Carpentry - two problems left

[pinnerite]

1) I need to route a groove along the edges of several furniture boards into which a 5 or 6mm backing sheet can lie.

I wondered if there was some kind of jig I could employ together with an electric drill. Alternatively could I run a track saw along it, provided the depth of cut could be set at 5 or 6mm?

Which brings me to item two:

2) I am going to have to cut cleanly across the boards. In addition two kitchen worktops will require cuts of 30, 39 an 42 inches. I reckon that a track saw is the appropriate answer.

The cheapest one I could find is an Evolution R185CCSX at £109.99. Does anyone have one of these?

All observations are welcome.

Regards, Alan

[John Rumm]

The obvious answer would be a router used with a fence or against a guide / straight edge.

But a track saw will also do it. You may get some tear out on the veneer, but you can minimise that by doing a very shallow scoring pass first.

See:

Peter Millard on Youtube has done quite a number of tracksaw comparisons:

[pinnerite]

Thanks for the above. Unfortunately Peter appears only have done tracksaw comparisons for a few cheap models, rarely available now.

I have spent all morning watching videos and decided that the Evolution had too many no-nos attrubted to it. I am going to go for the Erbauer ERB690CSW. It is a bit more appears to be better made.

I plan to tape the line of cut, run through it with a Stanley knife to cut the melamine before sawing with the rotary blade.

I appreciate your time.

Regards, Alan

[John Rumm]

Yup the one I saw was "hybrid" circular saw that could also run on a track, but was not a proper plunge saw.

Availability of track that it can use is also worth checking - many of them are interchangeable now.

TBH, you will get a better result just with a very shallow scoring pass with the saw, and it will be much easier to keep straight than trying hand scoring.

(Look at the difference between photos 2 and 4 in the wiki page above, both were cut with a 24 tooth "ripping" blade on a table saw).

[pinnerite]

I'm gaining more confidence by the minute! :)

Alan

[nothanks]

Actually, I think I'd prefer a track saw (or a router on a track) for this because it can't wander laterally. A router+fence needs a little more care.

[nothanks]

When I wanted an extension for my Makita track saw it seemed there are two (slightly) different extrusion profiles in use with different brand badges. I ended-up buying the Mak extension because they had a unique bit (can't recall what, now) that helped prevent the saw lifting (I think). In practice two tracks joined (1.5m and 1.0m) is not a perfect solution and I would treat myself to a long track if I was doing a lot of full panel cuts.

[Tricky Dicky]

Makita and Festool tracks match except the Makita track has an additional lip next to the upper groove which as has already been mentioned is to prevent the Makita saw tipping when doing bevels. On the Makita plunge saw there is a sliding tag that can be pushed out of the bottom plate to engage the lip. There is one other track in the “cheaper” category that is a match but the brand escapes me at the moment. I have two 1.5m tracks which I join for ripping full sheets but I do not find that arrangement very satisfactory and I will be investing in a Festool 3m track as Makita do nothing longer than 1.5m

Richard

[Tricky Dicky]

PS The Makita plunge saw also has a scoring setting which I have found produces a very good edge in veneered and melamine faced boards.

Richard

[John Rumm]

Triton?

[John Rumm]

Care sure, the main advantages with the router is a very clean cut, and the ability to take out more than a saw blade kerf per pass.

(You can get baseplates that let you run routers alongside the saw tracks).