Anuj Prateek
01-20-2022, 1:30 PM
I know it's not much but it did make me very happy so wanted to share.
Last year November my workshop finally got completed. Post that I have been spending most of my time on painting and doing DIY updates to the house. In parallel I started building a TV cabinet. Decided to make it out of maple. Glued and flattened up the panels and reached the stage where I have to cut them to size. Console is going to be 48"x18"x16". My normal way of cutting panels to size is rip the long sides on table saw (previously had a jobsite saw), and then making them straight using a hand plane. Then I use a circular saw to crosscut the panels to length, followed by truing them up using a hand plane. I dread this part. As part of shop build, I upgraded to a SawStop and I expect it to do everything for me (10x the price of the jobsite saw it replaced).
Started with ripping the panels and quickly got disappointed with the quality of the cut. Edges were all burnt. Switched from the blade that came with SawStop to Freud Premium Fusion, and cuts became a little better. Switched to Glue line rip blade and cuts became way better. Tried few more test cuts and realized I was pushing the wood too slow, and that's what was causing the burning. Got the panels ripped and checked them with straight edge - that was the first moment of happiness - edges were true and clean. No touch ups with hand plane required to make them straight.
Then came cross cuts. Short edges of panels were uneven after glue up. Thought to make them straight and true using a circular saw and hand plane. This is the part I dread most. Then there was the problem of cutting the panels to 48" width. My SawStop is of 36" capacity. Tried fiddling with cut using miter gauge, but the bar is 18" so that did not work. This is when I decided to try a cross cut sledge. Previously I tried a sledge on jobsite saw but cuts were never perfect. Threw together a simple sledge with scarp MDF. Intent was to make sides as close to good as possible and then hand plane them to straight and square. Did the cuts, and this is when next moment of happiness came. Sides came out perfectly straight and square to sides. I did not take pictures but Premium Fusion left the edges smooth and mirror-like-ish.
Work that used to take me few hours was done in less than an hour including all trial and errors with rip and making the sledge.
Will digress a little here. Originally I was gluing up panels with book matched boards (had to put new band saw in use :) ). Ripping the thick board into book matched boards, gluing them and flattening them went pretty well. After that I left the panels for ~ 2 weeks, stickered in shop. When I restarted working on the project, I found them all badly cupped (1/4" over 18"). Tried adding moisture on cupped side. It flattened them back but they went back to cupped after a day. In retrospect I should have let the ripped board acclimate for a few days before gluing them up. Right after I ripped them, they started cupping but I ignored the signs. I will re-rip them and use them them else where now. I ended up gluing up new panels from scratch for the project (no book matching this time though).
Anyway, some photos of my primitive sledge. I will most likely make a nicer looking one at some point of time.
471989
471990
471991
Last year November my workshop finally got completed. Post that I have been spending most of my time on painting and doing DIY updates to the house. In parallel I started building a TV cabinet. Decided to make it out of maple. Glued and flattened up the panels and reached the stage where I have to cut them to size. Console is going to be 48"x18"x16". My normal way of cutting panels to size is rip the long sides on table saw (previously had a jobsite saw), and then making them straight using a hand plane. Then I use a circular saw to crosscut the panels to length, followed by truing them up using a hand plane. I dread this part. As part of shop build, I upgraded to a SawStop and I expect it to do everything for me (10x the price of the jobsite saw it replaced).
Started with ripping the panels and quickly got disappointed with the quality of the cut. Edges were all burnt. Switched from the blade that came with SawStop to Freud Premium Fusion, and cuts became a little better. Switched to Glue line rip blade and cuts became way better. Tried few more test cuts and realized I was pushing the wood too slow, and that's what was causing the burning. Got the panels ripped and checked them with straight edge - that was the first moment of happiness - edges were true and clean. No touch ups with hand plane required to make them straight.
Then came cross cuts. Short edges of panels were uneven after glue up. Thought to make them straight and true using a circular saw and hand plane. This is the part I dread most. Then there was the problem of cutting the panels to 48" width. My SawStop is of 36" capacity. Tried fiddling with cut using miter gauge, but the bar is 18" so that did not work. This is when I decided to try a cross cut sledge. Previously I tried a sledge on jobsite saw but cuts were never perfect. Threw together a simple sledge with scarp MDF. Intent was to make sides as close to good as possible and then hand plane them to straight and square. Did the cuts, and this is when next moment of happiness came. Sides came out perfectly straight and square to sides. I did not take pictures but Premium Fusion left the edges smooth and mirror-like-ish.
Work that used to take me few hours was done in less than an hour including all trial and errors with rip and making the sledge.
Will digress a little here. Originally I was gluing up panels with book matched boards (had to put new band saw in use :) ). Ripping the thick board into book matched boards, gluing them and flattening them went pretty well. After that I left the panels for ~ 2 weeks, stickered in shop. When I restarted working on the project, I found them all badly cupped (1/4" over 18"). Tried adding moisture on cupped side. It flattened them back but they went back to cupped after a day. In retrospect I should have let the ripped board acclimate for a few days before gluing them up. Right after I ripped them, they started cupping but I ignored the signs. I will re-rip them and use them them else where now. I ended up gluing up new panels from scratch for the project (no book matching this time though).
Anyway, some photos of my primitive sledge. I will most likely make a nicer looking one at some point of time.
471989
471990
471991