The vase is going to be 3" at its widest point and 3" tall. I said tiny.  It will be a brick pattern with some dyed black veneer in between each brick. It will have nine layers of brick at 1/4" for each layer and 18 pieces per ring. Okay here is my question. Do I need to allow for the thickness of the veneer?

Don R Davis wrote on Feb 20^th, 2020 at 12:21pm:


If you glue it into your construction, then yes you need to allow for it.
Look at what Ron said or you could just add 1/40th" to your segment length. What ever is easier for you to calculate.
If you vessel is going to be 3" at the widest, then .45" could make a difference

Just thinking here.  Instead of adding veneer why not use wire burners??

Ohhh...  I was only thinking about them between layers, but between segments in a layer works to  Ed's thinking.

Thanks for that, Ron. 

What I wanted to know is the segments going to fit with no gaps. I know I didn't myself clear at all. It being a brick pattern I need the veneer on all sides. The rings will be 1/4" thick but I am making them 1 inch thick I will cut them on the bandsaw. That is after I make a jig to cut them.

Grant, what I am doing is making three rings that are one inch thick and all will be about three inches wide. I will then make a sled for my bandsaw and cut three rings 1/4" thick from each of the three one inch thick rings. This will give me a total of nine 1/4" thick rings. Doing it like this I think will be much easier. What do you think?

Slicing rings on the bandsaw is a great way to do it, but as Ron said, you need to allow for what's taken away
A ring of about 3/16"-7/32" is going to be more realistic if you're starting with 3/4" stock.
If you start with 3/4" stock and make two perfect cuts for the least amount of waste, you end up with three pieces. Your saw kerf is probably going to be about 1/32" and the sanding will take away even more.
Also, you need to consider that more than likely you'll have 2 pieces with one face to be sanded and a third with 2 faces to be sanded. These three pieces need to be sanded to equal thickness, so what ever you remove from the center cut piece (two rough faces), you need to remove from the other two as well. (unless you allowed for this when cutting)
It may seem an insignificant amount but it quickly adds up.
So you started with 3/4" made two cuts and sanded either four or six faces removing about a 32nd" from each piece.
So in total it's quite easy to remove anywhere from 1/8" (4/32") to 3/16" (6/32")
I hope that makes sense and I should mention this is a best case scenario.

Three TPI is quite aggressive, how thick is the stock your cutting.

1" is about the minimum thickness I would want to try with three TPI. With a height of 1" you could go quite high with your tooth count, 6, 8 or even 10 depending on the species.
Three TPI will leave a rougher surface than a higher tooth count would, there will be sanding.
SO, are you cutting 1" think stock OR cutting a slice from a 3" diameter ring or both?



Another thing to consider is what wood you're cutting Wood that is very hard (usually tropical) likes a higher tooth count, like you were cutting soft metal.
(if it's as hard as aluminum, treat it like it)

As I understand it, you have rings that are 3" in diameter. Each ring is 1" thick. You want to cut each of them into 3 rings, each 1/4" thick when they are finish sanded.

I would use double-sided tape to tape the ring to a piece of MDF or something equally flat, which you could ride along your bandsaw fence. Use a blade with 6 or 8 teeth per inch and at least 1/2" wide. Slice the ring into three pieces, then use a drum sander, if you have one, to flatten them. It will be tight to get 3 good, flat rings of 1/4" each out of a 1" ring, but doable if your bandsaw is set up well, and the kerf of the blade is narrow.

3 tpi is for sawing logs in half while the log is on end to clear the swaf or along the grain of the wood.  I use a 1/2" to 3/4" 6 tpi and I used to take off the pitch so it would be a smoother cut and I did not like the results.

It is a wonder the person at TW told you that unless he was new.  I was really dumb about it 7 years ago and a manager told me what I said to you.

The spacing pieces (thin strips/veneer) really make the piece pop. Great way to enhance a small piece.

I've cut rings with a 1/2" 3 tpi blade and they came out pretty good.  They still need a little sanding.  If I was going to do it often, I'd get a 1/2" blade with more teeth.  Go slow and let the blade do the cutting.  I've sliced them as narrow as 1/8".  I use double stick tape on an old table saw tenoning jig. Sort of a poor man's accuslicer.  Works great and keeps the fingers out of the way.