Re-saw action can save money....eventually.

What you see here is wood out of my band saw... I am able to re saw wider boards into narrower boards.  What you see here is 8/4 cut into quarter inch pieces.  The Spanish cedar cut like butter.  Now my shop smells really nice! This will line a few humidors I'm finishing. The next step is to run them through my thickness planer and put a finished surface on the face of each board.

While this is a little less expensive to do, it does take some expensive equipment to complete.  For example, a square foot of 1/4 Spanish cedar is $7 and a board foot of 8/4 Spanish cedar is $7.49.  I can get 4 sheets of 1/4 out of that 8/4 board because I cut them 3/8 thick.  That is only $1.87 a square foot. While this represents a savings of $5 a foot, the equipment cost big bucks.  The good news is that after 170 square feet of cutting this thinner stock, I will have paid for the equipment.  There is 8 square feet of Spanish cedar cut into 1/4 stock.....only 162 feet to go!  

The best part of being able to do this is having complete control over the stock I work with.  I don't have to source wood that is the thickness I need because I can make my own thin stock.  Imagine the possibilities with very curly or figured stock, I can make it go much further by cutting my own veneer. Instead of wrapping a board with very thin veneer, I can use re-sawed lumber that is at least 1/8 thick.  It would be hard to sand through that!