sawboard

[Fred]

Hi,

I followed the instructions to make a saw board:

have found it very useful, thanks.

The one I made was 8' long but sometimes there isn't room to use it. I wonder about making a second, shorter one (4'?). The article suggests making one for your jigsaw too.

The instructions say that the plywood needs to be cut accurately and suggest using the factory edge. The problem is that you only get two factory edges on a sheet of plywood. I'm wondering, once you have made one saw board from the factory edge, can you then use the saw board to make other straight edges from the same sheet of ply and use these for other boards? That way you could make a couple of boards all out of one sheet of plywood. The alternative is to buy several smaller sheets of plywood, which would work out more expensive.

TIA

[John Rumm]

Can't see why not. The factory edge trick gets you past the first hurdle of having something you know is straight to use as a master. Once you have the first however, subsequent ones are easier.

[Norman Billingham]

I?ve always just used a piece of 19mm ply about 6ins wide as my saw guide, using the factory edge to guide the saw. You can use whichever saw and whichever blade, just measure the distance from the edge to the blade and clamp the guide down at that distance from the cut line, remembering to position the clamps to allow the motor to clear them. Also works equally well with a router.

How good the cut line will be depends on how rigid your saw and blade combination is, how accurately the saw blade is aligned parallel to the edge of the saw base, and a bit of practice, but a decently rigid and well aligned saw should give pretty good straight cut. Easiest way to check is to use the factory edge as a straight edge to check.

A good alternative for up to 4ft wide panels is one of the many versions of clamp-on guides, such as:

[Rick Hughes]

sawboard avoids the need to do that which I think is the biggest plus point for it.

I'll admit more than once I have measured offset done the cut and then realised I have cut to wrong side of blade ... and piece is too narrow.

[stuart noble]

6" contiboard is straight. I often use that for long cuts on doors etc

[pcb1962]

I've done worse than that - I once started cutting from the wrong end of the sawboard and ended up not only with a workpiece cut too narrow but a sawboard that now suits my saw only if I use it back to front.

[John Rumm]

Might be usable as a jigsaw board?

[newshound]

Definitely worth having a 4 foot one as well.

I'm slighty confused about factory edges, though. What are the other two?

[stuart noble]

150mm contiboard has two factory edges. Makes a cheap straightedge for long cuts

[newshound]

But this was saying that there are only two factory edges on *plywood*

[John Rumm]

There are only two 8' factory edges on a typical sheet of plywood ;-)

[The Medway Handyman]

I make sawboards from 3mm ply with a thin softwood batten glued on. Wickes call it "Pine PSE Stripwood 4x28x2400mm Product Code: 128538"

Costs a couple of quid for a 2.4m length.

[newshound]

Yes, and two four foot ones. Since you only need one factory edge per sawboard you can get at least two boards out of one sheet.

[newshound]

Not sure I follow. You need enough width on the "double" part so that the motor clears the trigger clamps, at least if you are doing a full length cut. Mine are made out of 9 mm ply, with at least 120 mm "to the left".

But I agree, those Wickes "stripwood" packs look useful, I must pick some up next time I am in.

[John Rumm]

Just found a video of the same idea:

(I have added that link to the wiki)

[The Medway Handyman]

I just glue the stripwood to the 3mm ply, then run the saw down each side (in opposite directions) thus making a double edged sawboard. Plenty of room for clamps.

[Dave Liquorice]

One assumes the motor on your saw projects from the guide edge less than the width of the guide edge to blade plus width of stripwood. Hum, I guess that can be arranged...

But allowing for a decent bit of clamping area would make a quite a wide saw board, at least a foot for my saw. A bit unwieldy I think.

Blade | | +-------| | Motor | +-------| Saw =========---|--- Sole Plate Board ============| ^^^^ Area for clamps

[John Rumm]

If you put the handle of the clamp down, then it does not get in the way on my saw. However you could always lift the cut slightly with the adjustment on the saw - its not often you will be needing the full depth of cut.

[Jon Fairbairn]

But not an 8? and a 4?.

[Fred]

Sorry for not being more precise in my original post.