best way for long bevel cut? (7 feet )

[John TenEyck]

I do it frequently with an L-shaped fence. If the wood has any bow in it then add a featherboard on top to keep the wood flat on the table. The TS is an incredibly versatile machine, yet few know it's full potential, including me.



John

[Rich Engelhardt]

I do it frequently with an L-shaped fence.

John, just so I understand what it is I see...

You have a right tilt table saw - correct?
The blade is tilted into the fence & the picture is shown as the operator would see the wood being fed into the blade.

For a left tilt saw (like my Ridgid TS3660 contractor saw), the blade would be tilted to the left and the fence would be moved over to that (left) side of the fence.

Is that correct?

& what is that little nub?

[Steve Jenkins]

The nub appears to be solid stock glued to the ply prior to veneering

[Charles Lent]

If you have a right tilt saw, do this on the left side of the blade. Put the fence over there. If it's a left tilt saw, do this on the right side of the blade. In both cases, the good side of the work goes down. The result is the same. No track saw is needed.

If the wood is slightly warped or twisted, a 45 deg router bit in a router table, or with a router guide will work. Make several passes at increasing depths to do it safely. That's too much for a router to remove in one pass, table or freehand. I too would leave a tiny amount of edge so it can be rounded later with sandpaper.

Charley

[John TenEyck]

John, just so I understand what it is I see...

You have a right tilt table saw - correct?
The blade is tilted into the fence & the picture is shown as the operator would see the wood being fed into the blade.

For a left tilt saw (like my Ridgid TS3660 contractor saw), the blade would be tilted to the left and the fence would be moved over to that (left) side of the fence.

Is that correct?

& what is that little nub?

Yes, I have a right tilt saw. Yes, the photo is looking from the operator side of the saw. The little nub is from a piece of solid stock that I glued to the edge of the plywood before I veneered the panel.

The blade enters the elevated, sacrificial L-fence right in the lower left corner, so the stock will ride alone the fence above the blade and the offcut will fall harmlessly under the fence. With your left tilt saw you would clamp the L-fence on the right side of the stock rip fence; everything is just the opposite but gives the same result.

To set the height of the L-fence lower the blade and then bring the rip fence up against the stock. Put the L-fence on top and clamp it in place. Now remove the stock and adjust the fence and stock until the blade meets the L-fence the tiniest bit above the corner, a couple of 0.001's. You want the work piece to ride the fence even after the bevel has been cut and not slip underneath.

The benefit of doing it this way is your show side is always on top so there's no tearout. Another but somewhat less obvious benefit is that you can run any shape piece against the L-fence, not just squares and rectangles. Hexagons, triangles, trapezoids, any shape as long as the edges are straight. I make tapered porch columns using this technique.

John

[Tom Trees]

It might be worth mentioning that not all saws might stay as aligned as others when the blade is tilted.
I have a single trunnion on mine, and need to try and fix that whilst I'll be doing some other work on it anyway.

[Jacques Gagnon]

…another benefit of the L-shaped fence is that it allows the operator to create a « straight line » first when dealing with curved pieces (somewhat equivalent to what the rip cut provides on the slider), and then follow with the mitre cut.

[Doug Garson]

I assume the nub is there to prevent blow out as you complete the cut?

[John TenEyck]

I assume the nub is there to prevent blow out as you complete the cut?

The piece of solid wood was just a little longer than my plywood panel. Since I was going to cut it to length after cutting the miter there was no reason to cut it flush before that step.

John

[Rich Engelhardt]

Thanks John.
That little nub threw me a curve.