Cutting thin slices of wood

[michael mott]

  

           
For cutting wood here are a few shots of how I cut it



This is one of the plywood blades that I use on my 10 inch tablesaw.





The blade has no set to the teeth.





A test cut to set the thickness.





This slice is .027"





Use a push stick to feed the wood through the saw.





This is the thinnest cut I was able to make with this wood and blade combination.





You can see that this wood has been darkened by the blade because it is dull and needs to be sharpened.





Using a scraper to clean up the wood in this case the wood is Maple.









The scaper is pulled towards me in single smooth strokes.





When the scraper is sharp the wood shaves off in fine curls.





Here
you can see the transition from the burned surface to the scraped one
and the small clamp holding the wood to a smooth surface. Make sure that
the support surface stays clear of dust and shavings this is because
the wood this thin has a tendency to curl up allowing dust to stick to
the underside of the slice being scraped and the support because of
static. This would create problems getting an even thickness.





The amount of wood removed with the scraper is about .002"





The finished slice that is .75" wide and .012" thick.





The slice easily bends cold and dry around a 1/2 inch radius former.

   

Michael

[mtaylor]

Nicely presented Michael.  Thanks.

 

I take it you move and re-calibrate the fence for each additional slice?. 

[Jim Lad]

Now that's what I call a thin cut on a big saw!!

 

John

[michael mott]

Mark yes this is what I have to do I am going to set up a simple way to achieve that so that it is able to be positively incremental, I am working on the design.

 

John yes it is fortunately there are not too many instances where I need the wood quite this thin.

 

Michael

[MSzwarc]

One pass with a sharp block plane, no scraping, but I did moisten and press the shaving. Could have made it thicker, and no loss to saw kerf. There are lots of ways to do things.

 

 

[michael mott]

 

 

“If you're wanting wood as thin as that, a nice sharp hand plane can do a decent job in a single pass with no loss to sawdust. ”

Yes
Mike you are absolutely right I also use that method sometimes one not
only needs a shaving sharp blade but also an adjustable throat opening. I
have a box of Mahogany planks



The
one thing to keep in mind though with this method is that it puts a
fair bit of stress into the wood, not so apparent in this photo but more
so in the Aspen



The mahogany is .011"





A shaving off the same billet of Aspen that the sawn slice is from this one is .007"





You can notice the stress marks on the Aspen, and the thicker one goes the greater the stress micro fractures.

If you know of a way to do this without the stress I would be interested to see how you do it.

        

Michael

[Modeler12]

Michael, I like your presentation and I appreciate the fact that you are showing that thin cuts can be made on a large saw. The fact that you are able to make such thin cuts only shows what can be done. If you want to go thicker (which is usually what we need) it would involve a simple adjustment. Shavings from a block plane would not be my choice for thicker planks.

Any suggestions about the kind of blade you use or prefer?

Edited March 4, 2013 by Modeler12

[michael mott]

Hi Jay

this is the sort of blade that I am talking about

http://www.wayfairsupply.com/Vermont-American-8-Plywood-Krome-King%AE-Circular-Saw-Blades-25273-25273-IEY1576.html

 

A regular saw sharpener who has the ability to sharpen a wide variety of
saw blades should be able to hollow grind the blade, it does not need
much. Take the pictures at the top of this thread  to the sharpener and explain to him what you are
going to do with it. If you take the pictures that I posted he or she
will not think you are strange because you want to use the saw
differently. The reason that I originally had the blades resharpened
this way was because I did a lot of commercial architectural models in
Plexiglass and Styrene and this type of grind gave me a good clean cut
on both types of plastic. The added advantage with the wood is that you
can use a blade like this to make a square rabbet on the edge of a
plank.like this












The last picture shows some rebates on a salvaged wooden venetian blind which is basswood

So the blade has other uses.

I hope this helps

[Modeler12]

Thanks Michael,

 

I took a new blade I have, made a new table insert with zero clearance and ran a couple test cuts on a piece of 3/4 inch thick poplar.

The blade is one of the red Diablo blades with 90 teeth and is claimed to give an 'Ultimate Flawless Finish', ha.   It does cut very well but nothing is 'flawless'.

I cut some 16 inch longs strips that were 0.050 inch thick (3/4 inch wide). I measured their thickness and found them to be within pom .002 inches along the length (except for the first inch or so and a bit at the end). The finish was quite good but not totally smooth. A touch of 400 grit paper would take care of it, though.

 

I was not able to cut the rabbet you showed with one pass. The teeth of my blade are slanted to that the cut leaves a "M' shape for the kerf. The following picture shows this when I cut the end off a piece of 1/8 inch plywood. The kerf width is .093 inches and the little sliver you see ran the full length at a width of .015 inches. I would have to make another pass after turning the part at a right angle. I have done that a lot for larger recesses. But I think I would have to clamp the part to a right angle frame before I would try to do that.

 

 

All and all, I think I will be able to do a decent job of cutting planks when I need to make my own. My small table saw and thickness sander will take care of the rest.

[42rocker]

Michael

Thanks again for this and the regrinding info.

 

Later Tim

Edited January 31, 2014 by Tim C

[BANYAN]

Ah, the skills of the artisan!  Very many thanks for showing what is possible on the bigger saws.  I'll have to invest in one of these blades and have it sharpened as you have shown.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[42rocker]

Bought the saw blade and now I need to find someone to redo it.

Thanks again for sharing your info.

 

Later Tim

Edited January 31, 2014 by Tim C

[michael mott]

yesterday I needed to sharpen the hollow ground blade to ensure the my cuts were smooth. I use a simple method

 

First I unplug the saw. Safety first!!!  It is so easy to forget to unplug power tools when changing blades and cutters.

 

 

 

I sandwich the blade between a sheet next to the fence and a board clamped to the table. then raise the blade so that the file in horizontal.

 

 

next I offset the file to the position to give the correct angle with the file sitting flat on the handle you can see that the file is off to one side. I then draw a line on the wood to keep the file straight while I sharpen, it is low tech but works fine.

 

Michael

[Salty Sea Dog]

Mark yes this is what I have to do I am going to set up a simple way to achieve that so that it is able to be positively incremental, I am working on the design.

 

John yes it is fortunately there are not too many instances where I need the wood quite this thin.

 

Michael

Hi Michael!

 

I don't know if a variation of my bandsaw jig would help you set up for repeatable thickness cuts, but maybe it will give you some other ideas. The jig works as an index on the outside of the cut so the fence would be moved over til the piece of wood touches. The adjustment is 1/4-20 threads on mine (.050"/turn) but a finer thread could be used or a bigger adjustment knob with index markings. The jig rides in the saw's miter slot and the lock-down knobs keep your setting when you move the jig out of the way. I've shown it on a tablesaw in the pictures to hopefully give you some ideas.

 

 

 

FYI- The paint stirring stick on my jig is a sacrificial strip that I run through the bandsaw blade to insure it's parallel in case the tilting table is a hair off . I actually keep the jig clamped to the table and use it as my primary fence on the bandsaw because I found if my blade is going to drift going through figured woods, it drifts the other way.

[michael mott]

Buck: what a beautiful set up, a nicely crafted tool you have there and I like the design. I will have to make myself one of those, thanks for sharing.

 

I also have this little tool that I use sometimes

 

 

It also uses a 1/4 x 20 thread and as the handle turns it indexes over the fence by a .25 mm

I used this to make micro adjustments to the width of sheets of styrene and acrylic when I was doing Architectural Models.

 

It just sits on top of the table and there is a stop to prevent it from moving forward I rough set the main fence then use some carpet tape to hold down a piece if 1/8th white faced MDF bring the blade up for zero tolerance then make the micro adjustments to get the right width.

 

These pics are using my cheap $100 table saw that I use out and about the house for doing rough building work, this was while I was building the house and my Unisaw was in pieces in storage (it was in pieces because it was too heavy to lift up the stairs out of the basement of my old house).

 

 

 

 

 

Michael

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Michael - Very slick adjustable fence! I see how the center wedge would move the outer fence, but what keeps the outer fence from moving away from the center wedge and right side piece? It looks like the center wedge is held to the right side piece with the clear plastic but I'm missing something on how they stay together. Thanks for showing that.

[michael mott]

Hi Buck the outer fence piece is held fast to the sliding wedges by some springs

Here is an overlay of how it functions.

 

 

saw fence.pdf

 

I hope this helps, I am sure there are many ways to do this, I made this must be close to 30 years ago.

 

Michael

[Salty Sea Dog]

Thanks for taking the time to show how that was done -much appreciated!

[42rocker]

Michael

That's a neat jig that you have there. Thanks for making and sharing the pdf of the jig.

 

Later Tim

Edited January 31, 2014 by Tim C

[WackoWolf]

Thanks for the walk through, I have enjoy every part of it.

[Richard Griffith]

Another optiom for saw blades is to get a veneer blade or a hollow ground combo blade.  These may be difficult to buy new these days so I always look for them at tag sales and estate sales.  My saw is a 10" Delta contractor that when carefully set up and adjusted gives great service. 

 

Duffer

[HIPEXEC]

Wow! I'll take one of those. Paper thin plank would be a dream. My kit came with telephone pole thick planks that don't want to bend.Great work.

[Richard Griffith]

Another way to cut thin strips on a 10" table saw is to make a sled and add an adusting screw so you don't sandwich the thin strips between the blade and the fence.  (I'll try to upload a pix or two.)  In words - the sled is just a piece of half inch plywood with 1 by 2 inch pine pieces glued vertical to the front and rear - these hold the plywood together when you run the sled thru the blade.   The shape of this sled is a shallow U. 

 

Glued to the underside are 2 hardwood runners that fit in the 2 mitre gauge slots.  These runners keep the sled from moving side to side or racking, thereby allowing precise and repeditive cuts.  The screw device fits inside on the rear pine piece and is adjustable for micro changes in cuting. 

 

Prepare your planking stock to the width and length you need, then mount the sled to cut the thickness.  I use a thin veneer blade (hollow ground and many teeth).  You could also use a new plywood blade which should have the sides of the teeth honed.  You will either get what you need, or close and then final thicknessing with the sander. 

 

Now to figure out uploading photos......

Duffer

[tkay11]

Looking forward to the photos!

 

Tony

[Richard Griffith]

Hi Tony and other members, here are 3 photos (I hope) of my sled device.  You can modify it to suit  your saw and needs.  For example, the screw device can be made more simple. 

 

Duff

[ianmajor]

Duff,

 

Great idea. I only have a small cheap saw but I think I could adapt (miniaturize) your design. The cut wood binding twixt blade and fence I have always found an issue. Thanks for this.

 

And thanks Michael for starting this thread. It is very useful and informative.

Edited November 12, 2013 by ianmajor

[tkay11]

Very nice, Duff. Many thanks!

 

Tony

[massimotocco]

Hello everyone, if I can I will like to share a very simple trick that I learned many years ago while working as an architectural model maker. Here it is: to be able to cut on a table saw very thin pieces of wood you will need to set up the left side of the table. The first thing to do is making sure that the piece of wood that is going to be cut is sawed square and parallel to the blade/rip fence. At this point mark your thikness to be cut on the wodd block (top left side obviously), then try a small cut with the saw, without moving the rip fence, check the thickness. If satified, and still without moving your rip fence (very important) get a steel straight edge and double tape one side of it. Place the straight edge against the left side of you wood block that is still 'resting against the rip fence' tape down on the table and voila'. Now you will have a constant 'left' fence/indicator for many cut that you desire for that thickness.

Hope this will be helpfull

New to this site

Massimo

[mtaylor]

Massimo,

 

Can you show us a picture?  Maybe it's just me but I'm a bit confused about the ruler part.

[massimotocco]

I will try to upload some pictures so as to make this simple process a bit more clear.

 

 

Hello again, for you folks that are still not quite sure of how to apply this simple trick for cutting repetively thin wood pieces of the same 'gauge' I hope that the pictures that I have uploaded will be self explanatory.

Happy modelling every one!

Edited January 18, 2014 by massimotocco