Would a cheap band saw cut this ?

[mointainwalker]

Good Morning Ladies and Gents, hope you can help me with this.

I'm renovating an old barn and have just taken down an old floor that was only used as an intermediate level for storage. I mention that to explain that the planks are simply rough cut treees i.e. just sent once through the mill, so they have two flat faces and the edges untouched.

I would very much like to use some of these as cladding in some of my rooms but the planks are all too thick at the moment (50 - 70 mm approx ) width varies from 150 - 220 mm.

Wood is dry pine, about 150 years old, so cut in the Alps when it used to be a lot colder, so a bit more dense than would be normal now.

The only way I can speculate that I could make this usable is passing it through a band-saw, but I have no idea if this is feasible technicallly and financially.

Technically because I don't know what power I would need and if I could get the power and height of cut needed from a cheap unit.

Financially because I have emphasized "cheap. I only have about 50 -60 boards to cut and no real use for a band saw after that so do not wish to invest in quality that will then sit and gather dust.

Since the effect sought is "rustic" it won't matter at all about a bit of waviness or whatever just so I can cut to approx 22 mm thick.

I don't know if blade-breakage will be a major problem with this kind of free-hand operation, but imagine it could be.

I look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions.

Thank you.

 

[big-all]

would need to be worked flat because off the width the weight and no finnished edge to rest on

you can get rustic blades for 82mm planers

 

[ladylola]

I've done a similiar thing.
Ripping down timber like this is a problem for most mechanical means for the reason of not having a straight edge to work to as big-all says. I personally ripped it down with a chain saw, it's easy to raise the timber off the ground and secure it with stakes knocked into the ground either side off it.
One simple way of giving it a "rustic" finish is to use a hand plane with the blade ground into a curve and to use it to plane at an angle to the grain. It leaves a simple almost tooled look to the surface when a modern smooth and perfect flat finish would look out of place. Not seen these rustic blades for electric planners though, big-all do you have a picture or link?
Oh and you won't be left with a useless machine afterwards either, chainsaws have so many other uses.

 

[timbo46]

If you've got a local sawmill they may do it for you, might be worth asking a neighbour if they know anyone, thats the way it works round here.

 

[Deluks]

Yeh, send it away to be done. You will be spending big money on the machinery to do this properly.

 

[Jasonb]

As Timbo says find someone with a horizontal bandmill like a Woodmizer. This will rip through it with ease and as the blade kerf is thin you will not waste wood like a chainsaw. The surface is also quite good, I have some decking that is Larch straight off the mill and its fine to sit on but still got a rustic look

Jason

 

[mointainwalker]

Thanks for all your replies.

Have to say that sawmills - around here anyway - won't touch old wood . Mainly because of the risk of nails etc but also the varying sizes meaning lots of alterations to settings and consequent loss of productivity.

I know people who have tried the chainsaw method and have said they had never been successful but I never bothered at the time to ask what they were trying to achieve. Maybe they wanted more accuracy than I do. It's worth a go anyway.

Thanks again and enjoy yourselves over Yuletide.