rimcanyon
Diamond
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2002
- Location
- Salinas, CA USA
I’m looking to buy or make stock guides that I can install on a 20” bandsaw. I’’m familiar with commercial bandsaw stock feeders, but I really don’ t have the room or budget to go that direction, and I have too many projects to think about making my own feeder. I was thinking about using a set of vertically aligned rollers to apply pressure towards the fence, just in front of the blade. I did some internet searching, but have not found anything like I have in mind. It is easy to find stock guides for a table saw or shaper, but not for a bandsaw.
This is for cutting large beams into smaller stock for door-making, not for cutting veneer. KD VG DF 3X6’S are not commercially available (except by special order), so milling my own lumber is my best option. I usually buy 20’ 6x12 Select Struct DF green at the local lumberyard, then cut off 8’ so I have an 8’ and a 12’ beam to resaw into (4) 3x6’s. If I am careful selecting lumber, I can usually find boards that will work. Almost always they are face-sawn, so slicing into 3x6’s yields quarter-sawn boards (VG). Occasionally I find a VG 6x8 or 6x10 -then I can get some VG 3x8’s, or 3x10’s, so both fence and guide need to hanleup to 10”. However, its hard to feed the beams and get an accurate cut (the beams weigh 150-250 pounds), so the idea is to add a stock guide that will make it easier to get a consistent thickness. I need to make (12) 2 1/4” 8’ doors, which requires about 290’ of 3x6’s.The 3x6’s and 3x8’s get kiln dried over at Jekyl Hardwoods in Santa Cruz.
The bandsaw is a 20” Rockwell with a Reeves drive and a 3HP motor that has roller infeed and outfeed tables. The fence is a 1” steel vertical bar welded to a plate that gets clamped to the table. I was thinking of making the stock guide the same way, but since the shaft for the rollers would be smaller, I would add a triangular support. The drawback for this system is that there is no way to automatically advance the guide rollers after each cut, the plate will need to be unclamped shifted and reclamped.
This is for cutting large beams into smaller stock for door-making, not for cutting veneer. KD VG DF 3X6’S are not commercially available (except by special order), so milling my own lumber is my best option. I usually buy 20’ 6x12 Select Struct DF green at the local lumberyard, then cut off 8’ so I have an 8’ and a 12’ beam to resaw into (4) 3x6’s. If I am careful selecting lumber, I can usually find boards that will work. Almost always they are face-sawn, so slicing into 3x6’s yields quarter-sawn boards (VG). Occasionally I find a VG 6x8 or 6x10 -then I can get some VG 3x8’s, or 3x10’s, so both fence and guide need to hanleup to 10”. However, its hard to feed the beams and get an accurate cut (the beams weigh 150-250 pounds), so the idea is to add a stock guide that will make it easier to get a consistent thickness. I need to make (12) 2 1/4” 8’ doors, which requires about 290’ of 3x6’s.The 3x6’s and 3x8’s get kiln dried over at Jekyl Hardwoods in Santa Cruz.
The bandsaw is a 20” Rockwell with a Reeves drive and a 3HP motor that has roller infeed and outfeed tables. The fence is a 1” steel vertical bar welded to a plate that gets clamped to the table. I was thinking of making the stock guide the same way, but since the shaft for the rollers would be smaller, I would add a triangular support. The drawback for this system is that there is no way to automatically advance the guide rollers after each cut, the plate will need to be unclamped shifted and reclamped.