A hot, muggy, stormy Saturday. I’m starting a new order, building some bonsai stands and a bench. Getting drenched in the shop from the humidity but at this stage of the process, that’s okay.
I layout the pieces using plywood or MDF templates on a 12′ boards of 4/4 select cypress. Once I’ve got the patterns the way I like them, I cut up the board with a jigsaw and then stack the boards near the bandsaw. On the upper right are some jigsawn boards ready for the bandsaw.
I use the bandsaw to rip long boards for tabletops and benchtops, cut curves where it’s either difficult or unnecessary to do so with the jigsaw and resaw thick stock so that I can go right to the planer and get a final thickness. The bandsaw is one of my favorite machines: the blade is always traveling down into the table so there’s no chance of kickback. And it’s just fun to use.
Above are the same bunch of boards after they’ve had the bandsaw treatment.
Once I’ve got the pieces roughed out, I joint one face and one edge of each board, then go to the bandsaw again to cut them to rough thickness and width, then finish the dimensioning on the planer, planing to both finish width and thickness.
I especially like using the bandsaw/planer combination to get the boards to finish width. This insures that the width is accurate along the whole length of the board, something I sometimes find difficult to do on the tablesaw. And because I don’t have to rip anything on the tablesaw, I don’t have to worry about kickback. It’s a cleaner process too since the tablesaw tends to make more sawdust than the bandsaw/planer combination.
It’s good to get going on this project. Severe thunderstorm moving in so time for a bit more Ptolemy Proudfoot, courtesy of Wendell Berry, and a cup of tea.
Your Correspondent: Measuring Twice, Cutting Once — Usually.
