General Woodworking

Resawing on The Bandsaw

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One of the main reasons many woodworkers purchase bandsaws is because of their ability to re-saw wood. This might mean re-sawing logs to make boards (usually short boards) or re-sawing existing boards to make thinner boards for projects like small boxes where you might want a 3/8" or 1/2" board. Planing down a 3/4" board to 3/8" is a waste of good lumber and a waste of time if you have a bandsaw.

The most common bandsaw is 14 inch. With some brands you can also purchase  a height adjustment block which raises the top wheel of the bandsaw higher and therefore allows for wider cuts. If you are planning on doing a LOT of re-sawing you might want to look seriously at 16" or even 18" or larger bandsaws.

Re-sawing on a bandsaw is not difficult but it may take some practice and a bit of extra work. If your bandsaw does not have a high fence, you may want to make one out of MDF or plywood to help you in the re-sawing process. It will be important to select a proper re-sawing blade. For most saws this will be a blade with fewer teeth, of the called a "skip tooth blade".  Most re-saw blades are wide, typically, the wider the better when it comes to re-sawing. You will also need to know the length of your saw blades. There are a few different sizes and every "14" bandsaw" does NOT take the same size blade. 

During the re-saw process, you will want to have the board you are re-sawing to have a 90 degree angle on at least one edge and at least both sides to be flat and smooth. If you are making thinner boards or veneers it is often best to have the off-cut piece coming off the stock piece on the non blade-fence side. In other words the off-cut piece after it is cut should be able to fall free off the saw because it is not running between the blade and the fence.

After you have cut off the thin board or veneer you need, you will now want to run that whole stock board back through the planer to true up the face sides again. You won't need to take much off, just a skim to get the just-sawn face cleaned up. If you are making veneers and want book matching piece you will need to make sure your off-cuts or on the same side of the stock piece each time. Marking one end with a felt pen will help solve that.

Copyright - Colin Knecht
woodworkweb.com

CNC Machines for Fun and Profit

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There is a special group of people out there who love woodworking and technology and are always looking at new ways of putting the two together ... and from that marriage came the CNC machines we have today. I remember the first time I ever heard about someone putting together a computer with a router. It was just after the first Macintosh Computer was invented. I heard a story from one of the Apple Reps, that one of the main engineers on the development of the Mac had actually used the printer port to connect to some small servo motors he had and attached his router to it and was using it for making signs and small pictures. This was the first time I had ever heard of a computer controlling a router, which is in essence, what a CNC machine is. Well , that was way back in 1985 or so and things have come a long way since then. Now we have a variety of software programs to drive the machinery and of course the CNC machines can now do much with many different axis / angles and techniques.

For woodworkers who have the time and inkling, there is a whole world out there of interesting things that can be done with CNC machines, both commercially and for one own interest and enjoyment. After all ... most of us don't make woodworking projects to re-sell, we make them for our own use, enjoyment and satisfaction.

The real beauty of a CNC machines is that they allow the woodworker a whole new world of creativity. If you are the kind of woodworker who has trouble making a straight cut with any kind of a hand or power tool, you can still do beautiful work with a CNC machine. Your talent may be in designing a new font or implementing a new font into your CNC computer in order to make some sort of sign, or ... maybe you want make some sort of a graphic ... and use different woods like an Intarsia piece. The CNC can help you make all the pieces like a big puzzle and you can put it together int the end and finish it. The quality of the parts and how well they fit together will be your challenge on the CNC machine, and maybe that's the kind of challenge you like? No everyone is interested in cutting boards, gluing them together to make bigger planks.

CNC routers come in all sorts of different types and sizes. One of my friends has 2 of them and they pretty much take up most of his shop. One is about 4 feet square, the other is 13 feet long by about 5 feet across. It is absolutely fascinating to watch either one of them at work. What you don't see is all the computer work he needs to do ahead of time in setting up the for the cuts. Over the years he has become very proficient and using the software (once he found some software that he liked and that could do the kinds of things he wanted to with his CNC machines). He does a lot of commercial work, but he started off doing smaller pieces for himself and others and the CNC machines and the techniques blossomed into ongoing business that he just couldn't ignore.

If you have any interest in computers and like woodworking, CNC routers might be just the item to get your creative juices flowing and producing some unique and outstanding projects ... who knows where it will lead? Could be a business ... might be nothing more than a lot of fun for years to come.

Copyright - Colin Knecht
woodworkweb.com

Building A Business Around Your CNC Machine

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 Many woodworkers dream of making woodworking their livelihood, and a good number do, but there is also a whole universe of opportunity out there for part-time-woodworking jobs, often smaller jobs that the "big shops" don't want to do.

In an ideal world we would all get to use our own woodworking tools and make lovely furniture and sell it for a nice profit and make a living. Sadly, reality says - this isn't going to happen for most of us - SO what are the alternatives.

One industry that I have always felt there was extra work in, and a good part-time business as well, is the CNC woodworking business. For those of you who need a quick refresher, a CNC machine is nothing more than a computer controlled router. On a computer you create some sort of a graphic, like lettering for a sign for example, send that information to the router through the computer and in a while the router carves out the exact same drawing you input into the computer.

There are a number of different types of CNC machines and they have different capabilities and sizes of wood that they can accommodate, so there can be some restrictions. For example, all CNC routers will go back and forth and up and down, but some have even more control, and could for example turn the bit to 90 degrees or more to actually make three dimensional items. But all that is detail, for now we want to look at the business of creating a CNC router business.