My "get 'er done" RAS workstation!

[Jason White]

Here's something I banged together in a couple of hours for my DeWalt 7770 radial arm saw, which I recently picked up used for cheap because I'm residing my entire house with fiber-cement clapboards and didn't want to trash my nice DeWalt miter saw.

The "workstation" is just PT 2x10's with 3/4" CDX plywood on top. I notched the 2x10's to accept the saw's base. The 2x material is very heavy, but so is the saw (and siding) and I wanted to be able to lag the base of the saw into something beefy. I used pressure-treated and CDX because the bench will be exposed to the weather for several months (The saw will get covered, of course).

The siding pieces are 12" long. Any suggestions as to how long of a fence I should make? I'm worried that the longer the fence, the less accurate the cuts are going to be. Plus, I imagine a lot of dust will build up at the joint between the table and the fence.

Jason

[Peter Pedisich]

Jason,

That looks strong! and it's a good thing you got it done fast, it's gonna get cold pretty fast up where you are!

pete

[Jason White]

It's already getting cold, my friend!

JW


Jason,

That looks strong! and it's a good thing you got it done fast, it's gonna get cold pretty fast up where you are!

pete

[Scott Schwake]

Jason,

That's a nice set-up, seems too nice for cutting Hardi! Seriously, that will be great, I've worked on a few jobs where we just had a cheap $100 SCMS for cutting fiber-cement. For the fence, I wonder if it would work to cut a rabbet in the bottom where the fence meets the table, so you would have a little dust trap that you could blow out occassionly.

The crew that sided my house used caulk at the butt joints between planks, and after a few winters, the caulk has actually seperated from the siding at most joints. If I were to do it again, I think I would forgo the caulk and use flashing at the joints.

Good luck.

[Von Bickley]

Jason,

Looks good.... I would just run a straight fence down the back side...:D

[Jason White]

The rabbet is a great tip. Thanks for this!

Yeah, I'm planning to use tar-paper splines at each of the butt joints instead of caulking them (except where they butt into trimboards).

Jason


Jason,

That's a nice set-up, seems too nice for cutting Hardi! Seriously, that will be great, I've worked on a few jobs where we just had a cheap $100 SCMS for cutting fiber-cement. For the fence, I wonder if it would work to cut a rabbet in the bottom where the fence meets the table, so you would have a little dust trap that you could blow out occassionly.

The crew that sided my house used caulk at the butt joints between planks, and after a few winters, the caulk has actually seperated from the siding at most joints. If I were to do it again, I think I would forgo the caulk and use flashing at the joints.

Good luck.

[Jason White]

How long should I make the fence? And what should I make it out of?

Jason


The rabbet is a great tip. Thanks for this!

Yeah, I'm planning to use tar-paper splines at each of the butt joints instead of caulking them (except where they butt into trimboards).

Jason

[Brian Clevenger]

About the easiest fence would be true scrap of hardwood a few feet long. Screw it to the top in severall places on each side of the kerf. After the first cut, it will be two fences; if you know what I mean. Just make sure to get it parallel to the blade.

[Jim Dunn]

As the material is straight you could go with a fence that is a foot long on each side of the blade.

How many blades are you planning on ordering for your cutting? I'm using a 7 1/2" saw and found that I have to change blades after about 12 cuts. On the joints I used Tyvek first and haven't used anything on joints at all other than it. Course I've only got 12 or so joints on my shed.

Good luck

[J.R. Rutter]

The way I built a SCMS station once was to space the fence up 1/4" with pieces of scrap ply where the screws went through. Then the dust can go right out the back. A rabbet would work too, but might fill up faster. You might want to nail or staple a tape measure to the outfeed side for quick reference.