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Well I haven't been doing much the past 2 weeks as I've had some dreaded sickness; bronchial stuff mostly. I've still gone to work, but was pretty much down for the count this weekend. On Sunday I showered and dressed, my wife cut my hair; ("almost cut my hair.....happened just the other day....it's getting kind of long") Who can tell me what that is from? :>)
Anyway, I spend about 45 minutes cutting some binding. Now I've been wanting to try this, but sort of did it on a whim yesterday, and in 45 minutes I was wasted. I have a about 6 pieces at least 36" long of this solid maple flooring I got a few years ago. It is not quarter sawn stuff, mostly rift sawn. I figured I might, once I got my bandsaw, be able to make some binding out if it so I gave it a go yesterday. After a few cuts and runs through my drum sander, I have 4 pieces of quartersawn (yes, I cut off one end of the maple that was quartered) that are 36" long x 1/4" tall x .085" thick. There is very nice silking going on along the sides though it doesn't show well in the picture. They turned out nice. I am excited that I can make use of this wood. What I will do is cut it this way and that way to get the grain running in approximately the right direction, and I should be mostly on quarter for most of it. And for that which is not quartered, I'll probably try and use it too, it will just look different. I have enough I figure to make around 30 sets of binding at no cost but my time. If I set up and do all cuts of the same thickness together, I'll save time and keep the consistency.
Anyway, thought I'd share this. I still have a finished top waiting to be fit and glued to the rims of the Santos Hog Dred which will be taking these bindings, but I've not felt like messing with it. I sure hope to be up for a day in the shop this coming Saturday.
Here are a couple of pics.

Kevin

That's pretty awesome Kevin. What kind of blade are you using on your bandsaw? I htink mine would drift too much to make accurate binding out of. In theory my planar goes down to a 1/32 of an inch, but I haven't tried that yet.

Tj

Well all I have is the 1/4" blade that came with the saw, so you can figure it was made in China. It was not great, but it worked. I will wait to cut the rest when I have my 1/2" Woodslicer blade from Highland Woodworking.
I cut the slices at about .105" thick, and took them down to .085" on the drum sander and they cleaned up, so the cuts were not too bad. It is fun...cost effective? Maybe....but fun.

Kevin

The bindings look good. Nice work on the bandsaw. You mentioned using the 1/4" blade. I have had better results with my 1/4" blade than I have gotten with my 1/2 inch blade. Maybe I am not setting the tension high enough on the 1/2" The issue I was having on the 1/2" was lots of drift, making it hard for me to properly align the fence for a thin cut. On both I do spend time setting the guides.

I'm making some binding too, will post later.

David L

You may want to consider using a 40 tooth, 7 1/4" Freud Diablo circular saw blade on a table saw. It has a 1/16" kerf and the finish is nice enough you likely won't need to sand the edge. I have the 40 tooth version and it's amazing how smooth and accurately it cuts and it's much cheaper than a 10" blade. You do need blade stabilizers on either side of the blade. I'm guessing you loose a wider kerf on a bandsaw......especially if you include what you loose to sanding.

Kevin Sjostrand wrote:On Sunday I showered and dressed, my wife cut my hair; ("almost cut my hair.....happened just the other day....it's getting kind of long") Who can tell me what that is from? :>)

Kevin

Déjà Vu, CSNY
Feel better

tommy

Oranges? What oranges?

Bingo.
All kidding aside, yes they are oranges. They keep longer sitting on the cold floor then in a box....not enough room in the fridge.
It is my wife's thing...and tough to walk around and not step on.....that I've done too.

Kevin