Great ideas on cutting curves. Ditto on seeing the vertical band jig video.
While on braces, does anybody have any tricks or jigs for cutting the ends? Shoulders and cheeks?
I always thought a radial arm saw with a dado stack would work well. But i don't have a radial arm saw to try it out and they're getting hard to find these days.

I'll see if I can dig it up -- may take a day or two as the barn ain't gonna raise itself!

I have some space like that, Gabel.

I have cut a lot of braces with just a hand saw, axe and slick. Alas, most are now cut with a skill saw, all in a row perform the same cut on each piece, reset the saw and make the next. Knock the waste off if it didn't fall off and trim with a slick, if needed.

Yes, I saw that setup in Mt. Rest. I love that area.

Gabel, if you are ever interested in selling one of those Yates, let me know. I'm a buyer for more than you bought it for it sounds like.

P.S. Nice weather for raising.

Mo -- I would but the reason we've bought two is we tipped the first one over setting it down in a new spot. Scary. Busted the main casting. We pulled some parts and scrapped it to help pay for the new one.

We could not for the life of us figure out how or why it happened. We had moved it a dozen times I bet before that so we thought we knew what we were doing.

Until we went to set the next one down in the same spot and it almost happened again. There was enough of a hump in the slab at that spot to tip it. Shimmed it up and bolted it down.

The video is on Whit's old phone. He said he'd dig it up tonight.

Hi Mo
Can I ask why you don't like the portable bandsaw.
I am heading in exactly the opposite direction to you. The stationary bandsaw is great for smaller curved knee braces but I find it pretty hard to steer a bigger timber through the machine with satifactory results. The curve always has flat spots and uneven radius even with a nice new band on my old 36" saw.
I find I am getting much better results with a carpenters chainsaw. Rougher finish but much fairer curve.
I am saving up my pennies for a Mafell Z5 unless someone talks me out of it.
The stationary bandsaw is still a damn handy tool to have about the shop nonetheless.
Cheers

I have an old (40 years- back when they were well made and h-e-a-v-y) Delta with 6" height and 18" width capacity. I use it to rough out curved braces from 4" stock frequently. When I inherited it from my dad (a tool and die maker) I foolishly replaced the three phase motor with a fairly HD single phase 120. It's not the fastest saw in the world, but it's not the slowest either..
Having said that, In my experience it's more about the blade you're using than the HP. A decent 4 tpi narrow re-saw blade with some set goes as fast as I want it to. Setting up in-feed and out feed tables help tons as well.

Good thoughts on the blade vs. hp. Good to know.

Galen,

I have used the Z5 quite a bit. Most of my radii are in braces with a far away origin.

The Z5 seems like a great tool for profiling ends of rafters and projecting cross beam / half lap stuff. I used to do those projections with cyma recta or cyma reversa, but now I just do angled cuts with the big saw. I like that look better at this time.

In long sweeping radii, gentle curves with the Mafell seem to wander and belly. The blade capacity is just not that big. Although you can take it to 10X and I think even 12X if the cut is along a gentle curve it seems to want to follow the grain. Nothing worse than running a $5K tool only to have to finish up with hand tools to fix. It also runs through blades quickly and they are not inexpensive.

In short if I was doing 10" radii all the time it would be the portable, but I'm not, so I am looking to go the stationary route with infeed and outfeed tables like dovetail described.

Haven't used the carpenters chainsaw much. The Prazi once or twice, but was not impressed. What kind of texture does the chain on the Mafell leave? Is it clean? I don't work much s4s, so I am not looking for that, but the bandsaw mill I am getting stuff from leaves a nice "light rough" texture. Sorry about the oxymoron.

Adam Valesano does some cool radius work on the bandsaw too. Maybe he has some video to post. O Adam woohoo...

Mo
The carpenters chainsaw I use is an old protool 380 running a 16" bar with square ground ripping chain. I use it mostly for cutting long curved timbers: sling braces, crucks, curved braces etc. While it follows a curve nicely the finish is certainly not as fine as a well tuned bandsaw. That said I am more than happy to leave it as is on a more rustic frame.
I haven't had any experience with the Mafell although apparently they have a very fine cutting chain for finish work. I am guessing that this is probably designed mainly with cross cutting work in mind and that you would have to push it like a mule to get it to rip along grain.
The saw certainly takes a bit of getting used to but the more I use it the more it is becoming the favorite tool in the shop.