbatec 14" with a 200mm depth of cut and find it is only just big enough on some occasions, but less restrictive than its predecessor.
Save your money and buy from one of the specialist type dealers rather than the hardware chains as they only sell very basic machinery, or buy something more robust secondhand.
A Bandsaw is a very handy machine and will get used a lot once you have it.

Hi Tim,

A bandsaw less than 14 inches is a toy. They are not good value for the restrictions on what you can do with them.

Most 14 inch bandsaws will cut up to 150mm thick, some cut more. If you are serious, don't go below 14". Another thing is that on the smaller bandsaws the blade has to flex more to go around the tighter curves, resulting in faster metal fatigue and reduced blade life.

Don't be fooled by the amount of exposed blade as being the maximum depth of cut. Some cheap saws are very much underpowered and will strain to cut decent timber of any thickness. A good blade is a must. Throw away the blade that comes with any saw under $1000 and think about it for any saw over that price.

Cutting with a bandsaw is easy. Setting up the bandsaw to cut how you want it to is not difficult but it takes some practice. Artme is spot on the money when he said watch the youtube video by Alex Snodgrass. I will add to that, if you do it Snodgrass' way you have to do it ALL Snodgrass' way. Its a complete system. if you don't do it all it will not give good results.

I am trying to think of a video I watched on how the bandsaw blade works and explains TPI choices etc, but I cannot remember who did it, Possibly Mathias Wandall, but couldnt find it on a quick search.

The key to successful bandsawing is having a a suitable bandsaw for the job, well set up with the right blade and using the right technique.

I started out with a 14" bandsaw which I still use quite a lot. However it did not do everything I wanted it to do so I bought a 21 inch bandsaw to do the other things I want. I use both of them when appropriate.

Work out just what you want to do, then you can get the tools to do it. Don't be scared of buying second-hand if it means buying a machine better than you could afford new. I have seen a few examples of good quality second-hand bandsaws going cheap because the original owner never learned to set them up properly and thought they had a dud saw.

Hope that helps

Doug

Hi All,

As usual, great information and I will take that on board! I think for the meantime as said, I might start saving my pennies and get a decent tool.

Thanks for getting back to me!

Tim

On the subject of blades I have a few suggestions.

Do not be fooled into thinking that more teeth is better, especially with wider blades.
As you cut the chips removed by the blade expand and can fill the gullets between the teeth.
This in turn loads the blade and slows it down. The tendency for most people is to simply push
the workpiece harder and this exacerbates the problem. Bigger blades require fewer teeth to
cut well usually about 1 !/4 TPI.

A wide blade is unsuitable for tight curves but is good for re-sawing. Don't forget that a wider
blade takes more power to drive.

Narrower blades are good for curved cutting and will also cut well in a straight line. My 3/8 blade
has 5TPI and has worked very well with everything I have put through it. I would not rip long cuts
with it for reasons mentioned above.

G'day Tim,

I'm also a relative newcomer to woodworking, and I would have to say that the bandsaw is the most versatile
machine in my shed. Definitely avoid the lightweight brands.

As a starting point - for little money you should be able to find a 20-30 year old Taiwanese 14" generic bandsaw.
They are usually 3/4HP (I have one, but it has a 1HP motor).

Not necessarily recommending this one (unless the owner will re-assemble so it can be proven to work),
but this is the style of bandsaw that would be a good starting point (it will teach you a plenty about bandsaws).
It won't be without its issues, but at that price...

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/broad...saw/1074827851

I've seen a fair few ads for these bandsaws, and they tend to range from $100-$400, blades are about $20 for carbon steel, and say about $50 for bi-metal.
The Snodgrass video mentioned before is a must watch for a newbie (like me).

Anyway, I hope this helps,

Cheers, Jeff

Originally Posted by artme

On the subject of blades I have a few suggestions.

Do not be fooled into thinking that more teeth is better, especially with wider blades.
As you cut the chips removed by the blade expand and can fill the gullets between the teeth.
This in turn loads the blade and slows it down. The tendency for most people is to simply push
the workpiece harder and this exacerbates the problem. Bigger blades require fewer teeth to
cut well usually about 1 !/4 TPI.

A wide blade is unsuitable for tight curves but is good for re-sawing. Don't forget that a wider
blade takes more power to drive.

Narrower blades are good for curved cutting and will also cut well in a straight line. My 3/8 blade
has 5TPI and has worked very well with everything I have put through it. I would not rip long cuts
with it for reasons mentioned above.

Hi there,

Thanks for getting back to me with this Info, It's good knowledge to have in the back of my mind, especially with salesmen telling you anything they can to sell something. Gives me a starting point, I think for what I will be doing, I will need a fairly thin blade, mainly due to wanting to do tight curve work.

Thanks again

Originally Posted by Jeffen

G'day Tim,

I'm also a relative newcomer to woodworking, and I would have to say that the bandsaw is the most versatile
machine in my shed. Definitely avoid the lightweight brands.

As a starting point - for little money you should be able to find a 20-30 year old Taiwanese 14" generic bandsaw.
They are usually 3/4HP (I have one, but it has a 1HP motor).

Not necessarily recommending this one (unless the owner will re-assemble so it can be proven to work),
but this is the style of bandsaw that would be a good starting point (it will teach you a plenty about bandsaws).
It won't be without its issues, but at that price...

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/broad...saw/1074827851

I've seen a fair few ads for these bandsaws, and they tend to range from $100-$400, blades are about $20 for carbon steel, and say about $50 for bi-metal.
The Snodgrass video mentioned before is a must watch for a newbie (like me).

Anyway, I hope this helps,

Cheers, Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for commenting, I saw a few ads for bandsaws like that, I wasn't too sure on quality and as you said, being in bits too doesn't help, I suppose if they're old like that and still going, might be alright. I am still worried that in a month I will give up and sell everything of mine off.

What did you go with? A new one or a old second hand one like this?

Tim

Hi Tim,

I have a 30 year old jobbie like that.
It was in good working order, and with a selection of new blades, and some tuning, became much better.
I do a lot of ripping on this bandsaw (as my table saw is just too noisy to use too often) and it works just fine (if a little slow),
and the moment you need to cut a curve, you have the machine to do it.

I mentioned a bandsaw like that wont be without its problems, at that price, they certainly aren't over-powered,
they may vibrate a bit, and you will have to tweak them.

However, for exactly the reason you mention (possibly selling everything off) they are a machine that will
do what you need (and lead you into other facets of woodworking). Just don't expect to be cutting perfect thin veneers 150mm wide with one.

This is mine - paid a total of $100 for it. Looks a little better these days, and one day will be replaced with a Laguna or similar.

bandsaw.jpg


Finally, to give you an idea of how versatile a bandsaw can be, here's a 2 minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXW55S4X9zo

Cheers, Jeff

Welcome to the forum Tim.