On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 16:17:00 -0700, Tim Douglass wrote:

It depends a bit on the size of the blocks. If they are small enough
that you can get through them with a cut from each side on the TS you
may be OK, but fully buried cuts are particularly dangerous in full
rounds because of the tensions in the wood. I'll just leave at the
statement that *I* wouldn't do it.


I appreciate the excellent advice, and I'm certain that you're right.
Probably that advice is the most sensible, but you may underestimate the
terror I experience at the thought of sharp things spinning at
horrifying speeds next to my skinny little fingers. It's been a couple of
years and i still haven't done anything with the pieces. I mean, I've
still got ten fingers and I'm pretty enthusiastic about keeping them.

Unfortunately, a band saw isn't in the cards at the moment, because I need
a big strong one for resawing purposes and I can't afford it, unless some
widow or orphan puts one up for sale cheap and I beat the rest of the
vultures to the prize. I'm just not the vulture I once was, alas.

So, bearing in mind that I won't hold any well-meaning advisors liable for
any digital destruction, how 'bout this idea: Somewhere I have a jig I
built for a router, made to level a slab of maple 1X2s I put together
for a counter top. Router slides back and forth on a track, leveling the
surface below-- similar jigs have appeared in every router book ever
published, I imagine. These chunks, BTW, are split into quarters, some of
them into eigths, so they alread have one or two more or less flat sides.
Assuming my router jig can safely flatten one side of a carefully
blocked-up chunk, the table saw should then be able to cut another side
perpedicular, flat side down on a sliding table. And after two flat
sides, cake. Right? None of the chunks are more than three or four inches
thick and no more than a foot and a half long.