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Thread: Knock-down saw horses for cutting sheet goods (subtitle: why panel saws are obsolete)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
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    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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    Knock-down saw horses for cutting sheet goods (subtitle: why panel saws are obsolete)

    This is a testimonial to two tools:

    (1) The saw horses that Nick Engler designed and that are described in Popular Woodworking's Jigs and Shop Tips issue (January 2004). Here is a link: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/st....asp?view=1719

    (2) The Festool plunge circular saw coupled with the guide rail system.

    I built the saw horses earlier this week and used them for the first time yesterday. They go together and come apart very easily and, when together, they are perfectly balanced to enable one to single-handedly get a heavy sheet of whatever into position. The angles seem to be bang-on in order to prevent the horses from tipping over in the process -something that I have struggled with in the past. Also the height seems just right for cutting, both when standing on one's feet and when crawling up onto the sheet being cut.

    There has been a lot of praise for the saw elsewhere in this forum. All I will say here is that the saw and rails fully live up to that praise.

    I am attaching 3 pictures and I hope to get them into the right order:

    (1) sawhorses in use
    (2) sawhorses partly knocked down
    (3) a resulting cut

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
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    SF Bay Area, CA
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    Festool is awesome...it is that simple. Thanks!
    Wood: a fickle medium....

    Did you know SMC is user supported? Please help.

  3. #3
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    Those look great Frank. But I don't have enough room to store them in my shop. I guess I'll have to stick with my Panel-saw wink wink. .
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    I usually find it much easier to be wrong once in while than to try to be perfect.

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  4. #4
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    Mar 2004
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bart Leetch
    Those look great Frank. But I don't have enough room to store them in my shop. I guess I'll have to stick with my Panel-saw wink wink. .
    Bart, the knocked down saw horses do not take as much room as your panel saw. But, looking at your shop layout, I don't think that you have anywhere to set them up with a 4x8 sheet and sufficient room around it to work.

  5. #5
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    Feb 2003
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    Broken Arrow(Tulsa), OK
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    Frank,

    I built the same sawhorses a few years ago and have found them indispensible. While I don't have the Festool saw, yet, I use a straight edge guide with my circular saw and get excellent cuts. I also cut some 4 foot 2x4's for when I'm sawing smaller sheets such as Baltic Birch.

    Bob

  6. #6
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    Mar 2004
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Lasley
    Frank,

    I built the same sawhorses a few years ago and have found them indispensible. While I don't have the Festool saw, yet, I use a straight edge guide with my circular saw and get excellent cuts. I also cut some 4 foot 2x4's for when I'm sawing smaller sheets such as Baltic Birch.

    Bob
    Thanks Bob, thats a good tip about the shorter 2x4s.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
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    Mendham, New Jersey
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    Frank,

    Thanks for the tip about the sawhorses. I'm about to start a desk for one of my daughters and need something to cut the sheet goods on. That looks like an excellent solution.

    Jack

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Reynoldsville, PA
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    23

    Thanks

    The ideas and tips I get from you guys are great. This one will sure help me, because I don't have a lot of space to roam. Cutting sheet goods by myself has always been a chore, and it's getting more so the older I have gotten. Squeeze-away-when-not-needed things are always welcome in my shop. Thanks, Frank.

  9. #9
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    Jan 2005
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    Denmark, Europe
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    Frank Pellow:

    Do you know how I can get my hands on a copy of those plans ?

    The January 2004 issue is not available on their website so no luck there...

    Any help appreciated.

    Cheers,

    Niels

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
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    Since they are not selling the plans, I guess that it is OK for me to copy them and send them to you via private email. I will do so this evening.

  11. #11
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    Feb 2004
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    Odessa, Texas
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    [QUOTE=Niels J. Larsen]Frank Pellow:

    Do you know how I can get my hands on a copy of those plans ?

    The January 2004 issue is not available on their website so no luck there...



    Niels, if you can't find the plans, just print a copy of the Pictures Frank posted and then measure the angles, and that should be close enough to work well. You might ask him what the height of the top is from the floor, and that should give you enough measurement to draw it or figure out the proportional lengths for the legs.

    PS: Welcome to the "Creek", and a Happy New Year from Texas.
    Norm

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    fairfield county, ct
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    Question

    frank,if you don't mind what are the dimensions,and the angles?thanks fred

  13. #13
    Hmm. Don't think the panel saw will ever be obsolete.


  14. #14
    Maybe panel saws are obsolete in your shop, but here is the type I use.
    I would really like a real panel saw, but at $1500-$5,000 I will continue finding other ways to get the job done.
    And now I not only can make the cuts on my table saw, I now have the option of using my newly aquired old DeWalt radial arm saw.
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    Last edited by mike lucas; 01-03-2005 at 4:40 PM.

  15. #15
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    Sep 2004
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    Frank,

    I'll take a set of those plans too please.

    Jim

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