Crosscutting a long board

[a1gutterman]

A good time to wax the tables wood be right before you make that cut.

[Ed in Tampa]

This is exactly why they make table saws with slidding tables, cross cut sleds, and just about every type of miter guage extension you can think of.

Crosscutting long boards on a table saw is filled with problems. Most can be worked out but the minute you let your guard down the board will cant and your cut will be off. Just hope that correcting the cut doesn't make the board to short to be used for your project.

Biggest problem is any slop in the you miter guage bar to table groove will be magnifyed by a long board, plenty of leverage to twist the guage in the slot.

Also make sure you miter guage is tightly locked, again the board will exert tremendous pressure on it to move it.

When all else fails check out the thread on Radial Arm Saws, they shine at cross cutting long boards.

[charlese]

Today, and yesterday had a similar situation, except my boards were only 42" long and only ¾" thick. So I was faced with a similar problem, but probably not as much twist factor from the length of the board. Mine were oak 7" X ¾".

I have a Shopsmith miter gauge extension that is almost a permanent fixture on my gauge. It sticks out only 22 inches. Even with this, there could have been some deflection of the miter gauge. I thought seriously of getting my sled off of the wall, but since I was lazy, and that would have required me to re-set the Mark V to saw from the left of the blade, I chose to stick with the gauge.

Made sure there was no side to side movement of the guide in the slot, (tightened the taper screw slightly) and waxed the table. Result was square cuts when trimming off the excess ½" from each side of the boards.

They had to be square cuts as later they had ½" tenons 4½" long on each end. I used the miter gauge to make the tenons with rip fence (for maximum length of tenon)and dado blade.

Another trick to handle those 8"X 1½" boards is to raise the table so the blade is just barely an 1½ high to cut through that board. This gives you more table room in front of the saw blade.

[iclark]

keakap just made an interesting comment in another thread (on checking squares/squareness)
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showpos ... stcount=16

after pointing out that you could use a straight board to check the agreement between 2 miter gauges, he then pointed out that you could then use those 2 miter gauges functionally as a sled. sounded like a neat idea.

Ivan

[johnmccrossen]

Here is a set up I used for cross cutting the ends of 4ft 2 x 10's on my model 500. Worked ok with the extra main table and miter guages. I think a 6 ft board would have been ok too with a little more support on long end.

[ATTACH]5670[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]5671[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]5672[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]5673[/ATTACH]

[judaspre1982]

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[mickyd]

While on the subject of crosscuts.....check out the quick and easy alignment method to ensure square cuts...

http://www.finewoodworking.com/ToolGuide/ToolGuideArticle.aspx?id=32873

[JPG]

While on the subject of crosscuts.....check out the quick and easy alignment method to ensure square cuts...

http://www.finewoodworking.com/ToolGuide/ToolGuideArticle.aspx?id=32873

This gives an indication 2x the 'error'. Rotating all around the test board gives an indication of 4x the 'error'.

[vjgrevem]

I prefer to keep it simple: I'd break out the old Skil Saw and my Stanley pocket square to make that cut with the board clamped to my table.

[bobgroh]

OH, boy, here is where the rest of the guy's are going to jump on me and pummel me good.

My answer to cutting 3" off the end of 2x8? I would use my circular saw and a homemade T-guage I have just for this kind of work. No way I would try to rassle my 510 around to do the job. I could (I have all kinds of extension tables, cross cut sleds and the like), I just wouldn't do it. I kind of try to fit my jobs to my tools. Just because I have a hammer, I don't try to drive deck screws with it. Just my thoughts.