The cut off shoe

[masonsailor2]

Berry asked for an explanation of the cut off shoe. It's a very useful tool for making cuts that are difficult to perform on a table saw. They are essentially a home made track saw but with a back up for the blade which gives you a very clean edge. Years ago I built onsite cabinets using them. You can use them for cutting any angle compound or otherwise. There are a few tips to improve the results. First you need a skil saw that has not been used for framing or any other abusive cutting. The arbor needs to be true. Second you need a good fine tooth finish blade. I use a Freud. This blade needs to be new or newly sharpened and dedicated to use with the shoe. The shoe is made of two sheets of ply glued together. The bottom piece or kerf guide is made wide and then cut to width after the glue dries so it exactly matches and supports the kerf. you can make them any length you need. They are great for trimming doors. Set up is easy because the bottom piece ( kerf guide ) is exactly the edge of the cut. Make your marks, clamp down the shoe and make your cut. The cut will be precisely where at the edge of the kerf guide. You can make one for any angle that the skil saw can cut. For angled cuts you will need a dedicated shoe for each angle. Another tip is to have your finished edge on the bottom and not the top. Especially with veneer. You can use this same technique for routers. Screw a square piece of melamine to the bottom of the router and make a shoe to fit. Using a 45 degree chamfer bit you can produce very crisp angle cuts.
Paul

[masonsailor2]

Here is a video I found on the subject.
http://youtu.be/n-1XKctLrAU

[masonsailor2]

Here's a better one
http://youtu.be/qIeIZdrbz-Y

[wa2crk]

You can make 'em for a router too.

router%20guide%202[1].jpg (71.81 KiB) Viewed 6152 times

Bill V

[reible]

Back when I first got out of the army I didn't have the money or space for many tools. I still had the urge to build things as I had done back at home where we had a shop. I got a few simple tools and made do.

These sorts of cutting resources were common even back then. When I had worked as a carpenters helper just out of HS I picked up a few tricks of the trade for using "skill saws" now known as circular saws. The main job site saw was a radial arm. I'm glad I had that experience. Back then you worked in eights of an inch. So someone need a piece 84-5/8 strong meaning just over that...... I went from that to a machine shop where we worked in thousandths of an inch.

Now all these year later I still have some fond memories of those days but I think I have only one old days jig like these left in my collection. It is a T-square router jig.

Yes you can make and use these jigs or buy ones pretty inexpensively and yes with today blades you can do some nice work. The hard part is getting things square when they need to be square and that remains to be the hard part of woodworking. Well there is the mysteries of hiding your errors that takes you a long ways but only so far. So it all comes back to having a skill set that match your tools.

Anyway thanks for the memories.

Ed

[masonsailor2]

It's amazing how reliant one can become on stationary tools. For many years I taught a telescope building workshop at the Monterey Institute of Research in Astronomy. We built some really nice dobsonian telescopes, some of them quite large. I was criticized once of having all the cool tools and that was a major factor in the quality of the scopes that members were turning out. So I decided to show the members that those tools were convenient but not necessary. We proceeded to build an 18" scope and the tools had to be limited to a skil saw, 10" chop saw, a router and a 4X48 hand held belt sanded. Oh and a hand drill. That was probably the best telescope we ever made. It is still in use today. When you look at some of the morticing that a few members here do with hand chisels it is humbling. Especially our resident Octagenarian !
Paul

[lyall]

I made a skill saw jigs years ago to cut 4x8 sheets of plywood
I used 1/4" plywood for the base and baseboard molding. glued and nailed together. I have about 6" under hang for the baseboard molding both ends of the plywood. I have one for cutting 4' or less and one for 8'.
They have lasted for years and still are straight.
the over hang helps get the skill saw to start straight.

[Gene Howe]

The Skil 77, a great saw BTW, has two holes in the sole plate. I used them to attach a "T" track insert that rides in an 8' "T" track laid in a 3/4" thick piece of BB. Makes a really accurate guide. Bit un handy for cuts less than 4', though.

[benush26]

The Skil 77, a great saw BTW, has two holes in the sole plate. I used them to attach a "T" track insert that rides in an 8' "T" track laid in a 3/4" thick piece of BB. Makes a really accurate guide. Bit un handy for cuts less than 4', though.

What a GREAT idea! T-track keeps the saw from tipping and STRAIGHT!!

Well done!!

Be well,
Ben