I am building a chest that requires me to cut a 45 degree angle on the length of a piece of cherry that is 1.25 inches thick by 36 inches long. The piece (8 of them) is only 2.5 inches wide. I’ve not done such a heavy angled cut before on my table saw and I just want it to be safe and accurate as two of the pieces will be joined together at the 45 to make a corner post. I would like some help as to how to set up the saw for this dangerous cut.
Edited 1/20/2006 7:17 am ET by Kringle
Replies
Kringle,
Tilt the tablesaw blade to 45*. Set the fence to whichever side of the blade that the blade will lean away from the fence. This will prevent the piece you are ripping from being trapped under the blade (or between blade and fence, in other words) as you make the cut. You can make the cut slightly (1/16" or so) overwide, and clean up on the jointer or with a handplane, if your saw blade won't give a good enough surface.
Getting the stock out ahead of time, just a little wider (maybe 3/8") than you need, and letting it relax for a day or two, will let you see if any of the strips are going to bow or warp. While ripping a narrow strip off a wider board may feel safer than pushing a narrow strip past the blade, the likelihood of the stock bowing or warping as it is ripped (and a resulting bind or kickback), is greater. Use a hold-down or fingerboard so that you don't have to get fingers too close to the blade.
Regards,
Ray
Kringle ,
Adding to Rays post , I try and leave the pieces to be cut on the 45° angle a few inches longer than needed . Sometimes the cut gets a snipe on the ends .
dusty
Good advice guys, thanks for the help.
Cut the 45 degree face on wide stock, clean up the face as needed, then cut the piece to the narrower final width. There is no good way to keep such a narrow board stable for taking a beveled cut, the piece you want will only have a 1.25" wide face on the table as it comes off the saw. Cutting the angle on wide stock will make the job easy, safe, and just as important, will give you an accurate cut.
If you need to, you can glue the cherry to some secondary wood to get the boards temporarily to a safe width if the cherry isn't wide enough. The final cut, getting the boards to the 2.5" width will have some problems to maintain accuracy, but there won't be nearly as many safety risks.
John W.
I have to agree with every word of John W's post. Cut the bevels first, then rip off the pieces with the saw at 90 deg.
DR
Kringle,
About 6-8 months ago FWW featured a jig for putting tapers on legs...I believe there was a video clip also. Anyhow, not to disagree with anything allready suggested, I'd probably use that jig to cut your pieces. It has a nice hold down which keeps fingers around the coffee cup while your performing the task...
Hi ALL,
Why not make a crosscut sled? It would make the cut safer, you could add a stop for accuracy, and it could be used for future projects as well.
Bob
Hi ALL,
I think I misunderstood Kringles post as I was thinking he wanted to cut the 45 on the ends. Now I realize he wants to rip the 45 along the lengths. Sorry for the min-information.
But hey, a crosscut sled, next to a zero clearance insert has been a boon to my jewelry box making.
Bob
When I'm doing similar cuts for Mission legs (they are 4 quartersawn pieces joined so there is a quatersawn face on each side of the leg), the problem I have is keeping the narrow pieces true as they go through the blade & I end up with not-so-straight sides and not-so-great joints. I was able to solve that by making a jig consisting of a piece of ply about 8" wide as a sled and 3 hold-downs positioned along it to keep the workpiece firmly stationary on the sled. Then I run the edge of the sled against the fence instead of the edge of the workpiece. Works great, less scary!
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
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