Sheet goods cutting station for new Festool saw. Foam board make sense?

[Larry Rasmussen]

61279So with my new festool circular saw and guide I'll be setting up a cutting area. I've always had something on two saw horses. First cutting table was an open grid set up made from 2X3 s. More recently I went to the door store up the road and picked up a hollow core door in the $5.00 pile- bummer they changed it to the $10.00 pile. Still, pretty cheap.

My main question is why folks use the foam sheets as a support for cutting. Do they end up having an actual effect on reducing tear out like cutting on solid material would or is it just all about sparing the surface beneath? Like just in case you don't live near the door store.

Thanks, Larry

[Gary Keedwell]

61279So with my new festool circular saw and guide I'll be setting up a cutting area. I've always had something on two saw horses. First cutting table was an open grid set up made from 2X3 s. More recently I went to the door store up the road and picked up a hollow core door in the $5.00 pile- bummer they changed it to the $10.00 pile. Still, pretty cheap.

My main question is why folks use the foam sheets as a support for cutting. Do they end up having an actual effect on reducing tear out like cutting on solid material would or is it just all about sparing the surface beneath? Like just in case you don't live near the door store.

Thanks, Larry
Hey Larry :) I think you posted in the wrong forum. This is OT...:p
Gary K.

[Jamie Buxton]

What I've done is to make expendable caps for my sawhorses. The caps are U-channel glued up from scrap plywood. They just sit on top of the horses, and the U-shape prevents them from sliding off. Each saw cut goes into the cap a bit. After quite a while, they'll get sliced up enough that it is time to make a new set.

The advantage of the caps over a door or a sheet of rigid foam is that they're easier to store.

[Ted Miller]

Larry, I use the 2" foam board and I lay it on my outfeed table. Its less the blade has to push though. I just use nylon tape on the edges of the foam board to keep the edges from getting tore up since I store it on its edges next to the outfeed table when not in use...

[Pete Brown]

I found that this (http://www.festoolusa.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=9&prodid=492652) works pretty well :)

If you want to cut a full sheet, though, you'd have to buy four of them. No biggie, right? :P

Seriously, I use that for any sheet goods that will fit on it. It works well. Otherwise I use 2x4s on sawhorses.

Pete

[glenn bradley]

I use two pieces of 2' x 4' foam board and seem to be able to support enough of a 4' x 8' sheet to do what I need to do. they're about $2.50 apiece at the BORG and I haven't used up the first two yet.

I don't see any ZCI effect but it is easier to cut through a sheet lying on these that cutting through a sheet lying on another sheet of solid material. IMHO.

[Mike Holbrook]

I got my first Festools at Christmas. I am stil working on my Festool system. Festools tend to put one into a mode of devising better "systems" for specific types of work.

For me the foam sheet will protect my table top from the TS 55. I just made removable adjustable table legs from threaded pipe. I like the pipe better than saw horses because: they take up less space, are more portable, do not trip me up, are height adjustable (more or less pipe of different lengths), the screw fittings help to level the table, they fit better in the bed of my crew cab truck with divider...The pipe will be connected in two H patterns with 4 pipe flanges as feet.

My table top will be a piece of plywood with: a simple apron, screw on hardwood edges and clamping area and 2 bolt on 2x4's with pipe flanges for my removable legs. I think I will reduce the top to about 3'x6.5' to make it lighter and easier to move around. The 3'x6.5' size will fit better in the cramped areas that it will be used most frequently too.

I have an MFT 1080 in my shop foir smaller pieces of sheet goods. The table I am working on will be for breaking down full sheets. I cut large amounts of sheet goods alone and have to set up to work at multiple places on 12 acres. I need a work table that is both sturdy and mobile, a tough combination.

[Bruce Benjamin]

Pretty hard to beat this table and it works no matter what brand you choose. http://www.eurekazone.com/products/detail/smarttable.html

Bruce

[Jim Becker]

Creeker Bill Grumbine reportedly cut sheet goods with his Festool guided saw on his dining room table with just a piece of pink foam to support the workpieces...

[Per Swenson]

In my line of work, near the end of the job, my saw horse

table goes home in a car and I cut with foam right off the

pool table.:D

Per

[Joe Spear]

For my Festool I made a folding set-up that looks a little like a tic-tac-toe grid. Two-inch-square cedar (for lightness). Two 6-foot-long pieces, with three 3-foot-long pieces crossways. Drill the intersections and countersink with a Forstner bit for carriage or hex bolts with washers and nuts to hold them together. You can fold it up for storage and unfold to clamp down on a table. Put the long pieces down on the table for crosscuts and the short pieces down for the long cuts. Just make sure you cut in between the grid pieces. The plywood (or whatever) you are cutting is held two inches above the perpendicular elements of the grid so you are not cutting into anything but your workpiece. I stick extra pieces of 2" x 2" on the grid pieces near the kerf line so that the plywood stays level and doesn't bind. You could make the grid longer and wider and with more cross and long pieces if you want. It just might not fold as well. I have also done the sacrificial foam board method. It works. Some people also put a sheet of sacrificial mdf or hardboard on the table and replace it when it gets too chewed up. All those methods work.

[Al Willits]

What I can tell ya not to use is loose 2x4's stood on the 4" end, least wises if your not into launching 2x4's....:)

Using strips of 1" foam now, its what I have over from insulating the garage..er..shop, seems to work well and they haven't launched themselves like the 2x4 did.

Al....who sometimes seems to have more launches than cap Canaveral.

[Mike Holbrook]

I made a "Smart Table" from one of the kits. Its strength was portability. I had trouble loading full size sheet goods on it without help. It tended to slide across the floor. I also bent up the sliding rails horsing heavy sheet goods onto them without help. Maybe someone else has come up with solutions to those issues?

It is not easy to come up with a design that can: take abuse, does not eat too much floor space and breaks down into parts that are not to heavy or hard to transport.

I might have used Per's saw horse and plywood method had I discovered the folding saw horses he is using. I tried two types of folding saw horses. The plastic ones broke almost immediately. The galvanized tin ones (made to take sacrificial tops) were made with very thin sheet metal. Someone managed to crumple legs on both of them before I got a chance to make more than a trial cut or two with them.

I wish I had a pool table to cut wood on!

[Ted Miller]

Mike, I have these and they collaspe with a handle for easy moving: