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I have two nice Quilted Sapele Boards that I would like to re-saw into back and side sets. The boards are 11.5" by 1" by 10.5'. I have a 17" Grizzly Band saw but I have not re-sawed very much. I feel like I can comfortably get 4 slices from a 1" wide board. What would be the most productive way to maximize the back and side sets from these boards?

get the ceramic guides from griz and a high rib fence. A woodmaster carbide blade 1 2/3 tpi. Surface the piece then figure your finish thickness plus .040 for clean off.
Keys for best result
1 finish surface against fence
2 jointed edge
3 match feed to cut rate

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

How should I cut the boards to make them more manageable to handle and also maximize sets?

Also are the ceramic guides better than the Bearing guides that are installed on the band saw?

You can get six slices from an inch, but to tell you the truth I don't even bother with the setup required unless I'm cutting Brazilian rosewood or ebony. You need a blade that'll give you a nice finish right off the saw, like the Resaw Master from Laguna (though they apparently change parameters on them from time to time), and that blade will wear out quickly.

John's advice is pretty much the method: -very- tight setup on the saw, good fence alignment, good flat edges against fence and table, and proper feed rates. I think John, being a machinist, has an unfair advantage in feeling the right feed rate to avoid warping the blade and I find that's the bit that catches most people. You want a really consistent feed where it's pulling the dust out but always engaging material. If you go too hard/fast then the dust clogs the blade and you get a 'divot' and if you go too slow then the blade disengages the wood for a second and you get a 'divot' in the cut face.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

If you're not going to do a load of resawing, then balance the worth of the extra set per inch you can get versus the cost of acquiring the skill and time input against however much guys like David Borson are charging. If there was a place like that anywhere in my vicinity then I'd be tempted to use their services even though I've done precision resawing for others.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I know that a better saw (I have a Delta 14) would give me potentially more yield when resawing .. but I just dont get greedy .. 4 slices per inch for me is fine. I would much rather get 4 good slices then 6 useless ones ...

You will want to draw out your side and back patterns on the board to see how many billets of each you can cut in the board to begin with ... draw them out and see ... then use a jigsaw/skilsaw/bandsaw to cut out each billet, then resaw the billets.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Going for 4 pieces out of a 1" board is pretty easy to do. If I'm going for that I cut the board in half and then split the 2 halves into 2. Once you feel comfortable with a decent blade you can easily get 5 slices. Good for neck lams and binding.

If you don't know about setting the fence to accommodate drift, study up.

A resaw fence like the Laguna Driftmaster is great but not cheap.

IMO Sapelle is pretty easy to reasw - not oily and not very hard.

There is less chance for trouble when resawing a shorter board so I cut my board into back & side lengths + some extra before resawing.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

With my calculations on a sheet of graph paper I should be able to get 3 22" back sections and two 32" Side section from an 11' board. That should yield 6 Back sets and 8 Side sets. Is that what you get?

Whatever technical approach you use, the basic rule of thumb to maximize yield is this: Don't screw up.

Like Tony wrote, 'tis better to get 4 good slice per inch than 6 poor.

To get 6 good slices per inch your set up had better be perfect and your skill equally so. The cost if setting up your saw to this standard will probably exceed the value of the extra sets you may cut. If you screw up all of your slices, or even just half of them, what is the value then?

You can do some darn good resawing done with a basic, but fresh, 1/2" 3 tpi blade. You really want your blades ability to cut clean to exceed any inadequacies in the saw set up and your feed technique.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Hi From a 11' board you will have 132"

so if you cut a 36" piece for your sides you will have 96" left so you will get 4 off 22" lengths + a bit spare.

Your 36" piece for your sides will give you two piece for your sides when you split down the middle. Also remember that your sides finish thinner than your backs so you will get more slices than from your backs! if you allow 3.5mm for each slice so you should get 6 slices per board (you could go thinner)

You should end up with enough for 8 backs and 6 sides

Dave

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To be someone must be a wonderful thing!

I think you might want to re calculate. Before you cut the sides rip the boards in half. You'll get 2 - 5 3/4" (less kerf) pieces from 11 1/2" board. Big enough for any guitar and easier to cut up. If you want to sell some when you're done PM me. I like Sapele. I like quilted Sapele even more. I could lie to my friends and tell them it's from 'The Tree'! Not that it would make any difference. They'd just get that glazed over look anyway.

Cheers,
Danny

in the original post, gosport says he has 2 boards....@ 10.5' = 126"

this changes everything as far as maximizing yield to get as many even sets as possible....if he went for 5 pieces out of each board, and allowed for getting both sides and backs out of certain resaws (i.e. leave them the full width, then rip for sides as needed) I think he will get the best yield...it's late at night here and honestly I don't feel like doing the math as I've had enough of that today after doing my taxes which I filed an extension for!

There is a process to this and for your first time , look at getting 4 . I would rather 2 good sets than a pile of head plates. Most people will tend to go to slow . If you have long planks rough to length Backs 21 in sides 33 in.
One other very important thing
KEEP FINGERS OUT OF THE SHARP STUFF

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

The best method by far to do this is to pack up your board and ship it to John Hall.
He'll do an expert resaw for you, maximizing your yield at a price probably less than the cost of setting yourself up.
The question to answer here is do you want to be a guitar builder or be side-tracked into wood processing? What is the best use of your time?

https://picasaweb.google.com/115793185519493121307

Perhaps it helps you somehow..

Really important is a flat surface and flat corners, 90 degrees and so on..everything mentionend before already.

Good luck..cheers, Alex

I'm guessing that the O.P. was more interested in how he should cut up the two boards before he does the resaw. Sides need to be just a little over 32" for a jumbo, and backs need to be a little over 8 1/2" wide and 21" long. Dreds are about 30" for sides and 8"x20" for backs, but you need to cut a little extra length for whatever size guitar you're building. So if the largest you want to build is a dred, you could cut each 126" board into 2 at 31"x11" and 3 at 21"x11". Take the two 31"x11" pieces and rip them into four at 31"x5 1/5". That should give you 8 to 10 side sets, depending on whether you get 4 or 5 slices. Take the three 21"x11" pieces and rip off 2 1/2", giving you three at 21"x8 1/2" to resaw into 6 or 7 back sets. That leaves you with 3 pieces 21"x2 1/2"x1" for other uses.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I recently cut a 1.125" x 9" x 21" Cuban Mahogany board into six beautiful slices. I would not try it with a 1" thick board, nor anything much wider than the 9". I was using a Bladerunner blade with a minuscule kerf, and my Laguna LT16HD saw. I would never try it on a lesser saw either. Everything needs to be just perfect, and if the wood begins to cup while you're cutting, you're not going to make it. As others have said, 4 really good slices is better than six really bad ones. Or you could shoot for 5 and get the extra veneer for other things.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."