Charlie Fox
07-16-2012, 9:42 PM
first, i am a very basic "minimalist" woodworker so i am not extremely knowledgeable of all the tools available out there, but had 2 years woodshop in high school and have used table saws etc. right now i have a drill press, band saw, 12" thickness planer, and a craftsman RAS, along with a fair amount of hand power tools including 4" grinder and king arthur attachments.
i am working with live edge slab lumber - oak, pecan, elm, etc - hard stuff. size is typically 7-8' long, up to 24" wide, i need to cut some large mortice and tenons, in a rustic but professional looking fashion - the tenons being 6 to 12" wide and 1" thick, cut out of a slab about 20" wide and 8/4 stock, meaning i need a 1/2" cut on each side. also - i really want them to extend through the mortise end (mortise fully penetrates 8/4 stock), so i want them over 2" long. i have done so recently in mesquite - equally hard of course - but smaller M&T's (6" long, 1/2" thick in 6/4 stock - but the mortise did not fully penetrate). here is what i have done:
used a 1960's era craftsman RAS with dado head the same age. "technically" it works ok, but - with wider stock the RAS cant reach the whole cut so i have to flip it to come in from the other side, making alignment difficult since you cant really use a straight edge on a live edge. other issue - the old RAS safety issue. its an old tool, and the unit moves too smoothly. if it had a means of slow movement with a stop it would ok, but with a loose movement you have to be sooooooo careful to take very small bites/cuts, and eventually it always grabs and climbs and everything locks up, especially on hard stock. NO FUN.
have also used the RAS with 2 or 3 crosscut blades togehter, and just keep moving the wood, if the 3 blades are 3/8 thick well, do the math and remember the size of the wood. time consuming, and the table on the RAS is not very big yet the stock is very big.
next, i tried just a hand router (basic craftsman) with 1/2" bit. i can do ok, but it is very demanding (noise, dust, vibration, etc) , and the bottom cut is not very smooth. cutting a wide tenon presents a problem keeping the router level, so i end up with a lot of indents that i can take out with a belt sander but wish i didnt have to. i then can trace the final shape of the tenon onto the other stock and use the router to do the best i can to fit. this works, but is time consuming. oh yeah - i do clamp a piece of wood at a right angle to serve as a router guide so i have a straight edge.
now i could also do the same job using a circular saw making one pass at a time, but this will also be very time consuming. so it seems to me what would work perfectly is a circular saw with a dado head. is there such an animal? or at least a circular saw that will accept 3 or 4 blades?
any other ideas? i am in Houston and have Woodcraft and Empire Tools nearby....
charlie
i am working with live edge slab lumber - oak, pecan, elm, etc - hard stuff. size is typically 7-8' long, up to 24" wide, i need to cut some large mortice and tenons, in a rustic but professional looking fashion - the tenons being 6 to 12" wide and 1" thick, cut out of a slab about 20" wide and 8/4 stock, meaning i need a 1/2" cut on each side. also - i really want them to extend through the mortise end (mortise fully penetrates 8/4 stock), so i want them over 2" long. i have done so recently in mesquite - equally hard of course - but smaller M&T's (6" long, 1/2" thick in 6/4 stock - but the mortise did not fully penetrate). here is what i have done:
used a 1960's era craftsman RAS with dado head the same age. "technically" it works ok, but - with wider stock the RAS cant reach the whole cut so i have to flip it to come in from the other side, making alignment difficult since you cant really use a straight edge on a live edge. other issue - the old RAS safety issue. its an old tool, and the unit moves too smoothly. if it had a means of slow movement with a stop it would ok, but with a loose movement you have to be sooooooo careful to take very small bites/cuts, and eventually it always grabs and climbs and everything locks up, especially on hard stock. NO FUN.
have also used the RAS with 2 or 3 crosscut blades togehter, and just keep moving the wood, if the 3 blades are 3/8 thick well, do the math and remember the size of the wood. time consuming, and the table on the RAS is not very big yet the stock is very big.
next, i tried just a hand router (basic craftsman) with 1/2" bit. i can do ok, but it is very demanding (noise, dust, vibration, etc) , and the bottom cut is not very smooth. cutting a wide tenon presents a problem keeping the router level, so i end up with a lot of indents that i can take out with a belt sander but wish i didnt have to. i then can trace the final shape of the tenon onto the other stock and use the router to do the best i can to fit. this works, but is time consuming. oh yeah - i do clamp a piece of wood at a right angle to serve as a router guide so i have a straight edge.
now i could also do the same job using a circular saw making one pass at a time, but this will also be very time consuming. so it seems to me what would work perfectly is a circular saw with a dado head. is there such an animal? or at least a circular saw that will accept 3 or 4 blades?
any other ideas? i am in Houston and have Woodcraft and Empire Tools nearby....
charlie