Cutting Lam's

[Del the cat]

I have some Yew that isn't suitable for a self bow (som nasty knots and poorly defined heart/sap)and I'm toying with doing some experimental Yew lam' bows, with 1/4 sawn lams.
Do I use bandsaw or table saw, what type blade? The table saw needs a new blade, most rip blades are coarser than a navvy, but I've seen one described as a veneer blade with fine teeth.
This is all just armchair bowmaking at the moment
Del

[Marc St Louis]

If you have a decent band-saw then that is the one to use

[adams89]

i would always use a tablesaw with a "trapeze" cutting tooth, the amount of tooh on your blades depends on the radius of your blade.

[Del the cat]

If you have a decent band-saw then that is the one to use

Cheers Marc,
Presumably I'd want as wide as possible and a medium tpi? (Too fine will take all day, too coarse will give ma a washboard cut)
Del

[Del the cat]

i would always use a tablesaw with a "trapeze" cutting tooth, the amount of tooh on your blades depends on the radius of your blade.

I can see this thread will have plenty of different opinons
I think my bandsaw is prob better quality/ more easilly adjustable than my table saw which is the cheapo variety...
I'll sit back, look and learn
Del

[Carson (CMB)]

I am in the same position as you Dell, I have some yew lumber fit for lams, but havent cut any before.  My thought was to use the band saw, with medium teeth on a wide blade, and setup a featherboard and fence.  Then cut slow.  Less loss of material over a table saw is why I was leaning towards bandsaw.  I plan to hit the glue-up side with a toothing plane to take out any high spots and create a good glue up surface.    I am looking forward to hearing how yours goes.  It might be another month or so before I get to these yew boards myself. 

I havent checked in on your blog in awhile....need to.   

[adb]

I cut a lot of lams. I use a resaw blade on my bandsaw... 3-4 tpi, and 5/8" wide, with a ripping fence. I can cut whatever thickness I want, and the wide blade tracks very well with the fence. To prep them for glue-up, I run the lams thru my thickness sander with a 100 grit drum to make them flat and smooth for gluing with TB3.

I used to use a table saw, which makes reasonably smooth cuts, but I soon realised half of my wood was turning into saw dust with the thick blade.

[bubby]

as I don't have a hi end bandsaw I use a tablesaw with a thin kerf blade the take all the marks out with a thickness plainer, if I ciuld do it on the bandsaw I would, it's quieter and safer

[Buckeye Guy]

Del
If you have a good heavy bandsaw use it .
3-4 teeth per inch, and as wide as will work on your saw .

How are  you planning to clean them up, and will you be doing tapered lams or straight?
A good belt sanding machine I hope .

[Del the cat]

As this is all just armchair bowmaking at the moment, so it includes making my own thickness sander or adapting my belt sander .
In reality I've got to sort out my Yew staves that aren't suitable for longbows and plan what I actually want to do.
A friend gave me some Hickory backing lams... and I'm sort of thinking flight longbow, Hick' backed Yew.
I got over 300 yards last year... so 350 would be nice
I have ideas for crossbow prods too and bows with highly angled levers etc.
Like most of us I expect I have more ideas than time!
I'm trying to avoid wasting timber, hence the question. Next time I order any bandsaw blades I'll get a nice wide one. I'll also examine my belt sander to see if it will lend itself to being bodified to work as a thickness sander.
I've got an old electric planer too, maybe that could be modified as a thicknesser or sander. Once I've worked out how to cut parallel lams I'll have a look at making some tapered ones.
At the moment everyone wants self Yew warbows, which would be fine if I had the wood, but I don't!
I want to spend some time making the bows I want to experiment with. Mostly I'm into self bows, but we just gotta try everything haven't we? 
Not much room in my workshop either... and I don't think Mrs Cat will let me bring the woodworking indoors
Del

[WillS]

If it helps persuade any potential customers, a lot of the EWBS guys are mainly shooting backed yew warbows these days.  Hickory and elm mostly, but some maple.  They're far more common amongst the top guys than self yews.

[vinemaplebows]

I have both, but for cutting lams thin kerf blade tablesaw. A sharp well turned bandsaw will work just as well.....

[Marc St Louis]

I use a 1/4" blade with 6 tpi and finely adjusted.  It will cut anything and can even cut strips down to 1/16" thick.  I don't think a tablesaw will do that

[Badger]

  Del, I cut a 1/2 dozen backing strips this morning on my bandsaw. I use the cheap 1/2 blase with 3 or 4 teeth, the fewer teeth the better. Before you start carefully adjust your saw and make sure the blade is running down the center of the top pulley. Many saws even when perfectly adjusted still require finding the angle of drift for a better quality of cut. Very easy to do. Draw a line of a cheap piece of wood and start pushing it through your saw following the line, when you have run about 4 or 5 inches straight hold your wood still and turn off the saw. Now look and see what angle you are holding the board. If it is perfectly straight your fence will work fine, if not they adjust your fence to the same angle you were holding the board. It will increase your feed time and greatly improve the quality of your cut.

[Del the cat]

  Del, I cut a 1/2 dozen backing strips this morning on my bandsaw. I use the cheap 1/2 blase with 3 or 4 teeth, the fewer teeth the better. Before you start carefully adjust your saw and make sure the blade is running down the center of the top pulley. Many saws even when perfectly adjusted still require finding the angle of drift for a better quality of cut. Very easy to do. Draw a line of a cheap piece of wood and start pushing it through your saw following the line, when you have run about 4 or 5 inches straight hold your wood still and turn off the saw. Now look and see what angle you are holding the board. If it is perfectly straight your fence will work fine, if not they adjust your fence to the same angle you were holding the board. It will increase your feed time and greatly improve the quality of your cut.

Cheers, Good tip, that's one of those things I haven't done before 'cos normally I'm not usually trying to cut long and straight.
The fence on my saw isn't much good so I'll clamp a nice long bit of 2x2 to the table.
Del