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Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw *PIC*
By:Matt Jakubek
Date: 4/11/2013, 12:24 pm

Just in case someone else ran into a similar situation, I'd like to share my solution of ripping strips from WRC boards with a circular hand saw.

With Boards more than 6' long, ripping thin strips on a small table saw (in my case a Festool TS55 mounted in the MFT-VL Module) was almost impossible without getting a lot of burns on the wood and heavy wear on the blade. It's tricky to guide a long board unless you really have a long, 100% straight fence. I tried some variations on the table saw theme, like leaning the whole thing on an angle so the board would slide towards the fence by its own weight. Well, it wasn't getting better but it led to the idea that finally worked:

I made a 10' long and approx. 2' wide board out of cheap plywood and placed it at an angle on my construction beam. on the lower side I glued a 1" thick and only 8" wide board with a slot and an aluminium U-profile that's perfectly straight. Then I made a little sliding distancer for the saw so I can adjust the distance between the blade and the aluminium profile.
Boards are placed above and due to the angle of the construction need no clamping to stay in place. Weight will always push them down towards the "fence". All I have to do is walk along and push the saw, take the strip out, let the board slide down and cut the next strip. No burns on the wood, minimal wear on the blade (I just bought a new ripping blade, let's see how this will speed things up).

Oh yeah, I know you can buy the long festool guides but hey, they cost around $500…

Hope this helps :-)

Messages In This Thread

Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw *PIC*
Matt Jakubek -- 4/11/2013, 12:24 pm
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
dave koslow -- 4/11/2013, 3:07 pm
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Daniel Thaler -- 4/11/2013, 6:01 pm
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Matt Jakubek -- 4/12/2013, 9:52 am
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Matt Jakubek -- 4/12/2013, 9:56 am
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Malcolm Schweizer -- 4/12/2013, 1:14 pm
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw *PIC*
Etienne Muller -- 4/12/2013, 2:29 pm
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Matt Jakubek -- 4/12/2013, 5:59 pm
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Bill Hamm -- 4/14/2013, 1:29 am
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
Bill Hamm -- 4/15/2013, 2:15 am
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
ddaniels -- 4/14/2013, 10:33 am
Re: Strip: Ripping strips with a plunge cut saw
ancient kayaker -- 4/14/2013, 11:38 am