|
Wooden Boat
Review continued
Southeastern Industral Resources, the Ripsaw's manufacturer, sells diamond honing stones for sharpening the blades. This is done with a Dremel tool or some similar device. I am able to do a reasonably good job with this but cannot match the precise edge a professional shop can achieve. Perhaps if the amount of use warrants the expense, a good sharpening and tooth-setting jig would be called for: For me is works very well to keep a half dozen blades on hand while another half dozen are out being sharpened.
A big plus to this mill is its portability. It is small enough to hang out of the way on the wall of your shop or garage, and when you need it you can pack the whole thing into a garden cart and head off into the woodlot. This means you can get along without a lot of expensive support equipment-- you shouldn't need much more than saw horses, a chainsaw, a hatchet, a framing square, and a cant hook.
The Ripsaw has possible uses besides simple milling. For timber-frame construction, scarfjoints, halflaps, and tenons come to mind. Another untouted use of this tool is a re-saw machine. Resawing a plank or beam of any size on the flat with the Ripsaw is much easier than wrestling a behemoth timber on edge through the stationary bandsaw.
There are also possibilities for milling woods not commonly found in the lumberyard.
|
Here in the Northeast, locust, apple, pear, hop hornbeam, and box elder are among the many fine woods not commercially available. The list of species is long.
With this thing in your toolbox, heavy storms in your neighborhood could literally bring a windfall of exotic lumber.
When I began using the mill, I had a cupping problem at the infeed end. My initial cuts-the ones using the guide beams-were fine, because the beams overhang the ends of the log. But after squaring the log and removing the beams, the remaining cuts are guided by the squared surfaces. The cupping is introduced if you don't hold the mill's guide plate flat on the wood's surface as you begin a cut; the cupping will then be transmitted to subsequent cuts. The solution to this problem is to start the cut at an angle, allowing more of the guide plate to rest on the log. If the cupping problem does occur, you can attach the guide beams again to reestablish a flat surface.
When done properly, the lumber attained with the Ripsaw is very even in thickness. Depending on needs, this lumber can often be used without any further machining. The lumber for the cedar decks on my house came straight from the Ripsaw.
I find the Ripsaw portable sawmill to be a well-made, functional machine. Most problems I've had can be put down to operator error. If you understand the use of the bandsaw in the shop, getting the hang of operating this mill will come quickly. For about the same price as a good 8" jointer or 10" tablesaw, you can have a sawmill. The white cedar, red oak, apple, hard and soft maple, cherry, yellow birch, white pine, spruce, and white ash I have stickered and drying have paid for my mill, and then some.
. . .previous page
- Brian Keegstra
|