Ripping a 12" by 12" 2 foot long block

fredsheldon · Post by **fredsheldon** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:04 pm

What's the best way to cut a 2 foot long 12 by 12 block of hardwood in half lengthwise using power tools. I tried using my handsaw but gave up after 10 minutes and not making any progress. I guess I could try to find someone with a large bandsaw or a small sawmill. I didn't want to use my chainsaw because it would waste too much material. But if that's the best solution that's what I will do.
Fred

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 5:40 pm

Are you really saying it's two foot long, 12" wide and 12" THICK??

fredsheldon · Post by **fredsheldon** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:06 pm

beeg wrote:Are you really saying it's two foot long, 12" wide and 12" THICK??

It's a 12" square block 2 feet long. I want to cut it in half so I can use my band saw to cut out some band saw box blocks.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:12 pm

fredsheldon wrote:What's the best way to cut a 2 foot long 12 by 12 block of hardwood in half lengthwise using power tools. I tried using my handsaw but gave up after 10 minutes and not making any progress. I guess I could try to find someone with a large bandsaw or a small sawmill. I didn't want to use my chainsaw because it would waste too much material. But if that's the best solution that's what I will do.
Fred

I was able to find a cabinet shop with a large throat bandsaw. I took quite a few calls to find shop that would resaw larger thickness wood down to 4" so I could use my Shopsmith bandsaw for the final cuts. Insurance requires them to do the work in most shops if they are willing to take the time for this type of job. Not cheap to have this done. Later, I joined a woodworking club where several members had large throat bandsaws and would let me use them. They all had fun telling me that the Shopsmith was a toy, not a real man's woodworking machine.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:27 pm

Or use the old stand by
Table saw as much as you can and then hand saw the rest. I can get 3 inches on my SS. Then I follow up with this

Disston D12 5 1/2 TPI filed Rip Cuts like Buttah!
[ATTACH]24635[/ATTACH]

BuckeyeDennis · Post by **BuckeyeDennis** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:48 pm

I have one of these, and it works great for this sort of thing. I bought it to make a mantel and corbels from an 8"x10" heart pine beam. Same problem as yours -- nothing else in my power-saw arsenal could cut through a beam that size.

[ATTACH]24636[/ATTACH]

After calibrating the offset between the guide and the chain on a test cut, I found that I could reliably cut to an accuracy of about 1/16". So really the only waste is the chain kerf itself.

fredsheldon · Post by **fredsheldon** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 9:19 pm

That looks like a solution for my problem. I may invest in one of those devices for my next project. I ended up using my 16" electric chain saw to cut about 1/3 of the way thru each side then finished it off with my hand saw. Only took about 15 minutes with the handsaw. I was then able to use my SS band saw to cut the halfs into 12 6"x6"x8" Walnut blocks which I will use for my band saw jewelry boxes.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 9:25 pm

fredsheldon wrote:That looks like a solution for my problem. I may invest in one of those devices for my next project. I ended up using my 16" electric chain saw to cut about 1/3 of the way thru each side then finished it off with my hand saw. Only took about 15 minutes with the handsaw. I was then able to use my SS band saw to cut the halfs into 12 6"x6"x8" Walnut blocks which I will use for my band saw jewelry boxes.

Two things missing in this thread.

1) Grain orientation relative to the 'cutting'.

2) Type of saw(rip/crosscut/?)

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:58 pm

[quote="JPG40504"]Two things missing in this thread.

1) Grain orientation relative to the 'cutting'.

2) Type of saw(rip/crosscut/?)

]

Actually one more thing missing…a photo of a 12"x12"x2' block of walnut…I wanna see that!

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Fri Apr 04, 2014 3:32 am

dgale wrote:Actually one more thing missing…a photo of a 12"x12"x2' block of walnut…I wanna see that!

Who said it was walnut???