DIY swing saw?

[EPA]

Well I've been in Northern NE for the last 70 years in and around sawmills and the loging industry- and the slabs in the slab pile are slabs not off cuts. In all those years I never heard that term // EPA

 

[Matildasmate]

I think this thread is turning into one of those splitting hair thread's saddly . The main thing is can the slabs , offcut's what ever you want to call them , can be cut up further or handled easier and the short answer is yes. Cheer's MM

 

[big daddio]

man, i'll tell you what, like i said, just recuperating after back surgery, feeling like you all know it woud be, not able to get millin' & stuff. this site has helped me get through it...........around here a slab has bark on one side and is of no use unless you use it for rustic furniture [which has me looking for seats for small benches and stools.....another story] or firewood.

 

[Ianab]

The slabs thing has a different meaning in different parts of the world.

In the US it means those first cuts off the log with the bark and all.
In NZ and Aussie it means BIG live edge boards, that I think you guys would call flitches.

Q-sawn. With a swinger it's true that not all your boards will be perfectly q-sawn. But the best ones will be cut exactly 90 deg and should be perfect. Using any of the common techniques on a bandmill is also only approximate quatersawing. Some (hopefully the widest ones) will be perfect, but the others will drift off toward rift sawn just like the swingblade does. The percentage and size of the 90deg boards may vary, but unless you have a radial sawmill that slices the log into segments like an orange, you cant get all the boards at 90 deg.


You want wide boards/flitches/slabs - we do em

But you see why they are called slabs

Cheers

Ian

 

[BobL]

The slabs thing has a different meaning in different parts of the world.

The most common use of the term "slab" in my neck of the woods would have to be in relation to a carton of 2 dozen cans or stubbies. The two and half dozen can carton we call "blocks", your terminology may vary.

 

[BlueRider]

The slabs thing has a different meaning in different parts of the world.

In the US it means those first cuts off the log with the bark and all.
In NZ and Aussie it means BIG live edge boards, that I think you guys would call flitches.

Q-sawn. With a swinger it's true that not all your boards will be perfectly q-sawn. But the best ones will be cut exactly 90 deg and should be perfect. Using any of the common techniques on a bandmill is also only approximate quatersawing. Some (hopefully the widest ones) will be perfect, but the others will drift off toward rift sawn just like the swingblade does. The percentage and size of the 90deg boards may vary, but unless you have a radial sawmill that slices the log into segments like an orange, you cant get all the boards at 90 deg.


You want wide boards/flitches/slabs - we do em

But you see why they are called slabs

Cheers

Ian

Being on the west coast (US) the terminology can also be diferent, though in my case it is also probably due to having a furniture backfround rather than a logging background. We call the big boards slabs and the unusable first cut a "cap". A flitch is a bunch of seqencial pieces of veneer, boards, or slabs.

Having used a swing mill a small bit I can say from experiance that you can saw for grade, it just takes a bit more imagination. The swing mills really excell at cutting diminsional lumber that is far more acurate and consistant than a band mill.

 

[BlueRider]

swing saws as opposed to a swing blades

to bring this thread back round to what the original poster was asking about which was a swing saw:

At one time they were very popular with every manufacturer from Oliver to Craftsman having one in their line. They were the precursor to the radial arm saw. Now days they are considered very unsafe and even in their day were often refered to as widow makers. the danger is their tendency to self feed and to climb up and into the operator.

 

[Ianab]

The most common use of the term "slab" in my neck of the woods would have to be in relation to a carton of 2 dozen cans or stubbies

24 cans in a slab, 24 hours in a day.. coincidence? I think not ;-)

 

[BobL]

24 cans in a slab, 24 hours in a day.. coincidence? I think not ;-)

This reminds me about these three miners in the 1970s who "worked"on a remote tax dodging gold mine for a friend of BILs. Every friday afternoon, 2 of them would drive the 100 miles into town to buy the beer and one would stay behind. Why do you need 2 guys to go and get some beer ? Well, every week they did buy 21 slabs of beer to bring back (and one to drink on the drive home) and loading and unloading the beer was about the only work these guys did. That's 1 slab per man per day - this was one of the few incentives they had working in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Matildasmate]

The most common use of the term "slab" in my neck of the woods would have to be in relation to a carton of 2 dozen cans or stubbies. The two and half dozen can carton we call "blocks", your terminology may vary.

Now that was worth reading , just for the laugh mate :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[big daddio]

i'll make sure to not get my slabpiles mixed up.

 

[woodshop]

The most common use of the term "slab" in my neck of the woods would have to be in relation to a carton of 2 dozen cans or stubbies. The two and half dozen can carton we call "blocks", your terminology may vary.

Interesting... I've heard of a 24 can carton of beer/soda refered to as a "rack", but never a slab. Guess if I grew up in certain parts of Australia, I would be calling it a slab


:deadhorse:
Different parts of the world, different terms for the same thing. What's the big deal? Here in SE Pennsylvania a slab is that first slice off the side of a log, mostly bark, and if you want to buy "slabwood" for your wood stove, that is what you would get, roughly 16" sections of that slab. You can get it cheaper than regular firewood since a lot of it is just bark, some of which falls off as it dries making more of a mess of the firewood pile. Perhaps if I moved to Minnesota or Alaska and asked for slabwood I'd get a blank stare.

Around here, I have ALSO came across the term "slab" referring to a (generally) thick, meaning 8/4 or thicker, wide (at least 2ft wide), usually live edge board like the stuff Aggie slices with that huge csm he has.

When I was in the military stationed in Germany early 70's in the barracks with guys from all over the US, a can of Coke was called everything from a can of pop to can of fizz... some actually called it soda, which is what we call it here in PA.

Swing mill? ...... would love to have one.

Full sized bandmill? ..... would love to have one.

60" csm with an 080 on EACH end and somebody to help me make "slabs" ? .... would love to have one.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Well I've been in Northern NE for the last 70 years in and around sawmills and the loging industry- and the slabs in the slab pile are slabs not off cuts. In all those years I never heard that term // EPA

Hey EPA,

You have to excuse those aussie dudes... Heck, when they flush their toilet, even the terd goes the other way around! lol lol

DM

 

[Matildasmate]

Interesting... I've heard of a 24 can carton of beer/soda refered to as a "rack", but never a slab. Guess if I grew up in certain parts of Australia, I would be calling it a slab


:deadhorse:
Different parts of the world, different terms for the same thing. What's the big deal? Here in SE Pennsylvania a slab is that first slice off the side of a log, mostly bark, and if you want to buy "slabwood" for your wood stove, that is what you would get, roughly 16" sections of that slab. You can get it cheaper than regular firewood since a lot of it is just bark, some of which falls off as it dries making more of a mess of the firewood pile. Perhaps if I moved to Minnesota or Alaska and asked for slabwood I'd get a blank stare.

Around here, I have ALSO came across the term "slab" referring to a (generally) thick, meaning 8/4 or thicker, wide (at least 2ft wide), usually live edge board like the stuff Aggie slices with that huge csm he has.

When I was in the military stationed in Germany early 70's in the barracks with guys from all over the US, a can of Coke was called everything from a can of pop to can of fizz... some actually called it soda, which is what we call it here in PA.

Swing mill? ...... would love to have one.

Full sized bandmill? ..... would love to have one.

60" csm with an 080 on EACH end and somebody to help me make "slabs" ? .... would love to have one.

Well put Dave .... sadly this thread now look's a bit like one of those chainsaw thread's , it would have been nice , if everyone didnt get hung up on the wording , instead of keeping it simple and trying to help the bloke . I must admit though , I did get a few laugh's out of it though . Cheer's MM

 

[BobL]

Hey EPA,

You have to excuse those aussie dudes... Heck, when they flush their toilet, even the terd goes the other way around! lol lol

DM

It's the right way around if you consider, we are standing on the other side of the earth.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It's the right way around if you consider, we are standing on the other side of the earth.

HA HA HA