Popular Woodworking 2003-08 № 135, страница 36
The table saw is my tool of choice for resawing bands up to 3" wide, although things slow down appreciably when nearing the capacity of the 10" blade.A sharp blade is a must. The zero-clearance wood insert shown here will prevent the thin wood from dropping through the table. When your setup is cutting effectively, there is little sanding required. Cutting Band Stock Where will you find such wood for your box bands? The wood you use may be recently cut for firewood, or you may have luck with an old board of unknown species. The real test is to try it. Dimension a piece and slab off thin bands on your table saw or band saw. Photos 1 and 2 show it being done. The table saw needs a zero-clearance insert to reduce the gap next to the blade to prevent the thin band from disappearing down the slot. Avoid short stock. Small box bands 12" to 20" long are cut more effectively and safely when sawn double length, 24" to 40" long. The blade is the key. I use thin-kerf 10" 40-tooth blades with alternate top-bevel design. Try a new blade to see what factory sharp can do. When the table saw, blade and wood are in sync, the result is a finished band ready to use with little or no sanding. The band saw needs a steady rest as a guide for thickness. A sharp blade is important here as well. I use a V4" four-tooth-per-inch Timber Wolf. Others prefer a 1/2" or 3/4" carbide-tipped blade for their band saw. A thickness-ing drum sander will reliably fin ish the band to the specifications given in the table on page 40. The planer may not work well for thicknessing because of the thinness of the bands. They can catch in the blades and shatter. When planing just a few bands, try sticking them on a shooting board with double-stick tape to stiffen them. However you cut your wood, be patient and be prepared to try again. You can get a feel for flexibility in the wood as it comes off the saw. I heat my shop with what doesn't work. Sliced Veneer Stock Veneer is another source for bands. This is wood dimensioned by slicing at a veneer mill. It is an efficient use of the best grade of logs as there is no saw kerf waste. Successive sheets of uniform thickness make it attractive. Great quantities are sliced for the furniture trade for high-quality face veneers. Most of this is cut to 1/42" (.024") thickness making it too thin for our use in boxes. The other common thickness is which works for smaller boxes, and you can expect reasonable bending results from hard maple. (One commercial source is Constantines: 954-561-1716 or constantines.com.) When the log is sliced, the knife leaves one side of the veneer with slight crack lines. This "open side" face needs to be inside the box when bent. Otherwise, the surface will be rough and could splinter. Gently flexing the veneer prior to preparation for soaking may reveal a side with these slight crack lines. Placing it in water will always show this. What happens is the wood takes a slight curl across the grain when wet. The rule is this: The inside of the curl is the outside of the box. I have built my business during the past 20 years on meeting the needs of the oval box trade (ShakerOvalBox.com). I use veneered band stock selected and dimensioned specifically for bending. While I welcome your business, I know that cutting bands in the manner described above can be both rewarding and of high quality. For instance, there is no bias side in sawn band stock. Many of you have the capacity to do your own cutting. It is worth the effort. Try widths of 2" and narrower that cut easily on the table saw. Wider stock has been known to be more difficult. Resawing on the band saw can handle stock of 6" or more depending on the capacity of your machine. The resaw jig guides the cut. Clean up the board's sawn edge between each cut to give one smooth side. A drum sander gives a finished face to the sawn side. The blade shown is a V4" Timber Wolf four-teeth-per-inch band that's used for general work in my shop. Others prefer a silicon-carbide hook-tooth V2" or 3/4" blade. Top and Bottom Boards The other materials needed for box making are the oval boards for the top and bottom. These are 1/4" to 7/32" thick and not bent. Unlike the stock for the bands, these are readily available. The oval shape sets off some interesting figures and features. It is an opportunity to use small sections of boards that accumulate from other work. The one factor you need to consider in tops and bottoms is wood expansion. If the oval board expands too much in humid weather, the band will crack. Breakage is serious stuff, and is ever present in a box. The larger the box size, the more likely it is to occur. The reverse of this is the board drying out after you make your box. That will result in gaps where it meets the band, spoiling your nice tight fit. Where possible you want quartersawn stock to minimize the future effects of humidity change. One solution to wood movement in larger box sizes is to use plywood. The cross banding of alternative plys stabilizes the wood. For appearance sake, pick plywood without a joint in the veneer face, and be careful not to sand through the very thin face veneers. It is also a fact that different tree species expand and contract differently. Softwoods are more stable than hardwoods. The Shakers used quartersawn eastern white pine because it is a very stable cut of wood. You can find 34 Popular Woodworking August 2003 |
