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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: John Culbreth on October 26, 2013, 10:29:00 PM

Title: making bow laminations
Post by: John Culbreth on October 26, 2013, 10:29:00 PM
Where can you order boxes of vertical grain bamboo flooring? I want to see if I can make my own laminations.
Title: Re: making bow laminations
Post by: Sam Harper on October 26, 2013, 11:33:00 PM
ifloor.com

But you should see if there are any hardwood flooring places near you.  Bamboo flooring is pretty cheap.  I got a cheap box on craigslist one time because somebody had some left over.
Title: Re: making bow laminations
Post by: Dmaxshawn on October 27, 2013, 07:15:00 AM
What Sammy said.  One box will last you a while.  Close too 25-30 bows depending on how good your bandsaw setup is at resawing.  


Shawn
Title: Re: making bow laminations
Post by: LittleBen on October 27, 2013, 11:22:00 AM
If you're making your own lams, you only need a 36" length, you could probabyl get what you needed for a number of bows just by getting some scrap boards from a construction site etc.

Know anybody in building or construction? pieces like that would just go in a dumpster anyway ... my guess is they'll give em to you.
Title: Re: making bow laminations
Post by: JamesV on October 28, 2013, 10:12:00 AM
The verticle bamboo I buy is 76" long, eleminating a splice in the handle.
Title: Re: making bow laminations
Post by: Dmaxshawn on October 28, 2013, 11:56:00 AM
James that seems easier to do and makes for a neater and cleaner lines.  But probably harder to cut on bandsaw.
Title: Re: making bow laminations
Post by: adirondacker88 on October 29, 2013, 08:05:00 AM
I used a taper jig and a thickness planner to make bamboo lams from free samples HD was giving away. Turned out great. Mine were 36" not sure how I'd taper a one piece at 72". Making 72" parallels make sense but tapers would be tuff. My bandsaw was not up to the task so I used cheap blades on table saw and still got 4 lams per piece of flooring.