Okay, I’ve racked my brain until it turned to mush…..I’ve searched the FW site, Wood mag site, Amer. WW site and can’t find anything. I remember not too long ago reading an article(which magazine I can’t recall) about a man that built a sled for ripping rough lumber on his table saw. It consisted of a long plywood bed with a maple runner for the miter slot. I think at the leading end, he attached a cleat on top of the sled, and had a nail or nails facing the trailing end to keep the front end of the board being cut from moving around. What I can’t remember is what he had on the trailing end to hold the lumber being cut. Does anyone remember reading this article, or have you built something similar and would you mind sharing some ideas with me? I was recently given about 400 bf of Carolina cherry and I’d like to start processing it into useable lumber. Thanks for your help!
Don Z.
Replies
The easiest best and most accurite way of ripping long rough lumber is not, I repeat not, on a table saw. Use a skil saw with a guide. OK you can use your sidewinder if you don't have a skil saw but it'as slower and less accurite.
set the wood on a pair of sawhorses and rip away! If you don't have one straight edge to work off of you can use a piece of angle iron as your fence with a couple of clamps you can set it wherever you need it. holding a long rough sawn board against a fence or firmly in a sled isn't easy. Running a skil saw against a piece of angle iron is..
There are a number of ways this can be done; the way I heard it described was to take a known straight-edge piece of board ("guide") and screw it down right at one edge of your rough workpiece, with the guide's straightest edge on the outside. Run the straight edge of the "guide" along your rip fence as you trim off the left-most side of your workpiece. That gives you one straight edge. Remove the guide, turn around the work piece and rip it again with the new straight edge along the fence, this time to remove the remaining rough edge.
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... but if you gotta try it anyway, your sled base doesn't need to be real thick. All you want is a sturdy edge against the fence, and the rail needs to be straight enough that you don't walk during the cut. If you're cutting inch material, then build up the edge by the fence just over that, and invest in a handful of De Sta Co or similar toggle clamps to pinch the rough board down to the sled. You'll want to have the sled longer than the wood you're cutting so you can get a straight run established before the teeth hit the blade.
This is Jim Cummins' version. Jim was an editor for FWW a couple hundred years ago and passed away several years back.
Jim's Sled
Lee
Furniture Carver
Thanks, Lee! That's exactly the jig I was describing. I guess I had reversed the little fence in my mind and had it on the wrong end of the sled. I appreciate the feedback.
Don Z.If I was doing any better, I couldn't hardly stand it!
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