Ripping Plywood on a contractor saw - Woodworking Talk

sprior · 10-10-2009, 01:14 AM

This weekend I'm planning to build Norm's clamp cart design, and the first step is to rip 4 4" wide strips out of a sheet of plywood. I'm trying to improve my plywood handling technique.

First off, I AM PLANNING TO PUT THE GUARD ON BEFORE PROCEEDING. Notice the blade is down and the guard is off because I have been rehearsing the cut.

To explain my setup, in the foreground I've got a support table the same height as the saw. To the left of the saw I've got a roller stand, and behind the table I've got a table just slightly below the saw so nothing catches. In rehearsing I was standing at the front left corner (not in front of the saw) and pushing, but I found the plywood came away from the fence in the end, so I clamped the straightedge to the outfeed table to fix that.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to improve this setup? I could swap the roller stand and the foreground table if that was a good idea, but that's all the tables I have (for now).

Thanks in advance.

woodnthings · 10-10-2009, 01:22 AM

Don't swap the roller stand, they are notorious for falling over when trying to out feed something. Much better as a support on the infeed.
In your case you do not even need the darn thing, as it's a 3 legged camel anyway. Just work from the side a little more pushing toward the fence as much as pushing forward.

I wouldn't change anything except maybe add a helper on the out feed to maintain control, but not a necesssity, especially if they are a novice! You can do it!

bill
BTW once the material has passed the front of the blade, the width of the cut is determined, so keeping pressure toward the fence is most important there.

sprior · 10-10-2009, 01:34 AM

Thanks for the opinion. I'm hoping to have my clamps organized by the end of the weekend :-)

mics_54 · 10-10-2009, 02:19 AM

How I do it.

This is my sheet support which I use to set the sheet on the table then I can slide it out of the way to push the sheet through the saw. It is just half lapped so I can take it apart for storage.

The side table is attached in the holes with tabs from mechanical angle cut and bet down to facilitate fast removal. I have a very mobile shop set up.

mics_54 · 10-10-2009, 02:56 AM

By the way...nice shop space from what I can see.

cabinetman · 10-10-2009, 06:14 AM

Your setup is basically OK, but I would make my first cut on a piece wide enough (approx 16 1/2") to get all four rips from. That way the narrower piece will be easier to handle and keep against the fence when cutting four.

phinds · 10-10-2009, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cabinetman

Your setup is basically OK, but I would make my first cut on a piece wide enough (approx 16 1/2") to get all four rips from. That way the narrower piece will be easier to handle and keep against the fence when cutting four.

This is definitely the way to go, and it also allows you to use a featherboard.

Paul

snowi · 10-10-2009, 07:58 AM

Nice set up..

I don't think that you need the straight edge on your outfeed table, as there is no need for it. The wood is all ready cut by the time it gets there, and it may interfere with the wood after it passes the table saw.

Of course this is only my opinion. Others may think different.

Ralph

woodnthings · 10-10-2009, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cabinetman

Your setup is basically OK, but I would make my first cut on a piece wide enough (approx 16 1/2") to get all four rips from. That way the narrower piece will be easier to handle and keep against the fence when cutting four.

With this kind of logical thinking you will go far in this line of work!
Best of luck to you and write if you find work.

Great advice.

bill

Gene Howe · 10-10-2009, 09:34 AM

Mostly because of space limitations, my age, and a Shopsmith saw, I cut my pieces as Cabinet man suggests except I use a piece of foam insulation on a 4X8 table. Using an edge guide and a circular saw.
In my old (bigger) shop, I used to cut full 3/4" sheets on the Shopsmith. But, now I can't manhandle them any more. Besides, I found myself cutting gross sizes first, anyway.
Gene

mics_54 · 10-10-2009, 11:04 AM

Its pretty obvious common sense to reduce the size of the sheet first. Doesn't everybody do stuff the easy way?

woodnthings · 10-10-2009, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mics_54

Its pretty obvious common sense to reduce the size of the sheet first. Doesn't everybody do stuff the easy way?

bill

sprior · 10-10-2009, 11:38 AM

The last project I did I ripped the sheet in half for the first cut. For this project I was planning to rip each piece individually only for the extra experience in making that first rip with a big sheet.

sprior · 10-10-2009, 12:09 PM

mics,

Thanks for the drawing of the additional supports - but you didn't think you were going to do that without my asking how you did that and what you used... :-) I've got some basic skills with SketchUp, but haven't seen how to do that yet - if that's what you used.

mics_54 · 10-10-2009, 12:14 PM

It's the photo matching function in SU. Basically you import a photo to the SU program and set the axis perspectives to elements within the photo. innit kewl?

I posted a video in the SU thread for photo matching.

Bob Willing · 10-10-2009, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gene Howe

Mostly because of space limitations, my age, and a Shopsmith saw, I cut my pieces as Cabinet man suggests except I use a piece of foam insulation on a 4X8 table. Using an edge guide and a circular saw.
In my old (bigger) shop, I used to cut full 3/4" sheets on the Shopsmith. But, now I can't manhandle them any more. Besides, I found myself cutting gross sizes first, anyway.
Gene

Gene
I am with you an "C" man. Only I made myself a straight edge from 1/2" plywood cut 14" wide (you can make this wider if you want one side for the saw and the other for a router) and than cut a 3" piece from the 14" wide piece and fastened it to the remaining 10" so that it was 5 1/4" from the edge. How my first cut using the attached 3" as a guide is the exact width of my circular hand saws base plate. All you need to do is mark the width of the desired cut and align it up with the edge of your new giude and clamp it in place. Remember though the cut width is measured from motor side of the saw otherwise your cut will be the thickness of the blade too narrow. I never rip plywood more than 2' wide on my TS. Some of the time I use my trailer with scrap boards laid on top to precut my plywood to managable sizes. I do this right after I bring the plywood home from the store.

niki · 10-10-2009, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cabinetman

Your setup is basically OK, but I would make my first cut on a piece wide enough (approx 16 1/2") to get all four rips from. That way the narrower piece will be easier to handle and keep against the fence when cutting four.

You always have to be the first...

Yeap, that's the way that I was going to suggest but Cabinetman....

Regards
niki

sprior · 10-11-2009, 01:16 AM

Well, today I went ahead and made the cuts and it went very well. Because I was going for more big sheet wranging experience I didn't rip the plywood in half first, I made my first rip of 4 1/4 inches, then reset the fence for 4 inches, re-ripped that first piece's other edge, then proceeded to rip a total of 8 4" pieces before doing one more at 3 inches. All cuts came out pretty straight, a few burn marks where I stopped pushing briefly. Using the blade guard DID avoid a kickback once - the blade stopped but I corrected quickly and kept going.

Probably won't have time to finish the project tomorrow, but I'm off to a good start. I'll probably pull together some workshop pictures soon and post them to a gallery here. The good part is I've got a nice space to work in, the down side is that I don't have a walk-out basement so the only way to get equipment/supplies/projects in our out is down a bulkhead door.

Thanks for everyone's advice, the people on this board seem very nice and helpful!

sprior · 10-12-2009, 01:07 AM

For now I'm finished with the clamp cart I was ripping that plywood for - every clamp I own is mounted on it now, will add pieces to it as I get more clamps.

For the curious I've created a gallery of my basement workshop (see my profile). It's a nice space, the main drawback of which is that there is no walkout - everything goes in or out through a bulkhead door. Woodworking is pure hobby for me and I'm still building skills and setting up the space.

Now I've gotta figure out what's my next project.

Steve

Tony B · 10-30-2009, 09:23 PM

Where you are standing is part of the problem. You stated "In rehearsing I was standing at the front left corner (not in front of the saw) and pushing, but I found the plywood came away from the fence in the end..." The reason the plywood came away from the fence in the end was because of where you were standing. By standing at the left corner, the laws of physics say that the board is going to cock to the right. With that much overhang on the cut-off side you should be standing almost directly behind the blade to push the board forward with your right hand and slightly to the fence with your left in a coordinated move. Also, do like cabinet man said, only I would give a little extra throw away wood. That would alow you more to trim up a slightly bad cut.