Resaw wood on the bandsaw and table saw - Made at Techshop

Resawing is a very useful skill to have in the wood shop, it's a fundamental type of cut, just like ripping or cross-cutting, but instead of cutting a board to length or width, resawing is cutting a board to thickness. This allows one to get multiple thin boards out of one larger, thicker piece of wood. This can be used to stretch money and materials further, or to create interesting effects using patterns in the wood grain.

In this instructable I'll be comparing three methods of resawing that I've learned and observed working at Techshop, San Francisco: resawing on the bandsaw with a tall fence, resawing freehand on the bandsaw, and resawing on the table saw.

Just for good measure, I also found a walkthough on how to resaw a board with a handsaw. I'll stick to power tools for this task since I have access to them, but I always admire those who work with hand tools.

As always, I'm still a relative newcomer to woodworking - if anyone has any corrections or additional information, please share it in the comments. Just keep the criticism constructive.

Resawing is one of the fundamental ways to cut wood. For any given board, there are three possible types of cuts - rip cuts, cross cuts and resaw cuts. The difference between these cuts is the direction the grain is facing during the cut (see first picture below).
Rip cuts are the most common cuts on the table saw, and involve cutting along the length of the board with the grain of the wood, splitting a larger board into narrower sections. Cross cuts are also very common, and just like the name implies they involve cutting across the grain of the wood, shortening the length of the board. Re-sawing is a bit less common, but very useful for certain applications. It's like a rip cut, with a twist - it involves ripping straight through the center of a board the thick way, producing two thinner boards.
Imagine I have a bunch of 1" thick boards, but my project only calls for 3/8" thick lumber. I could go out and buy some pre-milled thin lumber (which is expensive) or I could sacrifice 5/8" of my current boards by milling them down to size (turning good wood into sawdust). Neither is a good option, but by resawing my wood I can go ahead and use my rough-cut lumber, and end up with twice as much 3/8" wood. That's a good deal!
Have you ever seen nice furniture where all the front panels have matching or complementary grain patterns? How about a nice guitar top with perfectly symmetrical sides? Or a wooden box where the wood grain lines wrap completely around all four sides? Resawing is one way you can create those effects. When you cut a board down the middle, you will have 2 pieces that are almost mirror images of each other.
There's no need to stop at cutting a board in half. When you slice off very thin sections (1/8" or less) you are basically creating your own veneers. This can be quite useful for creating interesting grain patterns, like I mentioned above. But it can also be useful for stretching the usefulness of very rare or expensive pieces of lumber.

Also, with store-bought veneers, you only have 1/32" of wood to work with, and if you're not careful you can burn straight through them while sanding, scraping or planing. By making your own veneers, you can start by making them extra thick, then plane or sand them down as thin as you want.

So that's why you should learn how to resaw. Next I'll show you how I 've done it.

Bandsaws are the most common tools for re-sawing. They are useful because they can handle almost any standard size board, and can even be used to resaw whole logs. Bandsaw resawing can be difficult for beginners to master, but a properly tuned bandsaw can greatly improve the process. Table saws are useful for resawing narrow boards. The biggest advantage of table saws is that they produce very clean, repeatable cuts. It's easy for beginners to get started, because resawing is just like rip cutting, but with thicker wood. However, as always, table saws are one of the most dangerous tools in the shop - and resawing is no exception. Resawing carries a higher risk of kickback than rip cutting, if the board tips away from the blade or falls into the blade after finishing the cut. Photos found through google image search

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Rough wood: Milling it square & fixing defects - made at Techshop

I start most of my woodwork using rough cut and reclaimed wood. In addition to being cheaper and having more variety, I love rough wood because it's fun transforming messy, plain looking boards into beautiful objects. But before any of that can happen, I have to get the boards flat, straight and square. This instructable is a reference for how I do that, along with tips on how to fix specific defects in wood and how to store the lumber after it's milled.

There are many ways to get wood flat, straight and square - but for this instructable I'm going to stick to using the power jointer, power planer and table saw. I'm fortunate to have access to all these tools at Techshop, San Francisco, so I take full advantage of them. I'll start with an overview of the general process of jointing and planing, then I'll show how to use the jointer and planer to fix specific defects that commonly occur in rough cut wood.

For those without the money to buy all these tools, or the shop space to house them, there are other ways. My favorite woodworking podcaster, The Wood Whisperer, has a great episode about this topic - Episode #6 - The Jointer's Jumpin. He not only talks about the method I will show here, but also demonstrates how to use some other power-tools, including handheld routers, router tables, and the table saws by themselves. You can also use hand planes to clean up wood very effectively, but I'm not yet familiar enough with that technique to write about it.

As always, I'm still a relative newcomer to woodworking - if anyone has any corrections or additional information, please share it in the comments. Just keep the criticism constructive.

When buying wood, remember that it came from a once living tree, and continues to act 'alive' even after being cut up. In the face of moisture and humidity wood can swell, shrink, twist and warp in all directions. Everything from reclaimed junkyard wood to the most expensive tropical hardwood can develop the same common defects that get in the way of woodworking projects.

I'll start by talking about the general process of face jointing, edge jointing and planing wood, then I'll talk about how to identify and fix specific types of wood defects, and finally I'll talk about how to treat and store freshly milled wood.

Before touching the jointer and planer, the first step is to examine the wood, looking for twists, cups, bows, crooked edges and checks. Most boards will have some type of warping or defect, and any given board can suffer from one, two, three, or all of these problems. The best defense is to choose quality boards from the lumberyard to avoid extra work or wasted wood. But even severely warped boards can often be salvaged.

Twists, cups, bows and crooked sides can be fixed on the jointer and planer. The last problem, checks, cannot be fixed. To deal with checks you can either cut away the ends of the board with cracks in them, or choose to fill them with something like wood putty, colored glue or epoxy.

Right now I'm going to give a general overview of using the jointer and planer, then later on I'll address how to identify and fix each type of defect.

Check the fence - the jointer fence should be adjusted so that it's 90 degrees to the jointer table, has enough room to fit the wood being worked, and is locked down so it doesn't move during operation Set the cut depth for very shallow cuts - I usually take 1/32" - 1/16" cuts. Jointing is very fast, there's no need to hurry by taking deep cuts. Save the deep cuts on the jointer for other tasks, such as shaping bevels or tapers and cutting rabbets. Place the wood on the jointer so that the grain is facing the same direction as the cut (closeup diagram). There is a saying to remember this - "pet the cat". Think of petting an animal, they are happy when you pet the same direction their fut naturally grows, but get angry when you pet them backwards. Cutting a board against the grain doesn't make it angry, but it can cause dangerous kickback and tear out chunks of wood. Some types of wood (curly wood, burls) don't have one grain direction. For these types of wood, just take very shallow and careful cuts. Turn on the machine and let up come up to full speed Keep steady pressure on the front and back of the board throughout the cut, it's nice to use a push stick (pictured) that can both hold the board down and push it forward at the same time. But keep your hands away from the cutters - imagine a small bubble just over the cutters themselves and don't touch that space. Continue to cut just one face until it's flat, then move onto edge jointing
Why use a jointer + planer, why not joint both faces? - Jointing both faces would make both of them flat, but not parallel. If both faces aren't exactly parallel to start with, then jointing both of them will only reinforce the existing defect. Jointing one face gives you a flat reference to use for the planer - the planer will cut the second face parallel to the first. Don't joint wood shorter than 12" or thinner than 3/8" without special methods for workholding Keep hands away from the cutters - imagine a ~3" bubble all around the cutters, and avoid that area. If using push sticks for downward pressure, lift up the push sticks as they pass over the cutters. If material gets stuck, don't push it - stop the machine, extract the material and try again - perhaps with a smaller cut If your planer has a power-feed, be careful when feeding the board into the planer. Sometimes the power rollers can snap the board down against the table very hard - don't keep your fingers under the board.

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Making a shelf out of a single board - my first project in the Techshop woodshop

After I'd taken the basic safety course for the Techshop woodshop in SF, I was ready to knock out some basic projects to get some practice on the tools before trying anything more complicated.  My first project was making this simple shelf out of a 7-foot board.  Making a shelf can be a good first project if you're just getting into working with wood.

In our kitchen we had an overflowing pile of cookbooks and a tiny nook that was just right for a shelf.  I got this large pine board for cheap at MacBeath Hardwoods in Berkeley and set about turning it into a shelf.

Here's how I grade my work in the end:
As a learning experience: A
As a couple's bonding experience putting together the shelf: A+
As a final shelf: B+ (we'll get to that later)

As they say in the world of Instructables written in part to get a free class at Techshop, "I made it at Techshop!" 

http://www.techshop.ws

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