Rick Potter
09-15-2015, 11:06 PM
It has been a while since I posted one of my dirt simple tips, so here goes.
I use my radial arm saw for most cross cuts, and the way I have it set up it will cut 16 1/2" wide, and about 1 1/2" thick. Seldom do anything thicker, and when I do, I just spacer the work out from the fence....no biggie. In this case I am building several closet organizers out of melamine coated Part Board, and I needed to cut a bunch of pieces 18" wide cleanly on both sides.
I double stick taped several scrap pieces along my fence, and more importantly, one piece was placed so the blade would cut it, leaving a zero clearance line on the bottom of the cut. Notice that the other scraps were set out from the fence enough that I could move my stop back and forth. I used scraps from the melamine so it would let the 8' work pieces slide easily.
First pic: The RAS with the scraps taped on. My saw is a DeWalt 7790, 12".
321528
Second pic: This shows the normal setup, with 16 1/2" cross cut, and with a bit of cheating, 1 1/2" height capacity.
321529
Third pic: Shows the cut length is now 18 1/4", with zero clearance on the bottom of the cut.
321530
Fourth pic: Shows how I cheated a bit, by putting the corner of the work against the stop, and rotating it into the blade the last tiny bit. Note....that blade is RUNNING.
321531
Fifth pic: The first cut in the 18" wide stock.
321532
6th pic: Here is the first stack of cut pieces. All square, accurate, and best of all made using the fence and stop system on the RAS. Both sides of cuts are good.
321533
So, there you have it. Another simple tip. By raising up the work 3/4" on the blade, I gained almost two inches of cross cut on my saw, and still used the fence and stop. I also have a 10" saw, and this works fine on it also, gaining slightly less distance.
I use my radial arm saw for most cross cuts, and the way I have it set up it will cut 16 1/2" wide, and about 1 1/2" thick. Seldom do anything thicker, and when I do, I just spacer the work out from the fence....no biggie. In this case I am building several closet organizers out of melamine coated Part Board, and I needed to cut a bunch of pieces 18" wide cleanly on both sides.
I double stick taped several scrap pieces along my fence, and more importantly, one piece was placed so the blade would cut it, leaving a zero clearance line on the bottom of the cut. Notice that the other scraps were set out from the fence enough that I could move my stop back and forth. I used scraps from the melamine so it would let the 8' work pieces slide easily.
First pic: The RAS with the scraps taped on. My saw is a DeWalt 7790, 12".
321528
Second pic: This shows the normal setup, with 16 1/2" cross cut, and with a bit of cheating, 1 1/2" height capacity.
321529
Third pic: Shows the cut length is now 18 1/4", with zero clearance on the bottom of the cut.
321530
Fourth pic: Shows how I cheated a bit, by putting the corner of the work against the stop, and rotating it into the blade the last tiny bit. Note....that blade is RUNNING.
321531
Fifth pic: The first cut in the 18" wide stock.
321532
6th pic: Here is the first stack of cut pieces. All square, accurate, and best of all made using the fence and stop system on the RAS. Both sides of cuts are good.
321533
So, there you have it. Another simple tip. By raising up the work 3/4" on the blade, I gained almost two inches of cross cut on my saw, and still used the fence and stop. I also have a 10" saw, and this works fine on it also, gaining slightly less distance.