Over several decades I have had a couple of instances where I needed to make a long 45 degree cut on a larger heavy piece. Tilting the table and using the fence is way to awkward to make this type of cut. You can’t really easily set up in feed or out feed table extensions with legs when the table is at 45 degrees. These are the times when I wish I had a table saw with a large area table, but alas I am stuck with just the Shopsmith. I can’t use my track saw because when I set it to 45 degrees, it won’t cut completely through my piece with the standard 7 1/4” circular saw. It might work if I had a much larger circular saw.
I’m cutting old 5 panel doors down the middle and making corner shelves. With the 5 panel doors, the saw surface is uneven between the panels. These doors are about 1 1/2 inches to 1 3/4 inches thick. (See photos). Any suggestions here would be much appreciated.
This might be overkill if this is a one time project, but it's an excuse to buy another tool. Pick up a 10" radial arm saw from Craigslist. You can set up tables or roller stands around it as necessary and it should be able to rip to the middle of a door up to 48". Around here, there are lots of options for <$100 in decent shape <$200 in excellent shape.
Thanks much,
Chris Phelps
Cheap tools are too expensive
2x Mark 5 520 and a 10ER
twistsol wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:03 pm
This might be overkill if this is a one time project, but it's an excuse to buy another tool. Pick up a 10" radial arm saw from Craigslist. You can set up tables or roller stands around it as necessary and it should be able to rip to the middle of a door up to 48". Around here, there are lots of options for <$100 in decent shape <$200 in excellent shape.
48” isn’t nearly enough to do this job. I’ll need about 80 inches or so.
twistsol wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:03 pm
This might be overkill if this is a one time project, but it's an excuse to buy another tool. Pick up a 10" radial arm saw from Craigslist. You can set up tables or roller stands around it as necessary and it should be able to rip to the middle of a door up to 48". Around here, there are lots of options for <$100 in decent shape <$200 in excellent shape.
48” isn’t nearly enough to do this job. I’ll need about 80 inches or so.
You can rip a door of any length, the 48" would be the width of the door if you are trying to rip it lengthwise. Most radial arm saws give you about 24" from the fence to the furthest out-rip position. You can also move the fence closer to the column to increase that a bit.
Thanks much,
Chris Phelps
Cheap tools are too expensive
2x Mark 5 520 and a 10ER
twistsol wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:03 pm
This might be overkill if this is a one time project, but it's an excuse to buy another tool. Pick up a 10" radial arm saw from Craigslist. You can set up tables or roller stands around it as necessary and it should be able to rip to the middle of a door up to 48". Around here, there are lots of options for <$100 in decent shape <$200 in excellent shape.
48” isn’t nearly enough to do this job. I’ll need about 80 inches or so.
Twistsol is not talking about cross cutting on the RAS he is talking about ripping. Rotating the saw head 90°, tilt it to 45°and locking it in place. Not something some people know can be done on an RAS.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
That’s an interesting problem. I like the RAS idea, but you really have to know what you’re doing to rip safely on a RAS. And given the varying thickness of a multi-panel door, the RAS anti-lift features and anti-kickback pawls alone wouldn’t work as designed. You’d need Board Buddies or the like, and/or or a hold-down fixture that captures the door stile in order to make that cut safely.
A tilting-blade table saw or an oversized track saw like a Festool TS 75 would be good, but expensive, solutions.
But how to do it with a Shopsmith? I hate to admit it, but I’m stumped.
Thinking way outside of the box, if you can live with the cut quality, you might be able to gin up an adapter to guide a handheld jig saw with your track-saw track.
steverboss wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:17 pm
...I can’t use my track saw because when I set it to 45 degrees, it won’t cut completely through my piece with the standard 7 1/4” circular saw. It might work if I had a much larger circular saw.
I checked mine and a couple of random 7-1/4" circular saws and they have the depth to do this sans track. So I'm guessing your track mounts the saw, taking away some of its depth of cut.(?) If that is the case, you can cut against a straight edge clamped to the door without the track. You might lost a bit of quality, but this is a fairly rustic project so that might not matter.
I like the other ideas better, I'm trying for cheap here. I think it could be done on a 510/520 using extension table brackets (https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cat ... racket.htm) plus tables plus a fence extension. I'm not sure you can get the fence where you need it without mocking this up, but I think you can. Note in the link for the brackets there is a setup ripping a board on the bevel. The board is small compared to a door, but the idea is there. For a door, you'd likely need both infeed and outfeed extensions. (This might end up costing more than the Festool Dennis mentioned.)
What if you rip the door in half then make a filler piece 1.75x1.75 to fill the inside corner. If you can duplicate the ogee trim you could cope pieces to cover the panel edges. No miters required. If you want to miter the long edge I think I would still rip the door in half and then have a lighter piece to work with.
I didn't take the time to make the trim pieces but hopefully you can see what I mean.
SS Project.JPG (73.05 KiB) Viewed 14789 times
Larry Hargrove
Rock Island, Ok
1981 Mark V 500>510>520(98922)
19?? Mark V 500>Power Pro headstock 556176 06-17-11 factory exchange program original serial unknown
1957 Mark V 500 (350389)
1953 10ER
Another 10ER
Bandsaw 2012 Jointer 2012
Bandsaw, Jointer, other goodies
Craftsman table saw, Delta 46-460 Midi lathe
SS 6” Belt Sander w/power stand 1970’s?
larryhrockisland wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 11:31 pm
What if you rip the door in half then make a filler piece 1.75x1.75 to fill the inside corner. If you can duplicate the ogee trim you could cope pieces to cover the panel edges. No miters required. If you want to miter the long edge I think I would still rip the door in half and then have a lighter piece to work with.
I didn't take the time to make the trim pieces but hopefully you can see what I mean.
SS Project.JPG
Larry,
I like your simple solution, I’m thinking I’ll try that first. I don’t think that people who are interested in buying this style of corner shelf likely wouldn’t pay much attention to which method was used to attach the sides! Keep it simple stupid, Doh!
