Best saw to cut plywood for furniture

[Morris Dovey]

Upscale wrote: | I was wondering, is there a decent type of tape to use for cutting? | Considering that the adhesives on tape have a good chance of | collecting on the saw blade, what kind of tape works well but | minimizes the adhesive sticking to the blade?

I've used drafting tape. The adhesive isn't agressive and it seems to have just enough "hold" to keep the wood fibers at the cut line from lifting.

Seems as if at one time drafting tape and masking tape were identical, or nearly so; but the masking tape I looked at last trip to the lumber yard now comes in all kinds of flavors...

| Is it necessary to remove gunk from the blade after every cut when | using tape?

I didn't find it so; but it's probably a good idea to eyeball the blade from time to time. I suspect that any residue from masking tape will clean off fairly quickly with almost any petro-solvant.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[George E. Cawthon]

Regular masking 3/4" wide tape has always worked fine for me, but you might want to try some of the blue painter's tape which is not as aggressive as regular masking tape. You want to put the tape on so that the saw cuts down the middle and force the tape against the wood with heavy finger pressure.

Never had any tape adhesive get on my saw blades, but you want to keep a watch that any tape doesn't tear off and ball up raising the wood a tiny bit. Not a problem if you use heavy pressure when applying and smoothing the tape.

[Upscale]

"George E. Cawthon"

I've been meaning to try out that blue tape. Last time I painted my apartment and used masking tape on a few areas, when I pulled it off it took some of the original paint with it. I was so disgusted at seeing the pits in my apartment wall quit painting immediately and left it that way for several years before I got to plastering it and then painting it again. I should have know better, like what apartment super is going to use premium quality paint that doesn't flake off at the slightest irritation?

[Greg Kimnach]

although i had cut quite a few sheets of ply on my unisaw, for which i built a large (mobile) infeed table, i learned that that is not ideal. the prblem isn't man-handling the material, it's the difficulty of keeping the wood against the fence, particularly when ripping.

i tried clamping a straight-edge on the infeed table but that proved to be inadequate. so, while a it on the expensive side, i purchased a festool plungesaw and fence system. the quality of the cut is impeccable and i no longer have to hope to deal with less-than adequate results of the unisaw.

-- regards, greg (non-hyphenated american)