I am becoming more involved with projects constructed with hardwood veneered plywood. Hoisting full sheets onto my Unisaw is becoming more difficult with each passing year. I have a Milwaukee panel saw (cross cut and rip) but am not happy with its accuracy. I have double checked the set-up and tried 6 different blades (8″) but am still getting 1/8 to 3/16 ” bowed cuts when ripping 8′ sheets. The entire frame is welded and the only adjustment is on the blade angle. Any suggestiions? Ideally, I’d like to find or build a plywood cutting system in which the the wood remains stationary and the saw moves over the sheet. 2 Canadian carpenters marketed a similar system years ago but I can’t remember any details. Help.
e-mail [email protected]
Replies
Jack,
Festool markets a circular saw that uses an accessory track/fence to create a horizontal panel saw. A review of the system may be found here:
http://benchmark.20m.com/reviews/FestoolATF55/FestoolATF55Review.html
Forget the unisaw and the panel saw. Panels can be cut very cleanly and accurately, and much more easily, using a circular saw. There was an article in either FWW or AWW on this technique a few years ago, but I've been doing it a lot longer than that.
You just build a simple sacrificial bed out of four 2x4s, two of them perpendicular to the other two and joined with lap joints. Lay this bed on two sawhorses.
Now build a simple fence for your circular saw. I built mine out of 1/4" plywood glued and screwed onto a piece of MDF about 6" wide (I built two, one 4' long and the other 8' long). Have the 1/4" material extend 6" or 7" beyond the MDF, then lay it flat on the sacrificial bed, snug your circular saw up to the MDF, and cut off the excess 1/4" materal. You now have a fence exactly calibrated to cut using your circular saw.
The next time you have to cut a big panel, lay it on top of the bed, clamp your fence along the exact line of the cut, and go at it. You may have to square things up a tiny bit on your unisaw but this is a cheap and very effective solution.
I have made my initial cuts for years as Mark has stated. Rather than hoist an entire sheet around the shop, wrestle it across the table and try to catch everything on the outfeed side I use a simple fence and my circular saw.
JB
Thanks for your reply. I've been using a circular saw and edge guide, then squaring up on the table saw. Guess what I'm trying to do is go from full sheet to finished pieces in one step. The panel saw does a fair job but its construction makes set-up measurements difficult and awkward. Thanks - Jack
"markroderick" has it right. Mine is somewhat more elaborate than what he describes, but this kind of system works well.
There was piece on a basement shop in FWW a few years ago, where the guy had a system like this illustrated (Feb. 1999, I think).
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00035.asp
bit
Edited 1/13/2003 3:42:45 AM ET by Bitman
Thanks for your response. I'm putting together a "hybrid" plan to incorporate a lot of these suggestions. I'm going to market it to guys like me who are over 60 and have trouble lifting and bending over. Maybe I'll get rich. - Jack
As a side item. I cut most of the plywood I use on a table grid on top of saw horse legs. Long 5" wide piece of aluminium for stright edge and the Mikata saw for cement siding, with dust control, with the original blade. This blade is great!! cross cuts without pulling up the surface and lasts for ages. Birch ply, Oak ply, Maple ply, no problem. I used to use 150+ tooth steel blades but they lost their edge very quickly. Only bad news $45 each. The first blade has cut 120 sheets so far with approx 24' per sheet or cut before moving to the table saw.
If you have more than one 8'x4' boards, use one as a fence to cut the other. You can cut them on the floor, if you have the space. Place three ,say 4x2's under the board to be cut , clamp the two together and off you go. Saves the back!
Regards Len.
Thanks for the suggestion - Jack
Jack,
Several years ago I bought a few "Clamp 'n' Tool Guides" while at "The Woodworkers Show." They are a combination straightedge and clamp; they're convenient and work very well.
I measured the distance from the edge of my circular saw's base shoe to the edge of the blade and added this interval to the width of cut. Then I scribed a line at that distance, clamped the the tool guide on the line, and made the cut with the saw shoe riding against the straight edge.
It works very well as long as the distance from the edge of the saw base to the blade is an even measurement. The straightedge clamps have lots of other uses, and some of them interlock to create a sliding fence of sorts.
Jazzdogg
A trick I have used for many years is to rip a piece of 1/4 hardboard to the width of my saw base. Then cut it into 9-12" sections. For each sawblade I then snug a piece up to a st. edge and make two 1-2" cuts into the hardboard, one on the left side of the blade and one on the Rt. side. I then label it to identify the saw and the blade. Now to use a st. edge, I use this to set it at the correct offset at both ends of the st. edge. I can set it quite accurately to either side of the blade. I have a number of these guides for each of my circ. saws.
This trick can also be used with routers, labeling each with the base and bit. You can have four combinations on one guide if you wish.
Edited 1/14/2003 1:42:51 AM ET by JANATION
Here is another method:
Use your router. Clamp the board down on your bench with the 2x4 fence suggested by others then use your router to mill the piece out of the sheet. I use 1/4 inch straight bits, but an upcutting bit might be a better choice.
If your bench is fairly flat this is a cinch and there is no ripout of the veneered hardwood.
It is slower, but allows you to avoid the waste of ripping. It also works extraordinarily well with the melamine coated particle board for cabinet interiors.
Thanks for your reply. I've used this method for cutting curves and shapes in high pressure laminate. but haven't tried it on plywood.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled