Rip Saw!

John Rutter

Member
Messages
59
Location
Pacific Northwest
Since I have a cabinet door business, I've had my eye on a straight line rip saw for a couple of years now. But being a frugal guy, I couldn't quite pull the trigger on a new one. At AWFS, I looked a a few options, including an Extrema XR-12C, which was the only saw that I opted to get a quote on.

But with the recent wide belt and big compressor purchases, not to mention the cost to hook them up, I figured that a saw would have to wait. I have been running an old Powermatic 66 with 4-wheel feeder for close to two years. While it doesn't exactly cut straight, it does do a decent job of reducing time and avoiding eating sawdust when ripping a few hundred BF of wood.

Then I happened to see an ebay auction for the same saw that I got quoted in Vegas. I exchanged some e-mails with the seller, but didn't bid above the starting bid. Well it turned out that the winner flaked out on closing the deal, so the seller called me up and offered it to me for less than the original opening bid.

We got it into place on Friday, and I spent an hour or so today getting it connected to the DC. Long story short, now I know why everyone has been encouraging me to get one of these things. The catalog lit talks about virtually invisible saw marks, which I assumed was typical exaggeration. But when I put the first board through and held it up towards the light, sure enough, I guess you can maybe just barely see some tooth marks... Wow, it is amazing what a good feed system and massive arbor with widely spaced bearings can do. At 15 HP, you can really move things through without a hiccup. We'll be experimenting to see if we can eliminate most edge jointing and secondary (finish) ripping. From the initial test, the finish is at least as good as the edge jointer.

As a bonus, it came with a laser and half of a ProScale setup. I happen to have an extra display, so I just need to fabricate a bracket to mount to the fence.

-JR
 

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I forgot to mention my first run at a scrap management cart. You can see it in the rip saw pic. It sits beside and partly under the table of the saw. I had some old finishing racks made with EMT that I repurposed. The double verticals will act as a guide for a 12" Sawzall blade to cut the strips down to 16" for easy bagging for firewood/kindling. We'll see if it works when the rack gets full...
 
congrats john nice score, i saw some extrema machines at a dealer the other day, looks to be some well built machines.

i am not familiar with those kinds of saws. what kinds of cuts are they capable of. is it just for straight lining or can it do other things as well. i saw one extrema saw that had multiple blades on it. i am assuming it was some sort of multi rip setup.

chris
 
Now you've got me jealous John. As somebody who rips 10's of 1000s of feet of straight line a year I would pay dearly to have that capability. Sadly the cost in space and money is beyond my current means. Ho Hum!
 
Great score. that will be valuable addition to your productivity and probably pay for itself in short order. Congrats.
 
Chris - it does just the one thing, but does it very well, and quickly. The multi-blade designs are called gang rip saws.

Ian - this saw takes up less space than the old one. It has a Y-Delta starter so the current inrush is managed. I have the urge to kick myself for waiting so long.

Here's a pic of the old setup - much wider and only a little shallower.

-JR
 

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My problem is that I have no more space (read that as not enough space) for tools. I am maximising storage etc but pretty much have to adopt a "one in one out" strategy at the moment. My alternative is a bigger workshop unit. The cost of moving and setting up, along with the extra rent and property taxes, would cost me the equivalent of buying your new saw (at least) every year. So for now, I will just have to sigh wistfully and watch.:peek:
 
jr, you`ll love that saw! between it and your new sander your life will be lots easier.....either that or you`ll move more wood through your shop;)
 
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