Follow Along Project - Part 4 - Cutting Parts

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
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Location
Coolidge, AZ
Had some time to process pictures, so will update this project.

Here is how I handle sheet stock. The sheet is slid into my panel trolley and rolled next to the saw rack on sawhorses. The yellow cylinder on the saw rack is the control for the winch. You can see the clamp from Harbor Freight on the top. I have been picking up full sheets with this one clamp!

7 saw rack and hoist.JPG

Then it is upsa daisy!

8 upsa daisy.JPG

Finally flat on the rack for cutting.

9 flat on the rack.JPG

This did involved some wrestling to get the sheet ready to lay down and maxed my height limitations, especially for lifting Baltic Birch ply with it's 5x5 dimensions. I now have a custom sling when I can lift from a lower point, and flipping it 90° uses gravity instead of muscles. Even good ideas can be improved upon.

I use a saw track of my own design to break down sheets. I came up with this years before Festool and whomever else. Made a bunch and sold them in SoCal but didn't have the $$ to take it bigger. Vaughn used the guide part when reducing his Michigan chocolate to get it into his car.

10 ready to cut.JPG

I should point out that I am anal about getting things square. Because this is metric plywood, which thicknesses affect the joinery, and because I am using metal drawer guides that are designed for European cabinets, also metric, I have shifted to using all metric measurements. Besides that's all whole numbers! Only use millimeters. Have no use for centimeters or meters. Only confuses the issue.

And I make extensive use of drafting triangles, having now gathered several orange ones in the larger sizes. Every cut gets checked for square before and after cutting. Now is the time to fix things if they are not square. So much easier to make drawers for square cabinets! :rofl:

One other thing to keep in mind. Each side has to be a mirror image of the other, as do the ends. To check this, stack them and rub your fingers along the edges. They should be flush.

Then is it off to the table saw where the stacked dado blade is installed for the rabbets.

11 Setting dado stack height.JPG

The height gauge is also of my own design. It used a broken drafting triangle, a warped ruler with metric and fractional rules on it, a block of wood, a short piece of aluminum angle to provide some stiffness and thickness to the upright and a shop made sliding stop. I put two rare earth magnets in the bottom side to keep it more stable on the saw. In hind sight, that was overkill.

And lastly, the ends and sides are cut and milled. One end also has the tee nuts installed for the wheels. I put them in before I cut the rabbets and had to remove 4 of them because they were too close for the saw blades but OK in application - barely. It wasn't too smart to install metal before the cutting was done, but it helps to be lucky!!

13 Rabbets for the back are cut.JPG

This is my first real project in about ten years. I spent 4 and a half recovering from the accident and moving to Arizona. The next 5 and half were in seminary and getting settled back home. It has been an adventure to find stuff I know I have but often have to go searching for it. And the new reality of the back and neck have caused me to get rather innovative in working.

Thanks for coming along. Hope you are enjoying the journey.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 2 - Update

Part 3a

Part 3b

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6
 
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Carol you one heck of a smart lady:):thumb: Not only capable but innovative. I really like the way you offset the issues that come with a back injury. There is food for thought there for the future. Thank you for all the work involved in this great detailed post. I like the cutting table.:thumb:

In the pic you show the screwing of the cabinet joint is that a block of wood i see in the corner. I was trying figure out what the two screws going away from the side are screwed into?
 
If I follow you correctly, you are referring to a picture in post 5 (this is post 4); the one with two bar clamps, yellow hammer, cordless driver, etc.

And I think you are asking about what looks like two screw heads on the edge of an end. Actually, that is the bottom end and we are looking at barrel end of two tee nuts inserted from the other side. Wheels are bolted into them later.

If I am wrong, please note there is a number and a description under each picture. Direct me more definitively and I'll see if I can help.
 
I definitely recognize that saw rack, Carol. ;) Can you tell me again what the dimensions were on it? I want to log that idea away in the Ideas file. :)

Thanks for documenting the build so well. :thumb: This series will enlighten a lot of people over time.
 
:doh::doh::doh: I should have studied longer. Yeah and with the menu i was switching between the posts guess i got confussed. I saw the t nuts in the prior pics.:doh: Part of it was me again wanting add in heavy duty blocks and over kill.:D
 
Saw Rack info:

It is made of 2x2's lapped together in a 3' x 5' overall grid. Notice the ribs are proud. They are not fully half-lapped.

One side works best for rip cuts.

Saw Rack for Rips.JPG

Flip it over and the ribs present the crosscut configuration.

Saw Eack for Crosscuts.JPG

The ribs are cross dadoed, glued and screwed together, though over the years, the glue had broken loose and the rack is a little loosey goosey, but usable. I deeply counter sunk the screws to avoid hitting them with a saw blade. You can see the errant saw cuts from when I didn't check to see that I was between the ribs with the saw blade.

I made special saw horses for this for a couple of reasons. I needed the rack to stay put when I slid plywood around on it. The bonus reason turned out to be a place to stack cut-offs out of the way until the saw job was complete.

Saw Horses for Saw Rack.JPG

Look carefully at the top [pictures and see how the rack locks into the horses, no matter which side is up.
 
Yes I have seen the cutting table idea before, but your leaving the slots short is a new twist to me. And a very good idea! Really should lengthen the life of the table....
 
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