Veenering back underway

I have finally got over all my bandsaw issues and things are proceeding nicely now.  The last big improvement was purchasing a decent blade.  I went for a 3TPI and 20mm wide.  This extra width greatly helps with keeping the blade on course.  Down side isit is slightly thicker.

I am still losing nearly 50% to the re-saw and thicknessing activities.

I am hoping to complete the veneering by the end of March.

From there I need to get the strut, rudder, rudder shaft log and prop shaft in order to determine the locations for these irems and drill the holes.  This has to be done before I fiberglass the bottom.

Vennering status

Christmas was supposed to be the opportunity to make great leaps if progress.  As it turned out I made very little.  Bandsaw dramas were one of the leading causes, the other was I ran out of glue and the place that sells it was closed over the Christmas break.

So currently the bottom is complete and has had a skim sand to get the worst of the plastic nail heads and glue off.

The sides have progressed by one piece of stake. Hopefullty with the new blade I will be away again.

This time last year I made myself a schedule. I am now a good four months behind, I have also looked at the costs of the next stage, which means it will practically take me until next Christmas at best to get to where I had planned to get to by the Christmas just gone.

Setting up a bandsaw

One of the most difficult tasks on a bandsaw is actually making it cut straight.  If your freehanding a cut then here is no problem; but as soon as you want to cut against a fence then it will all go pear shaped if you haven't got it aligned correctly.

I did a lot of research on this when I got my first bandsaw.  I found lots of articles which describe this method; a breif version is:

1. Take a piece of something flat that is at least a couple of inches wide and 12 inches long.  Down one side scribe a line about an inch from the edge. 

2. Free hand cut along this line until you are about 1/2 way along the line then stop the saw being careful not to move the work piece. 

3. Adjust the fence to align against the edge of the wood.

Now I have two bandsaws and neither of them feature any sort of adjustment for this purpose.   They do now as I have modified them to provide for it.

What I have since discovered is that the above is certainly a necessary step but the first step is to get the blade tracking on the wheels correctly.   By moving the blade back and forth over the crown of the wheels the angle it cuts at changes quite dramatically.   Then small adjustment can be achieved by using spacers to shift the mounting of the fence.