Hello all,
I’ve got to strip laminate some arched trim pieces on the jobsite this week. The trim piece will be 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ tall by about 80″ long. I have clear pine 1″ x 2″ ‘s on site to make this out of, my typical procedure for this would be screwing a taller fence onto the table saw’s fence, adding 2 featherboards to keep the board to the fence one applying horizontal pressure and the other applying downward vertical pressure and mounted on the taller wood fence facing down. Any other hints anyone has for doing this? Would I be better off gluing up a bunch of the stock into 2 or 3 inch thick blocks and then resawing it into the 1/8″ or so pieces?
Also, I’m making all my own molding and trim on this job and have a huge pile of 3/4″ x 1 “, 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ sized clear pine pieces at at least 8 feet long each. Any bright ideas on what I could use these for? I’m hesitating before i toss them. I considered planing them all to 1” and maybe making a butcher block along with some walnut I have on site.
Replies
a sharp thin kerf saw blade would help...
silver
I save rips like you mention for when I need to extend jambs.
Unsuitable pcs go for kindling.
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Will your finished arch need to be 3/4" thick?
I ask, because you probably will not be able clean up the glued-up arch without losing at least an eighth inch of thickness.
The arches will be 3/4" thick but I'm doing at least 7 of them and have an abundance of the 1" x 2" pine so I'll only plan on getting 3 or so 1/8" piece strips out of each piece of pine..I'll probably re-saw them to 3/16" and then plane them to 1/8". My problem resawing with the table saw is keeping the board nice and upright so that the cut stays completely vertical and doesn't angle..once it angles the whole piece is ruined.
I took the standard TS guard apart, throwing away the plastic guard and anti-kickback parts, saving only the splitter portion.
I loosely hooked a bungie to one of the now-unused pivot holes for the guard, so that the splitter was pulled slightly towards the fence.
Then, starting with a scrap between the knife and the fence to hold the knife in line with the blade, I made my cuts, pushing the first stick through with a second, and so on.
The bungie's tension on the splitter pressed the strips tight to the fence behind the blade, so I got very smooth cuts, without any of the chatter marks you usually get with thin strips.
AitchKay
You don't say what your radius is, but I'll bet you could get by with 1/4" strips, or maybe even thicker. If the radius is large enough, you may be able to just split the stock in half and use that. Since you already have the wood, what you propose will work fine. Use a glueline blade and a zero clearance throat plate & you shouldn't have to worry about planing after cutting.
Watch out for kickbacks, especially on the second cut when the wood gets thin. When the wood is thin & bendy, the saw tends to try and lift it and send it back atcha, and once that happens, you're holding a bunch of splinters. A high tooth count blade helps with that. Or, if your fence is high enough, clamp a horizontal strip to it so the workpiece is held down along its length until it's past the blade. If it isn't high enough, you can make an aux fence in an ell shape to hold the work down.
For thin strips, it helps to have a "catcher" -- a helper to pull the cut wood as it comes off the saw to keep it moving straight so it stays of even thickness.
If you didn't have the wood, I'd suggest using a 2X for added heft, but a 1X on edge should work OK.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Everything fits, until you put glue on it.
Mike,Thanks for the reply the ripping went perfectly and everythings ready for glueup. I didn't get your post until after the job was complete but I had the saw pretty much set up exactly as you described. I had a 1" x 6" screwed to my fence vertically and then ran a horizontal hold done screwed into that to hold the piece down. I used a relatively thick saw blade with a high tooth count, the extra mass kept it from bending or moving on me and all of the pieces came out great and ready for glueup(I have 6 eight foot wide arched windows getting this trim so I had a lot of 1/8th strips to do). I think the different blade choice and more agreeable wood really made the difference this time, I spent a day doing almost the same project with some cheaper stock and a much cheaper blade a year ago and remember it not going as well.
<For thin strips, it helps to have a "catcher" -- a helper to pull the cut wood as it comes off the saw to keep it moving straight so it stays of even thickness.>A catcher catches. that's it. When some one's pushing, and someone's pulling, I think there's a loss of control, and the puller could inadvertently pull the pusher into a painful situation.Pusher needs a long L-shaped push stick for the last bit, and he is the only one exerting a forward force.And, if you're trying to rip thin, even strips without a feather board, you're pissing in the wind.http://www.tvwsolar.com
We'll have a kid
Or maybe we'll rent one
He's got to be straight
We don't want a bent one
He'll drink his baby brew
From a big brass cup
Someday he may be president
If things loosen up
I agree completely on the role of the 'catcher' I can't tell you how many times on a jobsite someone has come over to help while I was ripping and become more a hindrance than a help. Thankfully on this project I was only ripping 9 foot 1" x 2"'s so no catcher was needed, it was an easy afternoon's work for just me.As for featherboards, I mentioned in my original post I'd be using them as I do all the time. They are necessary for a joinery quality cut in my opinion as well.As for the tips on steam/water bending..I plan to give that a try someday but on this particular project I already had forms made up as I built several of the windows this trim is being applied too and had the forms from them ready to go.
" catcher catches. that's it. When some one's pushing, and someone's pulling,"
Poorly worded. I didn't mean pulling. Just keeping the thin offcut going straight and not twisting into the blade -- sometimes thin offcuts get a bit squirrelly. Cutting long strips this thin pretty much requires either a long outfeed table or a catcher.
Agreed that a feather board is mandatory, but you can't use one on the outfeed side of the blade.Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PAEverything fits, until you put glue on it.
Actually, the yellow wheel thing does work fore and aft... and some one mentioned using the splitter with a bungee. But, both limit the push stick action and choices.http://www.tvwsolar.com
We'll have a kid
Or maybe we'll rent one
He's got to be straight
We don't want a bent one
He'll drink his baby brew
From a big brass cup
Someday he may be president
If things loosen up
choices and different strokesI used to say:inclination, motivation, style to my students.I prefer a Freud thin kerf rip bladeno guard and no splitterfor 1/4" pine strips
no feather boards for pine...just make sure the blade is sharp, the edge is straight and push the strips right through the blade with a good pushstick; blade set a small 1/8 above stock. zero clearance insertAs long as the fence is bang-on with a 2' minimum outfeed table... works like a charm.the thin kerf has anti kickback built into it. I buy them for 50 bucks...I've used them to crosscut oak ply-very clean cuts-never burnsalso very little tendency to kickback-didn't say none but vastly reduced.
Clear pine would be to soft for a butcher block.You could make cove,1/4 round etc small moldings. If you resaw them again into 1/4"x3/4" strips, you could make a strip canoe. Or even a bookcase that looks like a canoe. If you are not familiar with the stripping process,google " strip canoes" and you will find a number of websites.
As far as the laminated arch goes, you need a form for the laminations. Depending on the radius,it may be possible to bend the trim piece without laminating. Very hot water in a tub or trough and a bottle of water softner added to it. Then put the trim in the tub and weigh it down. Keep it in there til the water gets tepid. Remove the trim and clamp to the form.The water softner works similar to steaming, especially on white pine. I have done this but not on 3/4" thick stock.For the cost of a bottle of water softner ,it's worth a try.
mike