Wood cutting problem

| I have some 15 or so long wooden pieces, ~ 6" wide, 4 - 5' long. I will | need to make these into a narrower strips. I have Skilsaw, hand saws, saber | saw, and a bench vise. Unfortunately, no table saw or access to one. The | only way I see is using the hand or possibly saber saw and the vise to make | the cuts. Very slow work and an easy way to miscut. Any ideas? Or give up | on that project that requires these strips? |

Do you have any C clamps? If it were me I'd clamp a straight edge (ideally a piece of factory cut birch ply) to the wood for cutting, then cut it over a box, barrel, or some such. Cut one end while supported, then switch the support to finish the cut.

Caveats: The offset of the blade is probably about 1 1/2", so there's a limit to how thin a board can be with this method. Also, be sure to put some little shims under the C clamp tips. Otherwise you'll make circular dents in the board.

get a mill to cut them. home depot probably can too

or buy a cheap table saw from harbor freight

How thin will the resulting strips need to be?

(Half) the width of the "foot" on the sabre saw is no doubt skinnier than the 6". Measure the distance from the blade to the right (or left) edge of the foot. To this, add the thickness of the desired strip. Fasten a guide ("fence") to the 6" wide piece at this distance from the edge. Rip the board while holding the edge of the foot against this guide.

You will eventually get to a point where the guide needs to be positioned

At this point, place a second board alongside the first and secure both to your worksurface (i.e., make the original board seem to be wider by the addition of this adjacent board).

Depending on the width of the strips, you may find it easier to just buy lumber in that desired width!

Make a guide for the Skilsaw on bench or good set of 'horses. Set a guide at proper distance from edge for first cut and fasten it down. Use fence on its face to run the baseplate against; after the first cut use spacer of proper width to position board to next cut. The spacers don't need to be full length so can be made by hand easily enough.

Or, an inexpensive but quite serviceable jobsite contractors TS isn't much outlay at one of the box stores, actually, and while I've never used one of theirs, some of the _very_ inexpensive HF variety get decent reviews for occasional use.

"wooden pieces" more commonly known as boards.

Clamp (or cramp if you're british) a guide board with a straight edge to the board being ripped and use your skilsaw.

As most others have said, clamp a straight edge to the piece to be cut to act as a fence for your Skilsaw. Problem is, the foot of the saw is large relative to the width of the work. Assuming your boards are all the same thickness, butt them edge to edge and clamp the lot down. You now have a wide board.

Don Y wrote in news:nj98hs$bs0$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Unknown. Will find out later as the work progresses but could be any width. Depends on other unpredictable factors. Width will vary between strips.

"Long" is a relative term. ;-) I'm hoping to get 3 pieces of 6/4 x 6 x 16' home on an 8' open trailer tonight. The only saving grace is that they should be stiff enough not to bend as tey hang of the back of the trailer.

How narrow?

An actually Skilsaw or a circular saw? Skil is a brand name. Just curious.

For a simple task like ripping, a homemade table saw might work. This is just one example, youtube has other methods:

Please note that even though you can't see them, I have included every disclaimer you could probably think of related to the safety of this idea. If you get hurt, I'll swear that someone hacked my username and posted this without my permission.

I actually had a Hirsch Saw Table for a few years before I bought a Table Saw. You might be able to find one on CL or eBay. Your circular saw mounts underneath to create a table saw.

DerbyDad03 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Varies. See one of my other replies.

Generic.

I must be missing something.

Could you explain how this process would (no pun intended) work? How would someone clamp two 6" wide boards together to form a 12 inch and then cut off a 1" strip?

Time to buy at least a cheap table saw . OR , if you have a router , rout a shallow cutout in some plywood/mdf/particle board that will fit your skilsaw's bottom plate . Mount said skilsaw upside down in said recess . You now have a "table saw" , use clamps and a guide board adjusted as needed for width .

-- Snag

By setting a shooter board (AKA straight piece of wood) the proper distance from the edge and running the saw base against it ...

drill 2 holes in the foot plate of your skill saw and screw a strip to your skill saw the right distance from the blade to act as a fence. Make the board nice and long and run the boards through against that fence.Could even use one of your boards n as the fence if you have a spare or iff 2 screw holes will not be a problem.

Or go to your local rent-all (or Home Despot rental department) and rent a table saw.

And, when the next strp needs to be a little wider or narrower, drill two *more* holes?

I keep an 8' length of bar stock and clamp this to whatever I'm ripping. Then, can use ANY of the saws that I have against it as a guide (fence) -- and my saws are none the worse for wear!

In case you don't have enough suggestions.... You *could* make yourself a table saw of sorts. It sounds like you have more time than money. Bolt the circular saw to the bottom of a sheet of plywood, after taking off the blade guard and bypassing any safety swith. Rig up a switch to turn it on/off if it won't lock on. Then put sides on your plywood. A coule of 2x8s would work. Then put a couple of scrap 1x2's perpendicular on the bottom, to keep the 2x8s from bending.

All set. Now you just need a rip fence: A strip of plywood screwed to the plywood. I actually use exactly that kind of setup as a router table.

No, don't clamp them together, clamp them DOWN....

1. lay boards flat across something, edges together

1. clamp a cutting guide on top at ends and parallel to edges

2. clamp a couple of pieces across the #1 boards, butting them to the improvised fence

1. cut strip

2. move #2

1. move #3

2. goto #4

If you have a piece of 3/4 plywood, plunge cut your saw into it(square)then screw the baseplate to the plywood. Then flip it over and secure it to some horses then attach straight edge the width of the strips you need to cut and have at it