Best way to rip a baseball bat in half

[Matt Ocel]

Hey - any suggestions on the best way to rip a wood baseball bat in 1/2?
I gotta cut 4 of them. I was thinking a taper jig on the B.S., but how do you keep it from moving off center?

[David DeCristoforo]

"Best way to rip a baseball bat in half"

Hit a fastball with the logo facing forward.....

YM

[Leo Graywacz]

Shouldn't be to hard to build a jig like that. Use a 1/2" piece of MDF for the jigs base. Make a wall that would confine the side to side movement on both sides of the bat. Then have a front an back piece that trap the bat front to back. These front and back traps should be taller by about an 1" or 2" than your sawblade height. Then take the jig center it on the tablesaw blade and lock your fence. You might want to put a couple of stretchers across the two walls to hold the bat down. As long as the bats are the same size you should be able to use the jig on all of them. If not, make it for the bigger bat and them shim accordingly for the smaller bats.

[Ron Dunn]

Curious question ... why?

[Matt Ocel]

Yoshikuni - That would be a crosscut. I need to rip it. LOL

[Paul Girouard]

I'd screw it to a 3 sided sled , bottom , side , and end , insuring the screws where placed , and / or short enough to not hit the blade. You'd have to eye ball the " 1/2 " size of the bat then run the sled and attached at thru the table saw.

Pretty simple , IF your comfortable operating a table saw.

[Matt Ocel]

Ron - it is for a clients basement remodel, they will be installed on a wall and when he entertains, he wants the players to sign them.

[Matt Ocel]

Paul - I would rather cut on the bandsaw as the curf is smaller.

[Paul Girouard]

Same idea if your bandsaw has a fence , a straight edge guide ti run the sled against would work as well . Most Bandsaws tend to wander , a thin kerf blade in a table saw would give a truer line / cut.

But like I said the sled idea and band saw would work , IF it was a good bandsaw

[Matt Ocel]

Roger that! Oh by the way working on uploading pictures of church pews that have to be mitered together

[Ron Dunn]

Matt, thanks for the explanation ... nice idea

[Charlie Plesums]

I would use a table saw with blade at 45 degrees to cut a V groove in a block of wood like a 2x4, then set the bat in the groove and bandsaw away. You could tack a scrap of plywood on the bottom to reuse the jig (especially if you have lots of long narrow scraps of plywood like I do.)

[David DeCristoforo]

Yoshikuni - That would be a crosscut. I need to rip it. LOL

Well what all those other guys said is good. That's what I would have said if I'd realized what you meant....


YM

[Gary Herrmann]

I think I'd still use a bandsaw. Cutting something like that on the tablesaw would give me the willies.

[Jason Beam]

Matt,

Take a piece of something fairly thick - 1 1/2" or so - like maybe a 2x6 that's about 6" longer than your bat.

Bevel your TS to 45 degrees and rip that 2x6 in half. Now flip one half end for end and you've got yerself a V-groove. Take some scrap and nail each end together (kinda like the way a table saw sled is held together). Make sure you secure the 2nd one AFTER you've set it on your bandsaw (with the blade in the v-groove). This is that extra 6" on the ends. Yer bat can now rest nicely in the v-groove and slice away. You could even set up a fence if you want to help keep that cut as straight as possible.

This could also be adapted to a tablesaw if need be, but I'd still use the bandsaw for this - too easy to have something twist and then you get a kickbat!