small woodworking tools

[Dave Jones]

I spent the evening lasering various types of woods that I bought to experiment with. Alder, cherry, maple, red oak, hickory, walnut, and mahogany. I'm realizing that I should probably have some way of cutting thin wood sheets into some smaller sizes rather than always vector cutting them on the laser.

I don't have much room and don't want to end up with a woodworking shop full of big tools (I'm running the laser in an office environment). But I think maybe something small like a Dremel scroll saw would work. But they're really designed for curves and shapes and maybe not as good as a band saw, for example, at just making straight cuts. But I really don't want to buy a lot of machines.

I looked around at hobby sized table saws, and they seem really flimsy (and more expensive than a regular sized one). I don't want to get a band saw AND a scroll saw AND a table saw, and .....

Any suggestions? I won't use it a lot, so don't need a Rolls Royce quality brand. Low cost but reliable would be better. What type of tool should I be looking at? Is there a tiny bench-top table saw that might work? Or is there some kind of fence/guide I can put on a scroll saw?

Do any of you have something you use for cutting thin woods other than a garage/workshop full of power tools?

Also, what's a good (and cheap) way to sand the tops of 6"x24" or similar sized thin woods? (other than a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper)

[Lee DeRaud]

Also, what's a good (and cheap) way to sand the tops of 6"x24" or similar sized thin woods? (other than a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper)

Definitely good, but not particularly cheap:
http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/sander.html

[Michael McDuffie]

I'm very happy with my band saw from Sears. It replaces one of those awful three wheel saws. Don't get a three wheel saw! Once you get the fence aligned with the blade, a band saw will cut nearly as straight as a table saw and is safer as well.

You can get a random orbit palm sander. $40 is a pretty good price.

Michael

[Joe Pelonio]

I have one of those over priced itty bitty micro-mini table saws. It was a gift someone gave me, and does come in handy at times. It's a micromark,
with 2" blade. Actually came in handy when installing a parquet oak floor.
It's made for the hobby and model railroad people, and 1/4" stock is pushing it.

[Ruben Salcedo]

Hi,
I have been a lurker in this forum which is a great place to learn,
about your question... Harbor Freigt sales a mini table saw I hope this is what you are looking. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93211

Ruben

[Dave Jones]

I appreciate the answeres so far. I'd love to hear more suggestions if anybody else has gone through this.

That drum sander is cool looking, but is a bit pricey. I thought it was a big floor model machine when I first clicked the link. Any idea what the max width of board that goes through it? There seems to be very little info on the site.

That Harbor Freight table saw is very interesting at that price. Looks a lot like the model saws but at an affordable price. But I'd have to rig up some kind of fence to be able to rip a 24" board into strips.

I've never used an orbital sander. I always thought that they'd be real easy to dig into the wood and leave curved marks. No? That's certainly cheaper than the drum sander and could work on any size board.

Band saws scare me. Maybe because I used to cut sides of beef on one when I was a teenager and always imagined how they'd cut through my flesh and bone. I guess they're safer than a table saw (until the band breaks)

[Bruce Volden]

Dave,Have you considered "hand tools"? I will vouch for quality Japanese hand saws!! Unless you are gonna be doing a whole lot of cutting there would be no problem using one of these~sharp and fast!!!! Sanding, well hands down power tools are the only way to go. Also those "spiral" saws will do ok, just noisy and dusty is my beef. Personally I would recommend a new 30'X40' steel building adjacent to the home, fully equipped with lotsa tools, 220V AC power, exhaust, satellite radio, HD TV (of course cable), AND hi-speed internet. and a fridge Bruce

[Ray Mighells]

Hi Dave, Owego can't be too far from Killbuck, bring your stuff over here and I'll help you cut it any way you want, and a big bonus, I'll give you a good stack of Brazilian Cherry to play with. Itr lasers really nice. Ray Mighells

[Lee DeRaud]

That drum sander is cool looking, but is a bit pricey. I thought it was a big floor model machine when I first clicked the link. Any idea what the max width of board that goes through it? There seems to be very little info on the site.

Six inches: that's what you asked for, wasn't it? There's a link to a review of it there somewhere. I've got one, and it is seriously nice for smoothing resawn 1/16"-1/8" veneers before feeding them to the laser...it will actually handle stock up to 1" or so but anything over 1/4" can go through the planer. (Of course the bandsaw to do the resawing kinda violates your desire for small machines. )

Seriously, if you're going to feed thin wood to the laser in any quantity, your choices are (1) pay somebody else big bucks for pre-sawn/pre-sanded thin stock or (2) set up to do it yourself. And there's really no way to do it yourself start-to-finish with benchtop machines. DAMHIKT.

[Dave Jones]

Ray, looking at the map I'd guess you're about 3 hours west of me. That'd be a long haul if I was in the middle of something and decided I needed a couple of 4" squares cut from a plank. But I do appreciate the offer. And tell me more about the brazillian cherry. Is it cut thin? I've mostly been getting 1/8" pieces cut 24" long and then cutting what I need with the laser out of those. But wanted to reduce the wear on the laser for cutting simple square and rectangular smaller pieces. Hence the question about saws.

Bruce, I'm not home based. This is in the back of my electronics manufacturing business, on the second floor of a brick building in the middle of town. No place to put a shed.

I've never used a Japanese saw. I can't draw a straight line with a pencil, so don't know how good I'd do with a small hand saw. Some of this wood certainly could be cut with a t-square and a box cutter (with a number of gentle strokes). But I'm trying to plan ahead and could see wanting to prep 40 or 50 pieces of wood at a time for a given project, so am leaning toward power tools.

[Lee DeRaud]

I've mostly been getting 1/8" pieces cut 24" long and then cutting what I need with the laser out of those. But wanted to reduce the wear on the laser for cutting simple square and rectangular smaller pieces. Hence the question about saws.
(snip)
But I'm trying to plan ahead and could see wanting to prep 40 or 50 pieces of wood at a time for a given project, so am leaning toward power tools.

(scratches head) Seems like that's the kind of project where you'd want to let the laser do the cutting: just set up the cut file for multiple items out of each X"x24" piece. There's less waste that way and less time spent loading/unloading the laser.

[Dave Jones]

Lee, you're right, that is what I asked for (had to go back and check )

The wood I have now was cut into 6" x 24" x 1/8" for me by a guy in another state, at pretty good prices. But it needs to be sanded and clear coated, and for a number of my projects will need to be cut into various smaller sizes. I might on occasion use wider wood. My laser can handle up to 12" x 24". I also have a project now that will require some 1/16" thick wood cut 4-3/4" square.

I'm not expecting to need to process a lot of wood, but I'd like to have a basic set of tools that let me stock standard sheets (like 6"x24") and then cut and finish whatever smaller sizes I might need from that.

There's a also a specialty sawmill near here that might be able to supply me with some thin woods as raw stock, but they won't be sanding them. There's actually a number of sawmills within 15 miles of here, but this one is a small 2 man operation that just cuts wood for specialty woodworkers in the area.

Now you have me thinking. I guess with a bandsaw I could buy some 6x6 or 8x8 and slice off 1/8" sheets from it myself. Hmmmm........ Hadn't considered that.

[Dave Jones]

Keep getting bumped.

Yup, I've been using the laser to cut the smaller pieces out of the 24" sheets. But I'm thinking in terms of saving wear and tear on the laser tube (a $100 table saw is a lot cheaper than a $2000 replacement laser tube), plus some of the pieces would be nicer to have sawn edges instead of burnt.

[Shaddy Dedmore]

Hop on down to Lowes or HD and get a miter saw, then get a nice, many tooth blade (I use Forrest, spendy but you'll never go back) . With some pencil marks on the saw bed (or a mechanical stop of some sort that you rig up) it would be easy to set up and cut squares. Maybe easier than a table saw (cheaper saws typically have cheap fences and more fuss getting repeatable dimensions).

For sanding you can't beat a drum sander. You won't get very good thickness consistancy with a rotary/oscillating sander. It might screw up your laser cutting (not going through in some places that are slightly thicker). The drum sander already posted looks great, here's a similar more expensive one. It's wider and open ended (double the thickness), but it doesn't look as accurate or go as thin.

Shaddy

[Dave Jones]

I have a miter saw, but I measured it from the back fence to where the blade goes through the bed at the front and it it would only cut a hair over 4".

I guess there are larger ones out there. I also saw a sliding one, but it was around $500.

Hmmm... Just looked in the Sears site and they have a "precision" miter box with a fine toothed hand saw that is cheap ($40) and deep enough. Looks like the blade runs between rollers for accuracy. That just might be the simple solution for cutting thin boards.