Last night, October 12, I milled the walnut left over from my resawing attempt at TXRX Labs. I started with a mix of thicknesses: some pieces were around 1/2 inch, some were thinner, and a few might have been closer to 3/4 inch. All I know for sure is that my resawing technique needs to get better.
Before milling
These are the walnut pieces before I milled them down to 5/16 inch.
After milling
The goal was to bookmatch the pieces, so I kept milling the thicker ones down to match the thinner ones. It all got out of hand. I could have used the thicker pieces to make something, but in an effort to keep everything bookmatched, I milled away too much. Now I have a bunch of 5/16-inch pieces instead of the stock I wanted for the cabinet case.
My next plan is to buy two more six-foot walnut boards at Clark’s, as wide as I can find in the pile, and make the case from those. I’m hoping for a finished thickness of 5/8 inch, but I’m starting to rethink how much material I need to begin with.
What I’m starting to understand is how much cup, bow, and twist can cost me in thickness. Longer boards seem to give me more to deal with, and even an 18- or 25-inch piece might need enough flattening that I lose more material than I expected.
Even the thickness math is making me pause. If I start with a full 6/4 board—1-1/2 inches, or 24/16—two finished 5/8-inch pieces plus an assumed 1/16-inch bandsaw kerf use 21/16. That leaves only 3/16 inch total for flattening, drift, and cleanup. If I settle for 1/2-inch case sides and a top, the same calculation leaves 7/16 inch. And that assumes the board actually starts at the full thickness.