Cutting acurately with a table saw for a nebie

[stryped]

x-no-archive:yes

I am trying to make a cutting board. I have a hard maple board about 6 inches wide. My plans say to take 3/4 inch think wood and cut it into

1.5 inch strips. (16 of them).

I guess my question is, I have a cheap Delta table top saw and a piece of angle iron for a fence. If I place the angle iron 1.5 inches away from the blade will it be acurate because I am pushing the board against the fence form the opposite side. (Because 1.5 inches it too narrow to push with my hand and I dont want to saw off my hand!) But setting the fence 4.5 inches away and cutting would seem more acurate, but a pain to move the fence 16 times using this method.

Also, is it best looking to face glue these strips rather than edge glue them? (I have a planer but no jointer).

Again, thanks!

[Dave Balderstone]

Use a push block/push stick to move the wood past the blade.

[dadiOH]

You do NOT want to do that!!! You will close the kerf by pushing the offcut side of the board (the side away from the fence) into the blade and that will cause a kickback.

[stryped]

[Tex]

If your fence is straight and lined up properly with the blade I don't see a problem. A 1.5" rip is not unsafe (IMHO) if done properly. I'd offer a few suggestions, though. Use GOOD push block that will not permit your hand/fingers to get near the blade. The design I prefer (I make them out of Baltic birch) is about a foot long with a grip handle on top. A 1" long block attached at the bottom rear provides the "push" mechanism. With that setup you can get downward pressure on the board while pushing it all the way thru and still assure your hand is out of the way. Set the blade height to just above the board top.

As the above poster stated you want to control the cut from BETWEEN the blade and fence, NOT from the other side of the blade. If you've never experienced a kickback (I've only had a couple and the thought of another one scares me to death) you'd be amazed at how quick they happen and how violent they are.

Good luck and be safe, Glen

[RicodJour]

Keeper piece between the fence and the blade, pushing the keeper piece through with a push block. That angle iron fence is a little sketchy - if it's not aligned properly you could have a kickback.

As far as the accuracy, what ever comes out of your tablesaw will need to be cleaned up. On a nicely set up saw with a nice blade you can get cuts that are ready for glue up - that won't happen with your set up. It's not clear from your description how thick your cutting board will be. If you have the cut edges facing up, you could just sand or plane the cutting board flat and take care of all of the cut eges at once. Otherwise, a sharp jack plane will have no problem cleaning up those edges for you. Clamp two adjoing boards in the vise with the mating edges facing up - one board's good side faces left, the other faces right. When you plane them like that it compensates for your planed edges not being 100% square.

In all such glue ups, registering the boards so they form a flush surface can be tricky, so planning on planing/sanding the top and bottom surfaces of the cutting board is probably the easiest way to get good results.

R

[Swingman]

The proper, and safe, way is to use a FEATHERBOARD, affixed to the table saw table and in front of the blade to hold the trailing edge of the workpiece against your fence, and a PUSHSTICK, between the blade and the fence, to push the workpiece past the blade.

And use a SPLITTER.

... if you don't know what these terms mean, or how to implement them, you should NOT be doing it.

The best results for a cutting board is to glue so that end grain is the work surface.

[henry]

"The best results for a cutting board is to glue so that end grain is the work surface. "

Agreed its the difference between cutting with a knife across the broom Vs cutting down from the end and splitting the fibers.

for safety take a look at the GRR-RIPPER they also have a splitter. Expensive but so is the emergency room.

[Chris Friesen]

Yep, and I've made one (maple/cherry, 2" thick).

I wouldn't want to make one much thinner than this though, I suspect it would become somewhat fragile.

For a thinner cutting board I might be tempted to orient it so that the cutting survace is edge-grain. Either rip flat-sawn boards and flip them, or use quarter-sawn wood in the first place.

Chris