Sheet Goods Table Saw Technique

[Marty Tippin]

I ran into a situation last night that I haven't faced before and found the wrong solution, so I'm hoping someone here knows the right one...

I had a 20x48 piece of 3/4" MDF and need to trim it to 46" wide. So I set my fence to 2" (it won't go to 46", as with most table saws) and started to feed the stock through. All was well till I got to the end of the cut and the big piece shifted sideways and into the blade. No kickback or anything, but I've got a nicely rounded corner on my otherwise square MDF. The small

So how do you trim a small bit off of a big sheet on the table saw? Should I have used my circular saw and homemade guide instead?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I use a track saw for that, yes. An appropriate home made guide clamped to the board would work just as well.

[Jeff Duncan]

You should be able to do it the way you tried, but it comes down to several things. Most importantly you need to have the right technique, your pushing the 2" stock through the cut, the rest of the sheet your using your other hand to just follow along. Second you want to make sure your tops are waxed so parts can slide across easily. Third, you need to have a good feel for how to "balance" the large part which shifted on you. You can't have your hand too far out, or too close to the blade or your leveraging the sheet one direction or the other. I think this is where you likely went wrong on your cut. You need to have it essentially centered to bring it straight through the cut. It's really one of those things you learn to feel once you're comfortable using the saw.

As an alternative a circular saw with a fence, or even better a track saw, can do the same cut probably a bit safer if your not completely comfortable doing it on a table saw;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Steve Wurster]

Where were your hands on the big piece? Were they spread out and pushing it as one big sheet, or were they closer together and closer to the blade? If it was the latter then I could see the big piece twisting as you got further through the cut. Was there enough support on the big piece both on the side and rear of the table saw? If not then I could see the piece flexing and also leading to this problem.

I don't have a circular saw so I have to use my TS to break down sheet goods. I usually don't have anything larger than 24x48 since that's all I can carry home in my car. But I do have a bunch of full 48x96 plywood sheets right now as I am (slowly) working on a built-in for my office. Those are a pain to handle, especially in my small basement shop. But I have managed to remove pieces with the fence set close to the blade, just as you were trying to do. I find that I can ignore the small cutoff and focus on pushing the big piece even though that cutoff is trapped between the blade and the fence. Probably not the best technique, but once I've moved the big piece away from the blade I can easily push the small cutoff past the blade.

I think that if I did have a circular saw and an accurate guide, I would be using that when possible. Since my shop is in my basement I would probably break down the sheets in my garage or outside to cut down on the dust; I hate the dust.

[Marty Tippin]

I think my left hand was probably too far out on the big piece and contributed to the twist. I was trying to use my Grripper block to push the narrow cutoff through the blade and (I thought) it had a pretty good hold on the stock from both sides of the blade. Guess not. Think I would have been better off to focus on getting the big piece past the blade and not worrying about the narrow piece. Now that I know it might twist on me, I'll do it different next time around... ;-)

A track saw is high on my list, just haven't made it that far yet.

[Joe Hillmann]

A large table saw sled is how I do most of my plywood ripping. I got the idea from http://woodgears.ca/delta_saw/sled.html Mine is quite a bit deeper than his so it allows me to do a cross cut up to about 35 inches wide.

[Rick Potter]

If you don't have a splitter or riving knife, you should buy or make one (splitter). I had the bruises to prove it.

Rick Potter

[Sam Layton]

I think Rick hit the nail on the head... Were you using a splitter?

Sam

[Keith Hankins]

I have a ts with 7' rails. I bought it thinking wow finally able to cut ply on the TS. Well when I first did that it felt so uneasy, never did like it. Now I use a tracksaw. I've used a clamped straite edge and CS with a forresst WWI (7 1/4") to do it. Another method I used is draw a line cut close with jigsaw and clamp a strait edge and used a flush trim bit to take it to the line and make it perfect.

[Jim Neeley]

I recommend making a "test cut" with the blade retracted before attempting a cut you haven't done recently or aren't sure you are comfortable with. It will either give you comfort or encourage you to find another way! :-)

[glenn bradley]

I agree that the method used should be fine if:


The supporting surface (infeed, saw and outfeed) is adequate for the panel being cut.
The surface is smooth and clean to allow easy movement of the panel through the blade
The blade is sharp
You use a splitter
You use a push stick to apply forward pressure on the smaller piece.


Alternate method would be to rip off the smaller piece oversized with a circ-saw or a jig-saw and then rip to finished size on the tablesaw.

[HANK METZ]

A common way to trim stock beyond the capacity of the fence is to measure the offset of the blade to the left edge of the table and clamp a fence board to the bottom of the stock to produce the desired length, guided by the table edge. The net effect is it simulates what a sled does.

[Duane Meadows]

Alternate method would be to rip off the smaller piece oversized with a circ-saw or a jig-saw and then rip to finished size on the tablesaw.

I think the large piece was the keeper, not the small one. Suppose one could rip 2 smaller pieces and glue them back together. Seems like a lot of trouble, though.