Since purchasing my 14" bandsaw a few years ago, I have had little occasion to use it for cutting thin slices of wood, or "veneers" as they are referred to, but this requirement has changed.
Now that I have the XTool Laser Etcher, and having sampled some of it's capabilities, a whole new world of woodworking ideas have taken hold ... many or which require thin pieces of wood between 1/8th to 1/4 inch or 3 to 6mm.
Below is a quick sample of a laser test I have made with some thin 3/15th inch natural Red Alder wood. Without going into specifics here, I need more of this wood to complete my project which means I need a serious setup on my bandsaw for cutting thinner slices of wood.
Years ago I made wooden jig for my 16" bandsaw, which worked well on that bandsaw and now I want to replicate the same jig but now for my 14" bandsaw. The beauty of this jig is it's easy mount on bandsaw's deck, is rock solid when attached, adjusts quickly and with infinite possible setting because it uses magnet switches called Magswithes.
As you can see in the video, I use 2 smaller holes, spaced 3/8" apart as the pocket the magswitches nest in. I am using the 150 Magswitches for the best grabbing power for this application, smaller powered magwitches would also work, but I would 3 or them in that case. I have found forstner bits work best for this but holesaw bits would also work if you can find that size.
If you are not familiar with Magswitches, or need to purchase a set of these super handy workshop accessories, you can purchase them directly from my Magswitch Affiliate Store - HERE
The 2 pictures below are what the finished jig looks like cut out and assembled. I used #8 screws for attaching the components and pre-drilled all the holes. It's important to note that Magswitches are designed to be used with 3/4" wood thickness.
When mounted on my bandsaw, this is what it looks like. If you make one of these jigs and make it absolutely vertical, i.e. 90 degrees from the base, when you mount it on your saw, if it is not absolutely parallel from top to bottom, it means you bandsaw table may need a slight adjustment to re-set the angle.
As you can see in the video, with a brand new blade, and everything set properly, the bandsaw performed the cutting of thin slices of wood. They were not perfect but well within what I needed because they were cut slightly oversize so I could run them through my planer for exact thickness, and to resurface the sheets to eliminate the bandsaw tooth marks on the wood.
I am very happy with the results I got and the wood will work fine for me, but I am not 100% happy with my bandsaw blade selection. I believe there is still a bit of room for improvement so I am going to work on that in the coming weeks and any positive updates I will post here, or if needed a whole new video.
Colin Knecht
- - Taylor Tools Affiliate Store - https://lddy.no/18zkg
