How would you cut a large panel to size

[Brian Runau]

I have a 36" x 48" glue up with quarter sawn white oak I need to cut to finished length. It will be a cross cut on both ends. I was thinking my circular saw with a guide, but what blade to reduce chip out? Would finer toothed blade with more teeth be best? OR use a plunge router with light passes? What bit? Thanks Brian

[lowell holmes]

Go to Lowes and Home Depot and shop, they can provide what you need.

[Bradley Gray]

A top bearing pattern bit run against a jointed edge clamped the piece.

[Ronald Blue]

Any woodworking clubs in the Indy area? Maybe find someone with a slider? I'm 4 hours away or you'd be welcome to use my SS with crosscut slider. You still would be but I doubt you want to make the trip. It will handle 48". Someone around there can surely help you out.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I would be most comfortable doing that cut on a table saw freehand about 1/8" overlength, and then trimming it to final length with a router, using a straight board clamped across the panel as a fence. This is not maybe the best way, but based on the tools I have it would be the easiest. If you have a strong circular saw that would be just as good as the table saw, too.

[John Kananis]

Freehand? You mean without a sled? That's a little nuts man and asking for trouble. Make a sled for your ts - not only will it be exponentially safer but you can cut square and to size in one cut.

[Robert Hazelwood]

How thick is it? Unless very thick an ordinary circ saw with a (sharp) fine-tooth crosscutting blade should cut it fine. I'd probably cut it with the circular saw, leaving a bit of material for a router to finish. I'd use a nice flush trim bit and a wooden straightedge to bring it right to dimension. Since I think you will be routing end grain, you will want to back up the cut where it goes off the end of the board to eliminate any spelching.

You can get a very accurate and clean result with this if you have a good guide for the saw and a good straight edge on your router guide. The trick is to align the guides square to the long edges. If this is a table top then it may not matter much if its not dead square.

[John Kananis]

If you're going to use your circular saw, make a track for it. Long piece of material, wide enough for your saw to ride on. Attach a narrow (but very straight) piece to the one side to act as a stop for the saw. Run the circular saw through once and you'll have a "track" edge that you can align to the cut you've marked.

[Brian Runau]

How thick is it? Unless very thick an ordinary circ saw with a (sharp) fine-tooth crosscutting blade should cut it fine. I'd probably cut it with the circular saw, leaving a bit of material for a router to finish. I'd use a nice flush trim bit and a wooden straightedge to bring it right to dimension. Since I think you will be routing end grain, you will want to back up the cut where it goes off the end of the board to eliminate any spelching.

You can get a very accurate and clean result with this if you have a good guide for the saw and a good straight edge on your router guide. The trick is to align the guides square to the long edges. If this is a table top then it may not matter much if its not dead square.

Robert: 60tooth OK? I see a 140 tooth for osb/plywood? thanks Brian

[Jim Becker]

I'd do the cut with the saw proud of the final line and then template route in multiple passes to get that perfect surface with little or no tear-out. Blades with more teeth can certainly provide a cleaner cut, but with an unsupported edge as is the case with a "non track saw", there can still be issues as the blade exits the wood. I've honestly used a jigsaw to do the ends of thick tables prior to using the pattern routing technique to clean things up. (and that works well for curved ends, too)

[lou Brava]

If you have a good quality circular saw set up right, with the right blade all you need is to clamp a straight edge to your work, take your time let the saw do the work & you can get joinery grade cross cuts. This pic shows a bread board end on a 40" wide Oak table top I did. Top was aprx 1 1/8" thick.
Forgot to mention your top will need to be flat otherwise a hand held saw will create problems if the surface is uneven, maybe that's not a problem with a track saw, I've never used a track saw but have cut a lot of wood with a skill saw.

493163

[John Kananis]

Don't use an osb blade. They're very thin and will flex, bind, etc when cutting a panel. High tooth count crosscut blade. 60 should be fine. Whatever you do, be prepared for "some" chip out - nature of the beast (cutting method).

[Paul F Franklin]

Assuming this is a crosscut, if you are going to use a router as part of the job, I'd clamp a sacrificial piece of waste to each edge to eliminate any chance of blowing out the side grain since you will be routing end grain.

[lou Brava]

Don't use an osb blade. They're very thin and will flex, bind, etc when cutting a panel. High tooth count crosscut blade. 60 should be fine. Whatever you do, be prepared for "some" chip out - nature of the beast (cutting method).

Just cut it upside down the saw will not tear out at all on bottom side of the panel.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Robert: 60tooth OK? I see a 140 tooth for osb/plywood? thanks Brian

The finishing/plywood blade I use for this kind of cut is 60 teeth. I cut 1-1/2" thick white oak butcher block with it just recently and it did fine. If you need a finished edge here the circ saw will only get you most of the way, regardless of blade. I would come back with either a router or sanding block.

[Jim W. White]

I treated myself to a Kreg Accu-Cut circular saw guide system for my cordless saw last year when I was building a murphy bed. (I don't normally work with a lot of sheet goods but the bed project made it a necessity; and I couldn't justify a full blown track saw set-up)

I was very happy with this piece of kit, I paired it with the FRUED 60 tooth blade below. I've since used it to cross cut some very hard wood boards since then (Maple and Chechen) and the cuts have been phenomenal.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IPHGA2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Jim in Idaho

[Christian Hawkshaw]

I'd do the cut with the saw proud of the final line and then template route in multiple passes to get that perfect surface with little or no tear-out. Blades with more teeth can certainly provide a cleaner cut, but with an unsupported edge as is the case with a "non track saw", there can still be issues as the blade exits the wood. I've honestly used a jigsaw to do the ends of thick tables prior to using the pattern routing technique to clean things up. (and that works well for curved ends, too)

This is what I usually do...Cut proud with the saw, and clean up with router in a few passes...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Having a track saw means you get to sit back and read all the workarounds people go through to do what you can do in about 4 minutes.

I would lay my Makita track down on the cut line, run the cut with my Makita cordless track saw, then blow off the sawdust and pack it all up in the Systainer until the next time I needed it.

Track saws are not just for breaking down sheet goods.

[Warren Lake]

worm drive over the line, router with straight edge originally made for doing that.

[Brian Runau]

Bought a new HF 60t blade, won't use it much, test was good. Route the edge clean and do it upside down being aware of tear out on the end of the router pass. Thanks all. Brian

[Richard Coers]

A top bearing pattern bit run against a jointed edge clamped the piece.
If you do this, clamp a scrap board on the side grain so the router bit doesn't blow out the grain at the end of the cut!

[Christian Hawkshaw]

Having a track saw means you get to sit back and read all the workarounds people go through to do what you can do in about 4 minutes.

I would lay my Makita track down on the cut line, run the cut with my Makita cordless track saw, then blow off the sawdust and pack it all up in the Systainer until the next time I needed it.

Track saws are not just for breaking down sheet goods.

I use a Makita track saw as well, but still clean up via the router with a compression bit on the end grain. I can get a much better finishing that needs less sanding than the saw leaves. I usually just have to take off about 1/32 of an inch or less... I am just a hobbyist, so I can spend a little more time doing this...doesn't take too long.

[johnny means]

Really? Freehand?

[Jim Dwight]

I would also use my track saw but the OP doesn't apparently have one. Could be a good excuse, I guess. One of the track saws I use, the one at church, is an Evolution saw which will take a "normal" 7.25 inch blade. The blade it came with can be used for wood but cuts metal too. I got a new blade for it shortly after getting it and it works very well for fine cross cuts like this. It is a 60 tooth diablo by Freud. Not expensive but it works well. With that on a circular saw of decent quality I would expect a nice clean cut.

I have never seen the need to clean up track saw end grain cuts made with my DeWalt track saw including on several cherry table tops. A few passes with my Bosch 1250 DEVS sander is all the clean up they need. If you do this on your table saw cuts then I guess you would want to on track saw cuts. But in my experience, track saw cuts are at least as good as table saw cuts so cleaning them up with a router doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I've never tried it, however.

[Michael Burnside]

I would use this as an excuse for a new tool and buy a track saw! They were built for this, I have something similar coming up with a miter and I’ll be using my TSC55

[Ole Anderson]

Every new project deserves a new tool. Track saw in this instance.

[Brian Runau]

Panel is cut and stained. 60T blade on a circular saw with flush trim bit clean up came out very good pretty flat. Break my arm patting myself on the back, came out pretty flat. Brian

493198493199

[Robert L Stewart]

Awsome grain, beautiful color

[Brian Runau]

Top is complete and installed on the table base. Bought the chairs, made the table for a little eat in kitchen set. Thanks for the help. Brian

493539493540