Resawing 6x6 timber

[awdriven]

I have about 20 feet of rough oak timber that I'd like to resaw into three planks from each timber.

They are weathered now and weren't milled very square to begin with.

I'd been thinking I would make passes on two opposing faces with my TS55 and use a reciprocating saw to cut away the middle part the saw could not reach.

Getting the cuts to be even close to lining up is a pain. These are just for a garden bed, so nowhere near perfect is needed, just reasonable.

Any ideas? I know a bandsaw is usually used for this, but I don't own one and pushing these through a bandsaw would be pretty ridiculous.

 

[TJ Cornish]

A bandsaw is the right tool, and pushing wood that size through it isn't any big deal.  Any tool like a sawzall or jig saw will have trouble staying straight if you try cutting all the way through. 

You might have the best luck by running as deep as you can with your TS saw on one side only and then finishing the rest with the recip saw.  There will be more material to cut, but you won't have to try to line up two TS55 cuts.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

If you post your location, I'll bet someone on the forum would offer use of their bandsaw.  Its the safest way to do that and would take no time at all on a bandsaw.

 

[pugilato]

I know an arborist who has a bandsaw (industrial like) to cut felled trees into planks.  Who knows, there may be one in your area.

 

[awdriven]

I'm in central jersey. The beams have been outside, so a bit dirty. Because of the size, they are a bit tough to transport.

I may just make a try at using a TS55 kerf to guide a reciprocating saw cut or hand saw cut.

 

[fritter63]

I'm in central jersey. The beams have been outside, so a bit dirty. Because of the size, they are a bit tough to transport.

I may just make a try at using a TS55 kerf to guide a reciprocating saw cut or hand saw cut.

I think that's the right approach (the hand saw). You should be able to get the remainder down to just over an inch, right?

heck, you might even be able to split it apart at that point!

 

[jev]

hey guys.  I have only a few 6x6 pressure treated beams to cut so i don't mind cutting by hand.  Does anyone know of a miter box they sell for use with my own handsaw?  There HAS to be one for sale somewhere, but darned if i can find one.  As I said, I only have a few, so my problem is not getting worn out, its CUTTING IT STRAIGHT!  I've tried the 4-side method with my skillsaw but never get it "straight".  Does anyone know of a mitre box that will hold a 6x6 simply to cut a straight 90 degree?
thanks.

 

[BobKovacs]

  Does anyone know of a mitre box that will hold a 6x6 simply to cut a straight 90 degree?
thanks.

Haven't seen one commercially available that's that large, but there's nothing keeping you from building one.  There was an article on Gary Katz's site a while back about cutting huge moldings, and basically the author just created a three-sided box- bottom and two sides- and sliced notches in the sides to guide the handsaw.  I'm thinking it ought to take about $5 in material and 10 minutes to put together.

 

[peter halle]

You could also check a tool rental place.  Many of them rent the huge Makita circulars saw that will cut 6 x 6.  Then clamp a speed square and go.

Peter

 

[Michael Kellough]

A bandsaw is the right tool, and pushing wood that size through it isn't any big deal.  Any tool like a sawzall or jig saw will have trouble staying straight if you try cutting all the way through.  

You might have the best luck by running as deep as you can with your TS saw on one side only
and then finishing the rest with the recip saw.  There will be more material to cut, but you won't
have to try to line up two TS55 cuts.

This is the best way if the top and bottom are not parallel. If they are reasonably parallel
I'd go ahead and use the circular saw from both sides.

To finish the cut with the recip saw I'd roll the wood over and snap a chalk line and saw
from that side (opposite of the circ saw kerf).The reciprocating blade should be long enough
that it stays in the kerf for the full stroke. To help keep the blade in line with the circ saw kerf
I'd dull the teeth of the end of the blade so it rubs in the existing kerf without digging in.

 

[fdengel]

I may just make a try at using a TS55 kerf to guide a reciprocating saw cut or hand saw cut.

I think that's the right approach (the hand saw).

+1

 

[mouppe]

I'd take the wood to a lumber yard and pay them $20 to mill the timber for you. This is what I do when I have a board that is to big for me to handle, such as a 17" tabletop that was too wide for my planer.

Usually they charge by the hour and are happy to help.

 

[TJ Cornish]

I'd dull the teeth of the end of the blade so it rubs in the existing kerf without digging in.

If anyone needs a supply of dull Sawzall blades, I'm your man.  Unfortunately for this instance, they're dull by the shoe, not at the end.  [big grin]

 

[awdriven]

More great suggestions, thanks!

I tried cutting 1 kerf and finishing it with the sawzall and that was very slow going.

This gave me the idea to use the sawzall cut to line up the rail on opposing sides of the beam. This worked ok on the beam I tested - the sawzall was cutting a lot less material and maybe I was lucky and the two faces were relatively parallel.

On the cross-cutting - I completed a project about 18 months ago where I was cross-cutting these using a Prazi beam-cutter attachment on my Dewalt framing saw. The rental place near me had the Makita beam saw, but their blade needed to be replaced. The Prazi did ok, but I was constantly adjusting the chain tension, lubing the chain, etc - it got through the job ok, but I was constantly worried it may break.

I opted not to go with the makita for resawing because at some point I would be balancing a 16 inch diameter saw on 1.5 inches of material as I was slicing away boards. Sounded hinky, so I stayed away from that solution.

 

[awdriven]

Oh, and I am doing this cutting with the new 496305 Standard Ripping Blade. I can make a full depth cut in this white oak in one pass and as long as I let the saw work at its own pace, it really breezes along and doesn't seem to be working that hard.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I did a couple test cuts with the 'fine finish' blade before getting the ripping blade and the saw seemed to be working harder at making a 10mm deep cut than a 55mm cut (minus track thickness) with the ripping blade.

The cut surface isn't glass smooth or anything - but I think this is a handy blade to have in your systainer and lets this 'little' saw do some serious cutting.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Well, that was fun!  Thursday was day 2 of ripping those 6x6's of old red oak.  They were measuring approximately 5 3/4" around, definitely not today's 6x6.

I should have tried a real rip blade in the TS75 as the stock blade labored and kept blowing his breaker.  My Bosch worm drive framing saw (similar to the Skil 77) did it but went a lot slower than I had thought it would.  Surprisingly to me, the TS55 with the rip blade was quick and smooth.  Interesting experience trying out the different saws and this just goes to show you, how much of a difference the blade can make.

awdriven (true identity concealed  [wink]), great to meet you and your family, again!  See ya soon!

 

[awdriven]

Thank you AGAIN Ken! The garden box went together very well and the 4x4s made perfect corner blocks. The corner blocks and thick walls will leave a lot of options for making canopies (drill holes for poles) or supporting some fencing in the future if needed. Making the sawdust was a lot more fun than wheelbarrowing topsoil.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

You're very welcome.  I guess this means the driveway is clear as there's no parking in front of a mountain of dirt.  [big grin]