Sheet Breakdown

[Bill McDermott]

In a successful attempt to minimize shaggy "cross cuts" in plywood (you know what I mean), I made a zero clearance base plate for my CS. It's just hardboard with a frame of 1/2" x 1/2" pieces that fit around the stock base plate. I put a fixed cleat in front and a loose one in back that thumb screws down. I waxed the bottom and it scoots right along. Much, much smoother and accurate to to glide across plywood.

The unintended bonus payoff, was that it's far easier to keep that smooth sliding wooden tray butted to the straight edge than the unadorned saw.

Killed two birds with one zero-clearance base plate.

** Warning -- the safety guard will not work with a zero clearance baseplate. So beware of the perpetually exposed blade. Habit will tempt you to put the saw down before the blade stops spinning.**

[Norman Pyles]

I am using a home made guide too, and try to cut plywood sheets on the back of my truck tailgate. I just slide them out, and put a workmate under the off cut. I have a bad back, and unloading a full sheet of 3/4 ply is almost impossible for me. I am keeping my eye out for a track saw too.

[Philip Johnson]

I laughed at the idea of a festool track saw after all if I could get a sheet home I could cut it up.

I had about 10 sheets of mdf to break down and didn't want to want to kill myself dragging em to the saw. So I broke down and bought a festool track saw. It makes breaking down sheets a joy. The cut is accurate enough and clean enough you can make your finally cuts with it. Its hard to tell the difference between a cut with the track saw and a cut with a forrest saw blade on a table saw. I have found more uses for it and it goes everywhere with me. The price is a bit steep but you soon get over it, if a tool works and works good its worth the price.

Phil

[scott vroom]

The Festool tracksaw setup looks slick, but don't you still have the problem of setting up sawhorses or making the cut on the floor over a piece of foam (on your hands and knees)?

[Kevin Womer]

At home depot or any of the "big box" stores you can get a 4'x8' sheet of styrofoam that makes an excellent sheet goods support while you cut the plywood. You just set the ply on the styrofoam and cut right into it. Allows you to crawl all over the plywood while cutting and so on.

Great idea and I have often thought of trying this-the only problem is where to store it when I'm done cutting up the plywood. Anyone have any creative ideas?
Thanks,
Kevin

[Jim McFarland]

Great idea and I have often thought of trying this-the only problem is where to store it when I'm done cutting up the plywood. Anyone have any creative ideas?
Thanks,
Kevin

Knock-down support inspired by one shown on Festool Owner's Group...

[Dave Schreib]

Great idea and I have often thought of trying this-the only problem is where to store it when I'm done cutting up the plywood. Anyone have any creative ideas?
Thanks,
Kevin

I glued 2 layers of foam insulation to a 4 by 8 sheet of hardboard. Then strengthened the hardboard with a 2x2 frame because it was a little floppy. The whole set up rests behind my rough 3x8 work bench (basically in the middle of the room). When I want to use it I scoot it up onto the work bench. If you just use foam without the hardboard you end up with small pieces of foam.

I use a homemade hardboard straightedge to guide the cuts and plug my shopvac into the "dust port" on my PC circ saw.

Works ok.

In terms of storing the thing, maybe store it where you stack your 4x8 sheet goods? It's the same size.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Frank Pellow started a thread many years ago on his sawhorse build. The link to the plans on Popular Woodworking is dead, Frank emailed me a copy and I think I still have it somewhere. I built a set and documented over on FOG. They work very nicely. I have a 4 x 8' sheet of plywood with some pink rigid insulation glued to it. PM me if you are interested in plans.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...sawhorse+plans

[Jerome Hanby]

I built something like this except I put it together with all the 2x4s flat, half laps hooking them together, and a pair of banquet table legs so I could fold the whole deal flat when I was done. Think the basic rig is someplace on the FWW site. The PSI Portable Panel Saw is a pretty good solution for about $100. Mine doesn't see much use since I got my Festool, but it's a good solution for breaking down sheet goods (especially after you attach some hardboard to the rails and cut it down so you always know where the saw line is).

[Kent A Bathurst]

I am using a Diablo plywood blade in the old circ saw, while I don't know if that is a particularly great blade, I am confident the wandering is my fault, not the equipment. I do sometimes wonder if a handier or lighter saw might help my technique. I have always thought the handle of my circ saw to un-naturally off center to the left...

My table saw is a PM 64 contractors saw. Its a pretty good contractor saw and its handled anything I have thrown at it, but it has the 30 +/- inch fence rails so capacity is limited. However, most of my breakdown cuts are "crosscuts" on the 4'x8' sheets, I have a 3 foot outfeed table on the saw and outfeed roller stands so I can generally handle pretty long rip cuts. A full 8' sheet is pretty difficult to rip though, and shorter lengths improve the quality of the cut.

I have never been able to figure out why the circ saw labelled "left hand" is a left-hand saw - as a righty, the left-hand saw is MUCH easier to use - you are looking right down on the cut path.

I have been helping a friend set up a modest WW shop - no TS. I helped him build a guide like yours [except I got him some alum bar stock for the guide rail, with 6" overhang each end]. He was still wandering a bit - all pilot error - he'd look up, he'd look back, worst - he'd move his feet while the saw was in motion. I got him trianed to not look around, and stop the saw motion when he moved his feet, and get the power cord in the proper place before he started. Got better. THEN I had him get a PC Saw Boss - smaller frame, left-hand, lighter weight. Now he's doing just fine.

That's "do as I say, not as I do". I don't have much need for a circ saw, so I still have my 20-yr-old right-hand bulky Crapsman. I'd love to get a Saw Boss [or even better yet - a PC 314], but I can't come up with a plausible excuse to spend the $$. When I need to break down panels, I use it or a jig saw to rough cut - don't care about square or straight - to get it down to a size I can handle on the TS. The side panels, top, bottom, and shelves in a cabinet are what - 16" deep at most? Even at 8' long, rough cut at 17", you can run this through your TS pretty easily. For cut-to-length - a low-tech sled will do it - even end-trimming the long sides [as long as you support any "wild" end off the TS, and clamp that sucker in place on the sled]. The only biggie is the back - but the edges of that will be concealed, so you want it square, but you don't care about wandering circ saw blade cuts.

[Greg Portland]

A tracksaw will make your life easier but it is by no means required. I would do the following:

1) Check blade quality. Replace with upper end Freud (or similar) if it's junk.
2) Check that the blade is parallel with the base plate edge. Adjust the saw if required. It would not surprise me if the Craftsman saw was mis-adjusted. If the saw can't be aligned properly then get a decent mid-tier saw.
3) Buy a 3/4" or 1" thick piece of rigid styrofoam insulation. Put that on your saw horses, then the sheet good on top. The foam will greatly reduce tear-out on the backside of the cut.
3b) If you are comfortable with the exposed blade then build a zero clearance insert for your saw; it will greatly reduce tear out on the top side of the boards. A "saw caddy" can be used to store the saw when it's off (blade not resting on concrete).
4) Use a clean factory edge on a sheet of MDF or plywood as your straightedge. A 8"+ x 8' wide piece would work well.
5) Clamp the straightedge to your workpiece once you've aligned the cut.
6) Set the blade cutting depth so the teeth just clear the surface of the wood. You don't want to cut through your foam into the saw horses!
7) When cutting, feed the saw slowly and smoothly through the wood. Push slightly toward the fence as you cut.

The benefit of a track saw (Festool, etc.) over the above system is that the guide track gets placed right on the cut line (very fast to setup a cut). Additionally, clamping is rarely required because the backing is rubberized / grippy. With a decent blade & some modifications (Zero clearance inserts, etc.) a 'normal' saw will product cuts just as accurate as a tracksaw in traditional materials.

[David Prince]

(4) 2 x 2 x 8 foot running sawhorse to saw horse, then you can rip end to end. Add (4) 2 x 2 x 4 foot perpendicular to the 8 footers to form a grid and do your cross cuts. Keep your sawblade within that grid during your cuts. All of the pieces store easily and last forever. Use a clamp-on straight edge. The Milwaukee tilt-lok saw has an adjustable handle that helps give you a comfortable position and has enough power to drive a blade. Use a sharp blade. piece of cake!

[Roger Jensen]

I also bought the EZ smart kit for $70. It works well and doesn't take up a lot of space. I tried the foam insulation technique but didn't like working on the floor on my knees. I have Festool guides with a Hilti 267e circular saw that fits the guides.

[glenn bradley]

White foam insulation on the floor with a shop made straight edge. I gotta keep these old bones moving so getting down on the ground once in a blue moon is OK with me ;-)

[Kevin Womer]

[QUOTE=Dave Schreib;1517286]I glued 2 layers of foam insulation to a 4 by 8 sheet of hardboard. Then strengthened the hardboard with a 2x2 frame because it was a little floppy. The whole set up rests behind my rough 3x8 work bench (basically in the middle of the room). When I want to use it I scoot it up onto the work bench. If you just use foam without the hardboard you end up with small pieces of foam.

This is what I was thinking of, I will give it a try.
Thank you,
Kevin