Crosscutting with a slider's rip fence

[Derek Cohen]

For those here using traditional table saws.


Generally, one thinks of a rip fence for ripping ...



I am in the process of building a pair of nightstands. These feature waterfall sides, which requires that the panels be sawn sequentially.

On a standard table saw this would involve running the panel against the rip fence, which is fine for wider panels ... but what happens when these get really narrow, such as 10mm wide? That's getting tricky, yes?

On the slider, the rip fence gets used as a depth stop. Firstly, here is the panel to be sawn up ...



The first section to cut off is 140mm wide. This will form one side.

Step 1 - set the rip fence at 140mm and run the panel against the fence ...



Step 2 - Clamp the panel down and move the fence away (to remove the danger of binding and kickback). Note that this sets the panel to be sawn on the rip fence side of the blade ...



That is too easy.



Let's do something tricky ... saw a 10mm section. One side on each of the nightstands will have a tiny drawer (in addition to the single drawer facing towards the front). This 10mm section will form one side of the drawer opening.

We set the rip fence 10mm away from the blade. It is so close now that the blade guard needs to be removed ..



The slider rip fence has a micro adjust and a Wixey DRO for dialling in the dimension exactly. (You may be able to read the DRO).



The panel is locked down, the fence moved back, and the blade guard replaced on the blade. The slider wagon is run past the blade ...



How easy is this to do this on a table saw without removing your fingers!


Here is one of the two panels ready for dovetailing ...



A close up of the inset drawer ...




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kevin Jenness]

Rather than moving the rip fence sideways after setting the cut length I use it pulled back so that the workpiece is not trapped. Same result and more efficient for repetitive cuts at the same setting

[Derek Cohen]

Yes, I agree Kevin. I prefer to do that if making repetitive cuts. However I was using the full rip fence earlier which had an attachment clamped to it, and was a little lazy at removing the attachment or swapping it out for a short one. In any event, the cuts were not repetitive, so it did not make any difference. Each cut had to be set up.

Regards from Perth

Derek