circ saw blade to rip 1-1/2″ oak?
CramerSilkworth
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
Hi All,
I need to rip some 1-1/2″ solid oak countertop down by a few inches. Unfortunately my only real option is to use a circ saw. Any recommendations on the best blade to use? Also, is this whole process a super bad idea, or can it be done (and come out reasonably)? I’ll set a guide, etc, and have a good saw, but I’ve never done anything this thick with a circ saw.
Thanks
Replies
Cut it wide on the waste side then plane it with a hand plane to straight.
Or cut it wide and trim with a router and straight edge. A hand plane would be my choice. A power planer would work. You know, we are assuming he is cutting off the back edge."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
i'm actually cutting down two pieces to butt together on the long edge to make a big table. so i just need straight and reasonably clean, but i was ready to plane or just sand smooth if needed. i'm thinking a 40 tooth?
I wouldn't expect a finished edge if done with a circ saw. Is this a glue joint?
The fewer the teeth the better for rippin'. You will burn up a 40 tooth blade before you get two feet into the cut.If you have a planer, rip 'em a little over, then clamp 'em back to back and plane 'em together for a perfect joint._________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_h1vk23kik
Use a blade with 18 teeth or less,40 tooth blade will heat and warp. After you make the cut using a straight edge,butt the joint and see if it needs more work. You probably need to plane off the saw marks.
mike
If you just need a finished edge, rip using a standard 24 tooth ATB framing blade, definitely not thin kerf but certainly sharp. Using a circular saw with a straightedge and moving steady at a constant pace, it is entirely possible to get a nice presentable edge without doing any more machining. But plan for the worst and have a belt sander with a variety of grits to sand out any burns.If this is some sort of glue up or joint that otherwise needs to match perfectly, the method is to rip both pieces about 1/16" proud of the finished dimension. Then measuring from the line of your finished dimension, you must place the two slabs exactly 1/2" apart. You must then level the slabs to each other using a precise straight edge. It is very important that they are perfectly flush and level. Clamp them down good then check level again. Finally, using a straightedge, a router (best if variable speed--run at around 16,000 RPM), and a new sharp 1/2" top bearing straight cutting bit you must make ONE good pass. If all goes well, you will be left with a perfect glue joint.Good luck
DC
40 tooth will never get through it.
Use a 24 tooth or an 18, new or freshly sharpened.
You're going to want to joiner plane those edges if it's going to be a glue joint.
Rip cut it first and let it rest for a day. Then hold a straight edge to it to see where the tension took it. You may get lucky.
I would rip it 1/8" wide and then trim to finish with a large router and a large diameter straight bit. Use a straightedge clamped to the countertop to guide the base of the router. I use an aluminum L extrusion I got at a tile dealer... 1/8 x 1" x 4" x 12' and get flawless results this way.
See if you can find a rip blade (tooth profile is straight across the top) with as few teeth as possible. Trying to use a 40-tooth combination blade is just gonna make a lot of blue smoke. And I second the idea of cutting slightly wide and finishing off with a straight or pattern bit in a router.
I did a hard maple 1 3/4 thick counter top about 12 yrs ago and did not have a table saw that would handle it so i used my worm drive and a guige and it worked fine, but a 40 tooth is too many teeth. I like Irwin myself. and you will not get a finished cut no matter what blade you use.
One problem with using a straightedge is that most straightedges aren’t straight. And your two cuts will be mirror images of each other, doubling any discrepancies.
So start with a nice, wide piece of plywood, no less than a foot wide, and make a test cut with your router on another wide piece of plywood. Butt the two edges together, and see how they fit.
If the ends touch, say, and the middle of the joint is open by 1/16â€, then you need to plane half that much off of the straightedge, and cut the other piece again.
Keep doing this, always trying to remove half of the error from the straightedge, until you get a decent glue joint.
Then make your cuts on your oak slabs. Keep in mind that if these slabs are at all wide, you will not be able to clamp out any discrepancies the way you could if you were building the table from scratch, out of 2x2s.
AitchKay
Simply over lap the two to be cut, cut both at once. When the thickness exceeds the saws depth, use the resulting partial cut in the lower material as your cut line.Routing both at once would also make the left mate with the right, pleasantly. Even if it would be an un-straight line.
I cleaned up the edges of a cracked door panel once using the rout-both-at-once technique you describe. And I suppose you could do that in this case.But the stock I was working with was less than 1/2†thick. If you were going to use that system here, you’d have to set up for a very light cut -- using a 3/4â€x2†bit, you’d want to space the slabs more than 11/16†apart.Any wiggle in the cut, and you’ve got a gap, and probably have to do it again.But maybe you’re right, it might be easier than making a really straight straightedge.And I’m assuming he’s gluing these up -- he didn’t say. If it’s not a glue joint, lots of different ways would get it close enough, like your stacking technique.AitchKay