88, страница 14

Saw Guide Cutout

Cutting a shallow

Rabbet

There were a few things about building the panel saw on page 16 that had me scratching my head.

The biggest challenge was finding a way to make the cutout in the sliding saw carriage. You could make this cut with a jig saw. But I wanted a straight, clean edge.

Plunge Cut. The answer was to use the table saw. In a nutshell, this involved raising the blade up through the workpiece. But making a blind cut like this calls for careful setup. I started by drawing the cutout on the workpiece, extending the end lines to the edge of the panel (photo at right).

Next, with the saw turned off, I raised the blade to its highest position and marked the location of the back edge of the blade on the rip fence, as you can see in the photo above and the drawing at right below. Then I positioned the rip fence to make the first cut.

Making the Cut. Before turning on the saw, I lowered the blade below the table. Then, I aligned the layout line of the workpiece with the mark on the rip fence.

Finally, I clamped a hold-down to the rip fence to keep the work-piece flat on the table.

To start the cut, turn on the saw and slowly raise the blade up to its highest position. Then you can make the cut. When you reach the end of the cut, turn off the saw.

End Cuts. After cutting the other side, you can cut the ends. These aren't critical, so I used a jig saw.

One of the great features of the totes on page 28 is how they stack on top of each other. To keep the stacked totes from binding, I made a relief cut along the bottom inside edge of the dividers.

This detail is really just a wide, shallow rabbet. So you can cut it on

the table saw with the parts upright. The trick is supporting such a tall workpiece. In the drawings below, you can see how I buried the blade in a tall auxiliary fence. To recess the blade, I set the rip fence in position and slowly raised the blade to the right height.

bury blade

so y,6" of blade width is exposed

SECOND: clamp hold-down to rip fence

mark position of saw blade

THIRD: turn on saw

and raise blade to full height

14 ShopNotes No. 88

complete cutout with a jig saw