18 replies to this topic

[Brer Frog]

I had a 4”x18” piece of plywood I wanted to rip into two pieces of about 2”x18” each. I don’t have a table saw & tried to figure out a safe way to do this with a circular saw but could not.

So I cut a couple pieces off a large sheet of plywood. I measured & fit things several times before cutting but it still didn’t come out quite right & I need to trim off a small amount.

For those without a workshop & table saw, is there any secret or trick way to trim small strips of wood without a table saw?

 

[DDH69]

I do not have a table saw and I've cut two cabinet precisely.  My method - circular saw run up against a bar clamped to the sheet you are cutting and also clamped to a couple of saw horses.  Do a couple of test cuts to get the exact distance to clamp the bar from the line you want to cut.  I got all of my cuts within 0.5mm using this method.  Just take planty of time to test, measure (twice) then cut.

 

Edit - An image of my cut 

Edited by DDH69, 16 July 2017 - 05:29 AM.

[greeze]

Use a guide as DDH69 suggests above. Oh, and a steady hand wouldn't hurt either! 

[DDH69]

This post and a couple of post below it has a few more detail and pictures from a couple of years ago.

[Brer Frog]

I do use a guide as shown by DDH69. But now I have to trim or rip a 1/4" off the length of the piece I cut from a large sheet. I can cut another narrow piece from the large sheet, but that seems like I'm wasting the large sheet when there are smaller pieces that can be used.

 

I can drive to someone who will cut it for me, but it will be another week till that's possible.

 

Here's a photo of the wood I want to trim. I have several other "scrap" pieces that I can use and they're all about the same width. But I don't see any way to clamp on a guide to narrow pieces.

 

 Saw.jpg   115.91KB   8 downloads

[DDH69]

My circular saw has a guide that screws onto it that runs along the edge of the wood being cut for smaller jobs like this.  If you don't have that, another trick is to clamp a block of wood to the base plate of your saw and run that along the piece you're cutting as a guide.  Doing this is quite safe, just don't do anything dangerous like lock the saw trigger on or turn in over.

[gtxjoe]

Safer to just cut a new one from the large piece. Measuring twice and cutting once

You can make the small piece look like a large piece again by laying it next to that large piece you have and securing the 2 together or to your cutting surface safely. If you can't figure that out, go back to option 1. Wood is cheap. Fingers are priceless

[Drybonz]

I use a Japanese pull saw, then square the edges with a bench plane.  Takes longer, but no tear out and you don't need the table saw.  Everything that was ever cut before there were such things as table saws was cut without a table saw.

Edited by Drybonz, 16 July 2017 - 08:11 PM.

[Brer Frog]

The piece I was showing is just one of several. I also have several pieces of plywood I was going to use for the backbox. They are just about the right size & need to be slightly cut down, but it’s going to be impossible to clamp on guide.

You can see from the photo of my circular saw there is no guide or base on the short side of the blade. That makes it difficult to run that edge of the saw against a clamped on guide.

 

I’ve made plans to go over to my son’s house next weekend & bring a bunch of plywood to cut on his table saw. That will be safe, especially since it’s SawStop.

Edited by Brer Frog, 17 July 2017 - 06:08 AM.

[tthurman]

An edge guide may be an option you want to look at.  Since it attaches to the saw it's a work around to the clamping problem, but these cuts become more challenging on smaller stock.  Obviously, right?

Edited by tthurman, 17 July 2017 - 05:07 PM.

[Brer Frog]

What upsets me is that I had the monitor in the cabinet a couple times & measured the height of the filler panel several times. And then cut it slightly smaller just to make sure I wouldn't have a problem. And yet I do. Grumble, grumble.

 

Maybe the way the ruler sits on the edge of the monitor must be slightly different than the way the filler panel sits. I dunno.

[Topogram]

I almost chopped my hand off with my first attempt at using a circular saw a few days ago when I started my cabinet build (my fault, misjudged the height of the blade when attempting a mitre cut). Scared the **** out of me. I switched back to my trusty jigsaw with a long steel level as a guide. I clamp it exactly 33 mm from the line I want to cut (33 mm is the distance from the edge of my jigsaw's show to its blade) and then run the jigsaw pushed up against the level. Has worked flawlessly and you can avoid a scary circular saw! Obviously it takes a little longer but hey.

[Onevox]

Do you know anyone with a miter (chop) saw? I broke down and bought one when I built my rec room.  They're fairly reasonable and make alignment easy. because the blade is pushing down into the base and the saw spins so it pushing into the back guide. For longer cuts, you can cut one side, then rotate and flip the piece, line up the cut with the blade when its off, raise the blade and then make the cut. Just ... um ... be careful, please.  One trick is the screw the piece to a larger scrap wood so you can move your fingers away from the blade.

 

http://www.homedepot...-260L/205566001

[Brer Frog]

I have a 10" miter saw & it works great. However as Onevox mentioned the length of the cut is limited. It's used mostly to cut 1"x1", 2"x4", etc.

 

I've heard that a bandsaw is a very popular tool to have & safer than a table saw because there is no kick-back from the blade. Of course it too has limits on how large a piece of wood it can handle.

[BorgDog]

imho, to answer your original question, to do what you want to do with that piece of wood, a table saw is the right tool.  Can you do it with other tools, yes, but not nearly as easy or accurate.  Bandsaw would probably work as well although a bandsaw blade can move side to side easier so not always quite as accurate.  I would not want to use a miter saw to rip that small of a piece of wood, I've done it but I didn't like it.  without a table saw (or bandsaw) the next best option imho again would be drybonz hand saw.  If there was one (big) tool in my shop that I would not want to give up it would be my table saw ( and I have 3 of them, one at home shop, one at cabin shop, and one portable).

[Onevox]

In that case, I might suggest you call a local cabinet shop, if you have one, and see if they'll cut them for you. I bet they'll do for free or for a couple bucks.

Edited by Onevox, 19 July 2017 - 09:11 PM.

[Brer Frog]

In that case, I might suggest you call a local cabinet shop, if you have one, and see if they'll cut them for you. I bet they'll do for free or for a couple bucks.

 

The plan is to go to my son's house this weekend & use his table saw. If I have time I'll try to finalize the backbox plans & get that wood cut too.

[mattbini]

Hi Again Brer Frog, My advice, Get a cheap Router with a decent depth, and then by a work top router blade and hire or by a cheap Jig . Kitchen worktop fitters use them to get the HAIR line join between two worktops. check out this vid for the basics.

Calmly do all your clamping and then take your time to slowly cut your edges in small depth runs. It is the ideal tool for the job and can be used for cutting slots grooves and holes all around the cab.
If you clamp your sides of cabinets together and clamp them down to a work bench you will cut them exactly square and the same size, trust me. Even I managed to do it on a little black and decker workmate bench in the garage.(loads of sawdust)
It is the ideal way to do it if you havent got a Massive workshop.
http://www.ebay.co.u...zQAAOSwjvJZTLYp
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/4559423
http://www.ebay.co.u...bUAAOSw7aBVBGKW
(check shank width matches router)Jig is just a plank with a straight slot in and you can just use a straight plank to cut against if you are more carefull to keep the router flat.

[Brer Frog]

Thanks Matt,

I'll take a look at the links & video.