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Hey guys I need some tips on cutting come Faux wood blind valences (The top part that covers the head rail. I need to make a few 45degree angle cuts and some other straight ones. I just very slowly and gently tried to make some straight cuts on my table saw and it tore and chipped up the wood pretty bad. I was thinking of just doing the straight cuts with a hacksaw. But no idea how the hell I’ll be able to do the angled cuts. Help!
Miter box
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masking tape over cut line, score cut line with utility knife or razor blade…… band saw as it all cuts downward…..
Shit I don’t have a miter box or a band saw great
Miter box is very cheap
Also with plastic is helps to have a blade with lots of teeth. You can get away with a nice finish blade but def don’t use a framing saw etc.
Anytime I need to cut something like this, I place tape carefully over the center of where I want to make my cut. Then I line up a picture of Chuck Norris directly in front of the cut. Takes about 3 seconds for a precision perfect cut every time. Works on plastic, wood, kevlar, aluminum, steel, marble, sea snail teeth, valyrian steel, and lonsdaleite.
Not recommended for haircuts, causes baldness.
I have to cut a few 3″ why pieces and I picked up a nice table saw blade but my issue is when I go to cut the flat or the curved part the little piece I’m cutting gets very dangerously shot back at me
The cut seem to be decent 80 or 90% of the way but when it gets towards the end it ships the whole piece back brakes right off. And I was also using masking tape to tape off exactly where was being cut…
This is the blade I was using:
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This is where it gets to almost the end and then flings the piece at me…
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I am cutting it off of longer pieces like this…
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This is a different blade and it’s not taped but this is basically how I was cutting it. With my left hand holding the other side of course. The piece that I and pushing through with the black stick is flying off the saw in all different dangerous directions…
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Does anyone have any suggestions??
Tape your piece to a sacrificial board that is wide enough that you can cut all the way through the blind but not all the way through the sacrificial board underneath, (1×8 or something), line up your leading edge face with the sacrificial board (so you stay square), tape the cut off end to the sacrificial board (so it doesn’t take flight) and slice it all together. The blade will cut the plastic and some of the board underneath but not all of it, nothing to fly off and try to murder your face then. This will eliminate tear-out as well as you exit the cut along the bottom edge. Let me know if I haven’t explained this well enough.
Hugh Jass wrote:
Tape your piece to a sacrificial board that is wide enough that you can cut all the way through the blind but not all the way through the sacrificial board underneath, (1×8 or something), line up your leading edge face with the sacrificial board (so you stay square), tape the cut off end to the sacrificial board (so it doesn’t take flight) and slice it all together. The blade will cut the plastic and some of the board underneath but not all of it, nothing to fly off and try to murder your face then. This will eliminate tear-out as well as you exit the cut along the bottom edge. Let me know if I haven’t explained this well enough.
Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I have some thinner stuff right now, looks to be about quarter inch by eight. I’ll go ahead and tape it to that and give it a try and see how that works. …if not I’ll be heading to Home Depot for the size that you recommended.
olletsocmit wrote:
17 minutes ago, olletsocmit said:Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I have some thinner stuff right now, looks to be about quarter inch by eight. I’ll go ahead and tape it to that and give it a try and see how that works. …if not I’ll be heading to Home Depot for the size that you recommended.
Could be anything, even plywood as long as it’s a few inches wider than the width of the material you’re cutting. Also to improve the design if you have a lot of them to cut, I’d put a board on top of the sacrificial board to have behind the blind (think a secondary fence 90 degrees to the fence) to use as a backing which is square off of your table saw fence. Just extra reinforcement to keep the small cut from getting in a bind and becoming a projectile in the event the tape even fails. If you have just a few I wouldn’t bother but the peace of mind of lots of cut’s is worth it.
This is interesting, i can definitely see it binding and shooting back, and you’re getting some good advice to this, but if I’m seeing it right, a miter saw is a better choice of tool.. But if you don’t have a miter saw, make yourself a sled for the table saw, they are useful in so many ways, they are practically free with scraps you might have laying around. Another option to consider…
They make saws for vinyl and plastics, little pricy but maybe that would work
Jimbo
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olletsocmit wrote:
The cut seem to be decent 80 or 90% of the way but when it gets towards the end it ships the whole piece back brakes right off. And I was also using masking tape to tape off exactly where was being cut…This is the blade I was using:
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
This is where it gets to almost the end and then flings the piece at me…
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
I am cutting it off of longer pieces like this…
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
This is a different blade and it’s not taped but this is basically how I was cutting it. With my left hand holding the other side of course. The piece that I and pushing through with the black stick is flying off the saw in all different dangerous directions…
[External image (uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com), not copied]
Does anyone have any suggestions??
I might not use the rip fence on the table saw for this cut, I would use the miter gauge. Maybe even build a sled?
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KnarlyCarl wrote:
53 minutes ago, KnarlyCarl said:This is interesting, i can definitely see it binding and shooting back, and you’re getting some good advice to this, but if I’m seeing it right, a miter saw is a better choice of tool.. But if you don’t have a miter saw, make yourself a sled for the table saw, they are useful in so many ways, they are practically free with scraps you might have laying around. Another option to consider…
Personally I’ve taken more shrapnel from a miter saw on small cuts than the table saw, not as much ricochet on the table as the miter I think since it’s launching it in one direction rather than back toward to saw to hit and deflect randomly depending on depth and angle of blade. Had a chunk of crown moulding ricochet off my DWS780 and snap a pair of plastic sunglasses at the bridge. I wear impact resistant glasses now. That hurt.
tomdog22 wrote:
9 minutes ago, tomdog22 said:I might not use the rip fence on the table saw for this cut, I would use the miter gauge. Maybe even build a sled?
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That’s what I was implying with the quantity of cuts. I’d do that if I had a lot of cuts to make. For a few I’d just half ass it.
So I finish the project. Are used to thin sheet of plywood underneath and on top as you recommended. It still wasn’t perfect and needed some Dremel and hand sanding work at the end …. But it sure is 100 f***ing (that word allowed to be said here? Haha) times better than flying objects coming at my face at 100+ miles an hour!! Thanks again guys sure saved me a hell of a lot of time and some stitches :). And I agree with everyone a miter Saul would’ve been a hell of a lot better. Or some type of fixture that clamped the wood on the top and the sides kind of like they have at Home Depot and Lowe’s when you get blinds cut — although they use a table saw style cutter that goes from back to front
to save you time in the future, go to lowes and tell them its a levelor valance and they’ll cut it. same with depot just tell them its the brand of whatever it says on the blind cutting machine.