Shopsmith Forums

bffulgham wrote:1/4" hardboard. No, it's not a Festool plunge cut, but works extremely well to cut down sheet goods to manageable sizes. and I don't have much $$ tied into one 5-footer and another 8-footer.

That is exactly how mine is made except mine is made of 1/4" OSB (my stash of Masonite is buried behind "other stuff"). I'm quite satisfied with it but I need to paint it so it doesn't look like a piece of scrap standing by the wall.
I want to make another but out of 1/4" poly.
One nice thing about the design is that you don't even have to measure the bottom part of it. Just make sure it is plenty wide, laminate the top piece on then saw off the extra with the saw you will use on it.
Somehow I got lucky and both of the saws I would use on it are exactly the same distance from the blade to the other edge of the saw lower plate. Exactly the same. Not sure how that came to be, my luck doesn't usually run that good.


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JPG40504 wrote:You gots a miter saw or ras with a blade below the workpiece???:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Yup......the bottom/leading-edge of the blade

bffulgham wrote:Yup......the bottom/leading-edge of the blade

I agree with the 'hand circular saw(skilsaw)' but must point out that a ras and chop saw have their leading-edge of the blade on the top!!!;)

[quote="JPG40504"]I agree with the 'hand circular saw(skilsaw)' but must point out that a ras and chop saw have their leading-edge of the blade on the top!!!]
This is one of the reasons I really like this forum and group of people.....It makes me stop and re-think things I think I know...... My use of 'leading edge' is misleading....I should have been using something that relates to direction of the cut as the tooth enters the stock.

Using the RAS for cross-cut, (normally) you pull the blade starting from the back side of the table into the stock....where the blade enters the wood, the teeth are cutting on the down rotation. But, if you rip on the RAS, you move the wood into the blade and it cuts on the up rotation....like a circ saw. So, show side up for cross-cut and show side down for rip.

The direction of the cut for a miter/chop saw is a plunge cut (not necessarily always true for a sliding miter saw), so the teeth on that sucker are entering the cut on the up side of the rotation as well as the down side and even (very briefly) horizontally at the bottom dead center of the blade. Having re-thunk this, it makes sense to me now why I get a much cleaner cut on the miter saw using the blade with High Alternate Top Bevel (High ATB as the propaganda describes it) teeth.

bffulgham wrote:This is one of the reasons I really like this forum and group of people.....It makes me stop and re-think things I think I know...... My use of 'leading edge' is misleading....I should have been using something that relates to direction of the cut as the tooth enters the stock.

Using the RAS for cross-cut, (normally) you pull the blade starting from the back side of the table into the stock....where the blade enters the wood, the teeth are cutting on the down rotation. But, if you rip on the RAS, you move the wood into the blade and it cuts on the up rotation....like a circ saw. So, show side up for cross-cut and show side down for rip.

The direction of the cut for a miter/chop saw is a plunge cut (not necessarily always true for a sliding miter saw), so the teeth on that sucker are entering the cut on the up side of the rotation as well as the down side and even (very briefly) horizontally at the bottom dead center of the blade. Having re-thunk this, it makes sense to me now why I get a much cleaner cut on the miter saw using the blade with High Alternate Top Bevel (High ATB as the propaganda describes it) teeth.

Thank You for causing me to re-think as well! Ras = depends upon operation(FWIW I do not like ripping with a ras so I seldom do so). Chop saw = depends upon width of workpiece( may be moot if wide). Sliding miter saw, I think good side up.

BTW I took 'leading edge' as intended!

Here's a new CL listing for a SawSmith RAS someone might be interested in.
http://limaohio.craigslist.org/tls/3274796496.html

I just don't have the space. Darn!