RE SAW Need a plank Re Sawn by expert only, for an historical Dory. Thanks!

[QuincyAdams]

Hi All,
I have a 16' L , 18"W, and 1 1/4" Thick Eastern White Cedar that needs to be re sawn.
Experience is Required. I have a historic Swampscott dory that needs Garboards and I only have one shot with this plank.
Hope someone out there knows of someone who is an expert at this and has the correct equipment to do it.
It's the last leg of my adventure putting her back together.

Thanks!

[jackster]

A large, sharp hand ripsaw! Marked lines! A strong back! A steady eye! A clear mind! No doubts! And a large dose of patience!
DIY!
Done in less than 2 hours!

You're welcome :)

[Lazy Jack]

A large, sharp hand ripsaw! Marked lines! A strong back! A steady eye! A clear mind! No doubts! And a large dose of patience!
DIY!
Done in less than 2 hours!

You're welcome :)

What he said!
Unless you have a large re-saw in your own shop, sharp, well tuned and ready to deploy you'll waste all kinds of time totin' that plank around trying to avoid what was suggested above. Rip saw by hand is really the best way and properly sharpened, is not at all a miserable task.

Perhaps Jackster knows of a saw shop in his town - still in bidniz?

[JimConlin]

You might try Kiever Willard in Newburyport.

[Gib Etheridge]

If I were to try it with a freshly sharpened 6 point rip saw OR on a bandsaw I would first cut both edges as deeply as possible with the table saw. Not only would this save my poor old shoulders, it would provide an excellent guide to prevent runout.

BUT:

I wouldn't do it that way unless absolutely necessary. If you take it to someone with a bandsaw mill they should be able to do the best job of all. Just make sure they use a just sharpened and set blade.

[Mrleft8]

Yeah...... Someone just asked me to do the same exact job, except it was only 14 1/2" wide, 18' long, and it was Honduras Mahogany..... I could have done it on my big bandsaw, with a brand spanking new blade, but in the end I bowed out.
I asked the sawyer at the local mill, which is running a bandsaw now about it, and he said he'd do it, but couldn't guarantee that it would be a good cut with such a thin plank.....
I think a sharp hand saw, and a jar of Ben gay for your arm later that night would be the safest route.....

[boattruck]

QA, your Swampscott dory will likely have 3/4 or 5/8 planking, and this leaves you nothing to give away to cutting and planing, you might should be looking for another stick, painful as that is to consider... if re-saw it you must, we in desperate situations, will tune up the table saw with the best thin kerf blade we can find, cut full depth down the mid line, end for end and flip the plank and do it again( your table saw will not care much for this abuse...) then set it up on edge on low saw horses and cut the remaining inches of wood with your best old freshly sharpened rip saw, this is a hard work and a somewhat risky venture, but if no additional stock is available, may be your only choice. You would likely lose at least 1/4 inch to this process at the very best( and gain a huge saw arm...) with these close tolerances most folks with a re-saw will be unlikely to want to touch it... Best of Luck, Cheers, BT

[seo]

I own a 36" bandsaw, but it will "only" do 15" depth of cut. In other words, you're looking for a 42" saw with a power feeder and a resaw blade, which is not a common piece of equipment.
However, A well-adjusted bandsaw mill with a sharp blade can resaw 1/2" thick planks, with as little as 7/32" of kerf. I would call around to the local guys who advertise doing bandsaw work, and you should find someone who's willing to do this. A few points:
1) If your board has any warp, cup, or twist, you may want to flatten the board. One way would be to glue it to a backing board that would be an inch wider than your stock. This would allow bolting the stock down to the bed (bolts going through the edges of the backing board) without making the sawyer very nervous about hitting a screw.
2) Whether the bandsaw mill is portable, or set up permanently, leveling and alignment of the bed, and trueness of the carriage. To make sure that's good, I'd also take along a piece of wide lumberyard wood, same length, and ask him to resaw that first, as a trial. If the trial plank comes out all right, so should your prize plank. If it doesn't ask him to true up the saw and try again.
3) IF I were going to try this with a handsaw, it would be with a bow saw:
http://woodworker.com/frame-saw-22-78-rosewd-oak-mssu-131-822.asp
A long panel style rip saw is 26", and that makes for a pretty short stroke in 18" stock.
A problem with doing this with a handsaw is that even if you make a successful trial cut in another board, if the saw begins to wander when you're in the prize plank, you've got problems.
4) I'd be willing to pay a bandsaw mill guy by the hour, not try to get him to do it as a labor of love. It's you that's in love with this plank, not him...
There's a guy in Gloucester named Mark Sheldon, who is one of the most capable people I have ever met. He might be able to steer you toward a guy with a bandsaw.
Good luck

[landlocked sailor]

A WoodMizer mill run by an experienced operator can cut consistent 1/8" slices 3 feet across; I'd try to find one locally. My best bud runs one here in central PA and I have seen it done. Rick

[Gib Etheridge]

A sawyer here on the island who has a Woodmizer sawed out tens of thousands of square feet of 1/8 cedar for me, about 1/8 kerf and no run out at all so long as he used only freshly sharpened and set and carefully tensioned blades. We were able to push down the high corner of the odd twisted board and hold them there with the dogs no problem. If you call Woodmizer they can probably tell you the names of local mill owners. Try to go with one of the bigger models, they are more accurate.

There is a way to avoid all of this though. You can rip the whole thing into strips and strip build the garboard, no nails, just glue. I've done it several times and although it's more time consuming it works just fine. In my opinion it yields a superior garboard since the strips are edge set into place so there is no grain runout. Here's a photo of one I'm doing right now. In your situation you could even have bookmatched garboards,strip built or otherwise! That's kind of neat!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6904419961_f126c8c9a8_z.jpg

[Chris Woodward]

Spile your garboards on to pattern stock then transfer to planking stock. No need to resaw the whole 18" plank. I resaw planking like this for guideboats. Also I mill with a Woodmiser and the problem with resawing a plank is that it tends to bow up or down especially at the ends where you can't dog it down.

[outofthenorm]

Spile your garboards on to pattern stock then transfer to planking stock. No need to resaw the whole 18" plank..

Damn, that's smart.

[Daniel Noyes]

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?140501-Pete-Culler-s-Swampscott-dory-needs-to-have-a-ceder-plank-re-sawn&p=3222748#post3222748

Previous thread with photos...

Wow, what is this? the last cedar plank left in existance!

buying another plank is the best idea, surely Dancing Feather is worth it.