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First post here. This forum is a great resource.

My question - How thick do folks resaw on the band saw for making tops, backs, and sides? I understand final thickness dimensions. I want to minimize waste, but have enough thickness to account for any blade drifts, saw marks, ect. Does 3/16" sound about right? 1/8"?

I was given a bunch of quatersawn old growth yellow cedar and a giant slab of Oregon myrtle. I cut the cedar into 1" boards of various widths, and cut the myrtle to 6"x6" by about 40" long. Both woods were cut over 50 years ago, and were stored in a barn until I was given them about 10 years ago.

The plan is to make a concert ukulele for my son.

Thanks,

Ash

It's entirely dependant on the quality of your cuts and risk factor. You need to start cutting, maybe with some scrap, and see how well you can do. Set up, blade sharpness, how focused you are are variables. Each species and specific piece of wood Cuts differently.

I aim for as thin as possibe. Tops and backs need to be a little thicker for gluing up. I have made them minimally thicker, but it requires very careful glue up.

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Pat

My comfort zone is 1/4" total per cut including saw kerf and any wood sanded/planed off to square it back up.

I get pretty nervous trying to sneak 4 slices out of 3/4" stock - which would be 0.1875"/slice (3/16").. Which is really tight even when everything is really good.... That's 0.100" stock, 0.045" kerf, and 0.021"/side clean up on the sander... That's a really good cut and no room left to mess up anything.

The 1/4" sounds like a lot - but the saw wandering/barrel cutting and loosing a slice to the saw is a bigger risk to me than sanding off a little extra in the sander.

As I get my setup better, I am sure I will reduce this a bit... I have just lost too much wood trying to be a hero and sneak ONE more slice out.. And say I do get 1 extra slice... What do I do with it? I only need so much head plate and bridge plate stock....

Now... If we are talking expensive Brazilian rosewood or some other very expensive wood - I would pay a professional to resaw it for maximum yield. Those guys have specially set up saws and have sorted everything out to perfection.

Thanks

Thanks for the replies. I'll start at 1/4" and see what happens. I'm only going to saw up a few sets to start.

Well, the variables are your saw, how well it is set up, and how smooth and consistent your blade cuts. I use a Lenox Woodmaster CT and spend a lot of time on saw setup. Once I get the fence set up so it cuts within a few thousandths end to end, I never move it. I just use a screw-on face and shims to change the cutting thickness. Sometimes have to do minor adjustment after a blade change, but that is twice a year, at most.

When all goes well, I can get 4 back slices out of surfaced 3/4 stock, but that is pushing it and I feel better having 7/8" to work with. Sides are no problem, and I usually get 6 slices out of a full inch thick. On tops, I use up a healthy 1/4" for each slice, including saw kerf, so I get 6 tops sets out of a 3 1/4" billet.

Hope this helps,

Grant

That's a good idea, I never thought about it that way.

My saw resaws pretty well, at least when resawing thicker boards. It has a new 3 tpi carbide blade on it right now. I am comfortable resawing stock into 1" boards, but have never really tried to cut an 1/8" slice off.

I go for about 1/8th and I'd hate to go any thicker than that. Sounds like you got a real nice score there, would love to see some pics.

Saw kerf is a variable too. Ukes use thinner slices. 1/4" is way plenty. Also 4 slices only uses 3 cuts.

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Pat

Sorry for doing this in mm:

Backs: 3,8 -4,5 mm
Sides: 3,2 - 4,0 mm

depening on the species, classic or steelstring, the balde and the achieved surface quality....the fine tuning on the fence is done with avery precise high end tool....an old 400gr hammer...

cheers, alex