Shopsmith Forums

Hi, I have a 520 Shopsmith with the band saw. We lost a redbud tree in our front yard, I ended up with a roughly 10" diameter trunk piece that is about 24" long, and I'd love to cut it into boards to make a project. Per https://www.lumberjocks.com/DocT/blog/22403, "The reported specific gravity is 0.6363 (comparable to Ash) and density of 39.65 #/cubic foot (comparable to Walnut)." Further down the above post, "I have been unable to find a Janka number for Redbud. If the Janka number correlates in any way with density, then we might assume that Redbud’s Janka is approximately 1000 (ie. softer than Red Oak but harder than Red Cedar) which is about how I would say that it behaves." I cheerily admit that wood is inconsistent in its behavior, and that this particular piece will be in the range of the above numbers, but will vary with many factors. The piece weighs almost exactly 40 pounds, and has split in one place down to the core of the trunk, which would help with an initial cut. Other than that, the two ends look intact, with no particular insect damage or rot; the tree was about ten years old. It's clearly a two man job, but I can get willing help for that.

So my question is this: the Shopsmith band saw is normally rated able to cut lumber up to 6 inches thick, but the clearance is spec'd at 11". Let's assume that I procure one of the premium 1/2" woodcutting blades. Do I have any prayer of being able to slice this trunk down to boards that I can leave for a year or so to dry and then use? If I initially slice the trunk down the split, that's only a 5" cut, and I could then choose to quarter saw the halves. Have any of you cut wood thicker than six inches on your band saws? Any experiences and advice are appreciated, and thanks in advance.

That 11" clearance is horizontal capacity -- from the blade to the left until you run into the vertical portion of case.

The 6" inch capacity is height or resaw capacity --it's the distance between the table and the upper back up bearing casting when it is raised to its absolute maximum height. There's a way to modify the casting (grinding some of it away) to get about another 0.25" inches of height but that's not going to get you what you want.

Simply put you won't be able to run an unprocessed 10" diameter log through the Shopsmith band saw. You are going to need to process those logs some other way and get them down to no more than 6" thick before bringing them to band saw to slice them up into lumber.

Hi, I think you got your answer about the shopsmith bandsaw height restrictions but before you to far you might want to split the log. This would give you ruffly 5" high pieces to resaw, will within the shopsmith range.

I will warn you that it might well have ant damage inside. When you split it, it will be an easy tell. It seems a common thing around here in IL but I would guess that it more universal.

Ed

I had a walnut tree cut down with similar damage only worse and thought it was worthless , than a fella came by and wanted it , he does work with resign and cant get enough damaged wood
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The tree is a member of the Legumes family , Legumes are usually fairly hard but flexible to some degree , I have a recurve bow made from Legumes , its my experience the wood is very color full .

Split it with a chain saw then resaw the halves on your bandsaw.

Jack

Have a look at this from Nick Engler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmCV7qKtGk


b

Manually make first parting cut with a bow saw.

Folks, thanks for your inputs. Nick's video is outstanding. My bow saw will not cut through enough of the log to finish cutting it in half before the bow hits the end of the log, but I do have a hand saw that I can try to use. Nick's idea of using a plane to flatten the side of the log then works, although I also have a jointer that would work more quickly for that purpose. We'll see what the inside of the log looks like.

Rotate the bow saw blade 90°.

JPG wrote: ↑Tue Dec 21, 2021 9:45 pm Rotate the bow saw blade 90°.

Not all bow saws rotate these days.