Popular Woodworking 2004-12 № 145, страница 50

TIPS & TRICKS

PRO TIP:

Controlling Large Panels

When using a miter gauge extension to cut off large, wide panels, clamp a block of wood to the extension to serve as a hold-down. This will keep the panels from tipping over the back edge of the table saw as you finish the cut.

GREAT TIP:

Burn an Inch

When making a sacrificial fence for your rip fence (for cutting rabbets), make it 1" thick. This will make it easier to use the fence scale when setting the position of the fence - simply subtract 1" from the indicated measurement.

PRO TIP:

Clean in the Corners

After cutting a rabbet with a dado cutter or a saw blade, inspect the inside corner between the side and the bottom. These cutting tools sometimes leave a little waste, or "tang," in the corner. You can quickly remove this with a scraper, chisel, bullnose plane or rabbeting plane.

Popular Woodworking

Because the dado stack makes a wider kerf than the saw blade, you must replace the normal throat insert with one that has a wider opening.

When making rabbets on the table saw with a dado set, a sacrificial wooden face attached to your existing rip fence is a must. This face must have a semicircular cutout that's the same radius as the dado cutter. The cutout face serves two purposes - it protects the rip fence during these operations, and it covers the unused portion of the dado stack when you don't want to cut the full width.

Your next step is to detach the splitter (and guard, when appropriate) from the table saw and attach a featherboard to the table or wooden fence. Because you don't use a dado cutter to cut all the way through a board, the splitter will just get

A sacrificial fence attached to your rip fence allows you to accurately use part of a dado set for rabbeting without harming your rip fence. The blade should be run up into the fence while it's securely locked in place to the table-top. Make sure the blade clears your rip fence.

Featherboards, to hold material snug against the fence (and to avoid kickback), can either be shop-made or purchased. The featherboards shown here have magnetic bases to hold them tightly against the tabletop. They should be positioned before and after the blade, but not at the blades' location or the waste will bind against the blade.