Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 27, 2000 02:52am | #1

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   some of the details can be done with large diameter drill bits (two inch to four inch)

   and dadoe blade setups....

   and 1/2 inch shaft routers.....

   every one is different....just examine the pattern.. see if you can break it down into parts.. and then adapt the best wood removing tool to the application that you can..

   and it may be a chainsaw set up in a jig...

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 27, 2000 04:51am | #2

   *Thomas,We use a Prazi attachment for a skill saw. Most tool catalogs have them. (It's the chain saw attachment that hooks up to a worm drive saw).Then clean it up with a belt sander and a rasp.Works great.Ed. Williams

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 27, 2000 05:25am | #3

   *Try pattern routing. Make a pattern out of plywood or mdf, put the largest pattern bit you can get on your router, and do both sides. then take it to your bandsaw and cut off the remainder, clean up with belt sander. Should be close to perfect.

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 30, 2000 07:25pm | #4

   *b TVMDCI like Ed's Prazzi idea. But cutting the beam ends is only the first problem: Protecting the end-grain from dry rot is critical.Picture opening a box of straws at the end. You have a bunch of holes leading into hollow tubes. End grain is the same. I use a clear penetrating epoxy sealer to seal the end grain and then put a thin layer of epoxy to seal it completely. Caulk and Dormans Water Putty don't work.The attachment shows what happened to a 4x8 beam which was not so treated.

2. 
   larry_b | Aug 15, 2000 03:50am | #5

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   I have been confronted with this on several occasions... The absolute best way to do this in a heavy timber is to pattern route it. With one caveat,
   Get the biggest nastiest pattern bit you can, and the biggest nastiest bearing under bit you can, chew away all the waste you can by any means possible, or be prepared to make a bunch of passes. You may have to start with a short pattern bit, or you will be cutting to much for the router to take, increase the bit length as you get run out of cutter. The trick to doing thick beams, is that when you are half way through and cannot find a longer pattern bit. Flip the beam over and cut from the bottom with the aforementioned bearing under bit. I have successfully profiled 6X beams this way.

1. 
   larry_b | Aug 15, 2000 03:54am | #6

   *Oh, one very important thing to save on the sanding... make sure the damn timber is SQUARE or at least that the two faces you will be cutting from are dead parallel. If that is the case, a little finish sanding and you are done. If you do not square the beam up, the cuts will not align and you will have a mess.

1. 
   Pete_M | Aug 22, 2000 02:22am | #7

   *I recently designed a massive pergola w/ paired beams 6" x 6" -14' long. To simplify the end treatment I had the ends radiused (4 1/2" = R) and a 1" straight vertical cut to meet the bottom. A local mill shop did it for me. Nice job and not too expensive. The shop owner said that they would put a band saw on a turntable to make the cuts. No local lumber yard, saw mill, or carpenter had any viable ideas. The mill shop has my business from now on!

1. 
   Duncan_Mahoney | Aug 23, 2000 04:16am | #8

   *At the AWFS show in Anahiem there were medium sized bandsaws mounted on articulated arms to do just such detailing on big, heavy stuff. Pretty spendy though, IIRC about $6-10K. Most of the "home brewwed" solutions to this problem I've heard of involved mounting a bandsaw on a dolly equipped with transfer balls or zero-throw swivel casters.

3. 
   Thomas_Wittman | Aug 24, 2000 10:52pm | #9

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   Hi Folks,
   I have a large pergola progect that requires decorative ogee type end details on large 4x6 and 6x6 timbers timbers. I have tried using my portable bandsaw for the 4x6 and can rough it out to some degree but I am wondering if there is a technique for those several 6x6 timbers. All the ends need the same detail and the timbers are 8 and ten feet long. Any ideas?

4. 
   Guest_ | Aug 24, 2000 10:52pm | #10

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   Well, if you want to experimaent a little you could try something like this: