I wanted an oak board ripped down the middle. 240 mm x 50 mm . My bandsaw will only go to 180 mm. I cut it into two manageable lengths, one of a metre and one of about .75 metre and took them to my favourite woodyard to beg the use of their bandsaw.
Blimey, 2 grown men almost wet their pants at the suggestion of ripping that height! Too dangerous! can not be done! among other greek mutterings I didnt catch.
Once they had calmed down one of them suggested a cabinet shop around the corner.
Get there and a youngster (about late 20's) said yes he could do it. But then he proceeded to show me that he could not. The bandsaw was plenty big enough, I reckon the wheels were about 30", but when he started to wander off centre I stopped him and explained that his fence was tilted (a LOT!) and his blade was blunt (a bit) and this was not going to work.
Give the lad his due, over we go to very large sliding panel table saw and he saws through both edges till theres about 90 mm left in the middle.
Then we go back to the bandsaw and he AGAIN pushes it so tight to the tilted fence that the blade starts to wander again. He wouldnt let me do it (understandable but annoying) so I had to show him to let go with the fence hand and very slightly push with the other hand to keep the blade in the groove.
Finally, I have 4 pieces!
but then, unasked, we go over to a planer thicknesser that had iron beds at east 6 ft long and he thicknesses it down to 20 mm for me.
well worth the ten euro he asked for.
As a side note, he lubricated the blade a couple of times by squirting olive oil onto it. All well and good but now my oak needs a good sanding to remove the stain.