Going to Build: saw

Showing posts with label saw. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Toolmongers Bosch Axial Glide Miter Saw Write Up

As many of you know I took the plunge and bought the Bosch Axial Glide Miter Saw. Ive had it for over a week now, and Ive still not been able to fire it up due to the bench slab experiment which has been taking up most of my shop. Ive finally got the slab experiment done (complete failure by the way) and Im hoping that the four day Thanksgiving weekend lets me do a little shop re-organization and finally set up the Bosch.

Toolmongers New Bosch Axial Glide Miter Saw.

In the mean time, please check out Toolmongers review of the Bosch. Its a great write up thatll probably give you more information than mine even after I finally write it. If youre not already a Toolmonger fan, you should be. They cover tools, and whats not to love about that?

What tool have you lusted for, bought and then not had a chance to set up?

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Zero clearance table saw insert

I had put off working on the New Yankee workbench because I didnt have an insert for my table saw that would work with the dado stack that my wife bought me for Christmas. I saw Steve Ramsey make one for his new table saw so I figured that I would give it a try.

I cut a piece of 1/8" hardboard down to rough size and used some duct tape and hardboard spacers to stick the new insert to the old one. I then used a cut off bit on my router to shape the new insert. Steve double sided taped his stock insert directly to his new one but I was nervous about accidentally hitting the metal with the router bit.

The insert is only rests on the actual table by a small lip at each end.

Of course, one is thicker than the other.

The hardboard was too thick so I used a 1/2" straight cutting bit to cut grooves in the ends.

I cut one end slightly deeper to fit in the thicker lip.

This end has a shallow bevel coming after the insert.

This side fits snug.

Perfect!

This is the end with the shallower cut. I may have made it a little too deep.

Here is the fit on the stock insert on the side with the shallow bevel.

The stock one sits down a little low too.

Unfortunately, I can only fit 1/2" of my 13/16" dado stack in the table saw. That is all that the arbor will safely hold.

I dont have any kinds of clips figured out yet so I held the insert down with the rip fence and a scrap piece of wood so that I could raise the spinning blade into the insert.

I made my first rabbet with my new dado stack!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

EZ Cut off Saw

I have been in the process of re-organizing my shop. I have been making lots of changes, hopefully for the better. I recently got a new circular saw, a Mikita 5008MGA to replace the WORX I bought initially to use on the EZ system. I was not all that satisfied with the WORX. On the EZ base, it just missed cutting1.5" stock (even after I did some fine tuning to the depth control parts). And it was not all that solidly built, it tended to flex during a cut (from side to side, slightly changing the angle of the cut from 90 degrees.

However, the WORX does have a slot in the base (to the European standard distance from the blade). Not using the EZ base would allow me to cut 1 1/2" stock on the rail. When the saw is used on a rail without the EZ base, the blade is too far from the edge to use EAC-1 for anti-chip and aligning cuts. I decided to make a shop built EAC and then use the WORX on a shop built cut-off rig.

I didn’t have any 1/2” UHMW and didnt have a piece of 3/4” UHMW long enough, so I planed a piece of 3/4” solid PVC trim down to 1/2” and used the table saw to mill the piece. Yes, I still use my table saw for some things.

With an edge for the rail, I then started to design the system for raising the rail to put the material under it. My first thought was to use two 3 1/2" door hinges, but decided that they had too much play. I then settled on a version of the EZ Bridge, but with only one end hinged. I built this from spare parts that I had saved from other designs.

I used Dinos trick (from the SSRK) for mounting two rail sections perpendicular to each other. I had some conformat screws the right size, so it was EZ and fast.

I soon discovered that this setup had too much play, but I realized that if I added a "fence" to push the rail against to keep it square to the squaring fence, the play would not be a problem.

After using this setup to make some test cuts, I realized that sometimes, if you didnt get the rail firmly down on the material, it could actually push the material away from the squaring fence during the cut.

Back to the drawing board. I went back to the door hinge idea since I now realized that a little play could be countered with a fence perpendicular to the squaring fence. But since the double pivot points allowed the rail to move toward and from the squaring fence, I decided to go with a single hinge and change height of the rail by moving the connection point up and down.

The height of the rail is changed by loosening the top two knobs and setting the top of the UHMW block according to the scale that is attached to the upright rail section that the hinge unit is mounted to.

I also built a stand to set the saw on. It has a slot to hold the blade and blade guard. even when they are fully extended.

Here is the rail set to cut 3/4" stock, and when the rail is flipped up when not in use.

Soon, I hope to have shop to the point where I can do a piece or two about the new layout.