Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Power Tools). This thread is read-only.
Hi there,
Newbie here, but I’ve got a question most likely everyone will know.
I’ve been using tools all my life but I recently needed to purchase a sliding compound mitre saw.. ok well, honestly, i found an excuse to buy a sliding compound mitre saw 🙂
Here’s what I’m doing. I have several thin boards. they’re basswood. i use them for chip carving practice. I have about 40. What I’d like to do with the practice boards is cut them in half. I usually do this if I decide to keep something after carving it since mosdt of my work are things like rosettes and about 5 inches.
So i want to cut about 20 of my boards in half. The saw came with a GP blade. it’s not a finishing blade. but i don’t want to rush out and spend 50 bucks on a new one. Since it’s a gp blade, upon testing, it frayed the under side of the board a little. not horribly, but bad enough to be annoying.
The boards are 1/2x6x12. My question is, how many would you feel comfy stacking to cut at the same time?
The saw has a max cut height of 4 inches. it’s a 10 inch 500rmp 15a saw. I am clearly not going to stack 8 together and cut them, especialy since they’re 6 inches wide, so i have to use the slide too.
I think i’d be safe if I cut 3 at a time. I do have dual clamps on the saw, so i can secure the wood.
what do you think I should try? shouldn’t i be ok at 3?
I would go with smaller bunches. It can get a little crazy trying to line up too many boards for one cut. I was cutting 4 2×4’s on my 12″ Bosch slider that was maxing it out cut wise. To be honest you would have to be cutting some very dense wood to give any of the modern miters any trouble. Getting back to your original question cutting 3 at a time seems like a reasonable amount.
Hello and thanks a bucnh for the response!
That is kind of my thinking too. I mean IN reality I could tape the boards together at the ends to keep them lined up, but i think that’s overkill. three sounds like the right number too. i’ll use two real boards and one scrap to avoid the chips.
Thank you!
On my SCMS I took the base plate out and made a wood zero clearance plate so that I do not get tear out on the bottom. I have not had a problem cutting a few boards stacked.
I’m an electrician so you should take what I say with a grain of salt.
I was doing base, chair rail and crown molding in my house and after the first few cuts I had had to quit ( OCD kicked in ), the chipping drove me nuts because I try to limit imperfection as much as possible, and in my sometimes distorted mind I decided this was something I could control. I went on eBay and found a good used blade and it did the trick, no more chipping. Or at least very minor at worst when I cut too quick.
Here is a blade that would be good for you:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/IRWIN-MARATHON-80T-10-TRIM-FINISH-TABLE-SAW-BLADE-GOOD-CONDITION-CARBIDE-/151415376010?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23410f488a
As for the other question; I will max it out if need be, if it fits I’ll stack them. As far as clamps go, I just freehand the boards but if you want to use clamps you could use some speed clamps or Irwin’s Quick-Grip bar clamps.
I cut 1x’s 2 or high all the time without issue. You can also use scrap underneath to avoid fraying on your usable blanks.
The sooner you bite the bullet and get yourself a Diablo or even an Avanti finish blade, the happier you’ll be.
Conductor562 wrote:
I cut 1x’s 2 or high all the time without issue. You can also use scrap underneath to avoid fraying on your usable blanks.
The sooner you bite the bullet and get yourself a Diablo or even an Avanti finish blade, the happier you’ll be.
Solid advice, a good blade makes a lot of difference.
Bite the bullet And spend the cash. Wood can be really expensive and for any finish work I’d go with a high tooth ratio blade! Good luck!
You can find some pretty good deals on 10″ miter saw blades fairly often. They are a lot cheaper than 12″ blades it sucks to have to replace a blade on my 12″ Bosch saw.
As others have already said, a good blade will pay fors itself over and over. U just need to find a good excuse to buy it. I hate those good excuses, they always get me in trouble.
I bought a new blade and slipped it on the table saw. The wife never even noticed.
rfwjr wrote:
I bought a new blade and slipped it on the table saw. The wife never even noticed.
That’s the key to a happy marriage. She can’t get pissed about the tools she doesn’t know you bought. Conductor has a limited disclosure policy when it comes to tools and It’s served me well over the last decade 😉
if you can’t slip a donor board on bottom wrap some masking tape so tape is in middle of cut line …..