Shopsmith Forums

GWSS is the name I've applied to this concept. That is Guided Wood Saw System for all intent and purposes descriptive but not all that catchy.

For demonstration purposes I will be cutting a birdhouse front/back. I did a layout and marked it in ink so it would be easier for you to see. Pencil lines would be fine but they can be hard to see in a photograph.

I know this looks like a crazy design but never mind that.
This is some "bargain wood" from Menard's and turns out to be 7-1/8" wide a new record for a 1 x 8, well at least for me. One needs only to do the layout once as when the part is cut out it can become the pattern to trace for more parts. If you are going to do a bunch make sure that you keep using the same part for the pattern.........

With the saw all set up and adjusted I'm ready to cut.
You may have to refer back to the thread where I presented the concept:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/gener ... 21087.html

In that thread I linked you to an older post where I was using pattern sawing and if you are not familiar with that make sure you check that link as well.

Once the part is cut out you can use it to produce as many tracings as you want and then batch cut them all up. This is the first one here:
Then I took it over and traced it to cut the back side which is identical to the front in this design.
The video is at:

https://youtu.be/HLh48RTUIQI

Not great video but I think you will get the idea.

Ed

I noticed a couple of cuts appeared to get hung up. Any idea why?

algale wrote:I noticed a couple of cuts appeared to get hung up. Any idea why?

I have a strip of UHMW tape that needs to get applied to make it a slicker process. Right now it is plywood against plywood.

I have a trimmer which I can not locate right now and the strip is 3/4" while the plywood is thinner. Once I locate the trimmer I will get the strip applied and I think things will become a lot more smooth.

The video is me cutting the second one, the first video had a problem and on that one all went pretty smooth, so I was a little surprised when I found the problem but I wanted to keep filming rather then stopping to see if I could fix things. Normally I would have stopped but not this time.......... and I didn't have another piece to cut and re-film so you get what you get.

Ed

This is a very interesting technique and safe. Until I saw how it all came together I was a little concerned about using a table saw for these kind of cuts but it looks great. Looks like you can cut them faster than you can draw them but once you have the pattern things should go fast for production runs and its hard to beat a table saw cut quality.

Pretty slick, Ed!

It struck me that once you have a pattern, you might be able to use it directly as a guide for additional workpieces. Just stick it to a new workpiece with some double-sided tape, and then guide the pattern directly against the L-guide. But I suspect that might not be stable enough when guiding along any short edges.

Cutting speed is an obvious advantage of the GWSS, vs. using the pattern with a router and pattern bit. Are there others?

My first impression was that you could also make those cuts directly with a track saw. But after thinking it through, I concluded that fixturing both the workpiece and the track could be pretty fussy.

This method is much faster then the one I showed where I I had to make a pattern that was a different size and then screw the pattern to the work piece for cutting. In that case it was pretty much how I learned the process many many years ago. It works but tracing and cutting works faster.

One could use double sided tape, in fact I'm a big fan of that when using a router and template or with the pin router. It goes pretty fast too but there is time used in putting the tape on and then taking it back off. A time in motion study might yield interesting results between the methods.

My intent was to try this idea out, the concept born out of my recent parlay into guided saw systems. If the saw can be guided what about the wood? As you can see it can be.

The material used for the grip works really well, just like on the guide rails for the track saws. I guess other materials might work here but I can't see anything I know of working better.

The shopsmith works really well for this due to the quill adjustment for the saw blade. I set the fence extension with the blade slightly exposed then used the quill to get the cut flush with the fence extension, this went really much faster then I thought it might. I mean it was seconds!

I'm looking forward to trying this method on a couple other projects that are waiting on me this spring. I hope to get the slick strip applied by then and see if that makes a nice slick difference. It should.

If anyone has questions let me know and I can try to answer them. This is a different concept so if you are struggling with it that is fine, if I can help clear up things that is why I'm posting these things.

I'd love to here if someone peruses this for a project or two.

Ed

I'm at the point of adding the slick strip to the fence extension. The little bag it was stored in says "Slick Strip 3/4" X 10.5'" No indication where I got it but I seem to recall sending for it. I also buy a 3" tall version for other jigs I've made.

Here is a picture of it:
Not sure why the color came out like that??? It is a milky white like a plastic milk container with a brown release paper.

I finally remembered where this tool was.... it has been a while since I last used it. It is designed to trim edging and should work for this tape stuff but we will see how well it works. I have no idea where I got it but it was a lot of years ago. And in this case the color looks about right.
Once it warms up I'll finish the job and shoot another picture of the tape trimmed and in place.

Ed

I have the strip installed. The picture of it came out really poorly so the best I can do for now is a picture of the bits that got trimmed off. I think the blades are not as sharp as they could be or I just don't remember it right but at least it is done.
Not sure when I'm going to get to test it. Snow in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow but if things get better on Sunday or Monday I'll get it set up and run some cuts. Can't see it making it worse anyway.

Ed

That's a really cool idea - especially for mass production. I like it.

One question: is there any concern over the cut off pieces getting caught between the blade and the fence resulting in wood projectiles?