Another Newbie building & outfitting a shop.

[Ken Salisbury]

I just made my bid. Do you know if this is a used system or one donated by the company?

Brand New ! ! !

[Frank Pellow]

Hi Frank, thanks for the input.

I am not sure I follow your logic "twice the space to process sheet goods with a stationary saw". I need the enclosed storage space in the cabinets, so the way I am figuring it I am not losing any floor space if I use those cabinets as feed tables for my saw. Once the cabinets, shelves, drill press, router table, work bench, band saw get placed, I am hard pressed to find a place to set up saw horses with a reinforced 4'X8' cutting table on it.

My logic is quite simple (it takes twice as much space if you are going to move the sheet through the saw), but I guess that that does not matter in the layout that you describe.

Maybe I am missing something here but my experience cutting 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 plywood with a guide has been that the plywood warps out of shape unless it has support under it. The Festool demos I saw seemed to deal with this by placing the plywood on a "sacrificial" table top, covering a rigid table top. The saw was plunged just through the panel barely touching the sacrificial top. For this to work I imagine the cutting surface has to be pretty level or the saw blade want penetrate all the way through the panel in spots.

Yes you need a support under it. I use a collapsable saw horse rig that I described in the thread: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=8083. A lot of the time I set these up in my garage or outside, but I do have room to set them up in my shop.

[Steve Jenkins]

Mike if you look at the ezsmart system you bid on it comes with a
foldup table that has moveable slats on it to support fulll size panels. When they get cut up to badly you just replace the wooden parts with 1x3 from home depot. I use one for not only cutting but sanding staining and all sorts of other stuff.

OOPS. not the whole table but just the parts to hold the 1x3's. I have the foldup table and it's really handy.

[Jerry Olexa]

Mike a table saw is the "heart" of the workshop in my opinion. Get the best you can afford, You know the right brands, IMHO, i generally cut 4X8 sheet goods down to manageable pieces w circular saw and staightedgeabout 1/4 inch more than needed. These I then take to the Table saw and using a sled to cut to accurate dims. Struggling with a full 4X8 sheet on a TS even w support tables or extenders is not effective and often dangerous. Just my IMHO

[Frank Pellow]

Mike a table saw is the "heart" of the workshop in my opinion. Get the best you can afford, You know the right brands, IMHO, i generally cut 4X8 sheet goods down to manageable pieces w circular saw and staightedgeabout 1/4 inch more than needed. These I then take to the Table saw and using a sled to cut to accurate dims. Struggling with a full 4X8 sheet on a TS even w support tables or extenders is not effective and often dangerous. Just my IMHO

With a GOOD Guided Circular Saw System, the step that involves the table saw is not needed.

[Roger Fitzsimonds]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the creek. I am in the Dawsonville area if you want to try a grizzy 1023 out. mine is right tilt but you could get the general idea if you want to. pm me . also there is a wood working show by the airport this weekend.

Roger

[Mike Holbrook]

Hi neighbor,

Woodworking show, I wanna go, I wanna go Can you give me some details?
I sent you a PM too. I was thinking about ordering that Grizzly tomorrow. I wonder if Grizzly will be at the show?

[Mike Holbrook]

Hi again Frank,

I have a bid on the Ez Smart here. I also found several options that Rockler offers: a Shop-Built Panel Saw (they supply the hardware and a plan) for around $300, an Al-in-one Clamp Guide (50") that takes a saw or Router plate and a squaring attachment for under $100, and a Precision Circular saw Guide (extends from 50" to 98") for $79.99. A solution in those price ranges should be within my budget. I wonder how accurate they are? They say that the Precision CS Guide will cut a 1/8" slice of wood, that sounds pretty tight.

[Mike Holbrook]

I think I am convinced on the sawing table and CS guide. I am not sure I can spring for the Festool system right now. I just bought a brand new CS that I hate to see waste away. I will see how the Ez Smart bid goes, but I believe it is worth around $400 and I doubt I will go that high. I am also thinking about building the saw horses Frank mentions; they appear to be very versatile. I was thinking about using one of those soft fiberboard sheets on top of it. I guess I could also buy the Ez Table and one of Rocklers CS guides, they say it will rip a 1/8 strip, an outstanding deal at $79.99.

I will use my Table/Saw Horses and saw guide on my covered and enclosed on three sides patio where there is plenty of space to set it up. Sawdust is not an issue there and the floor above is over 9' whereas the shop only has 8 +. This patio is only a few feet from my shop and has double doors. I plan to improve the weather protection on that patio or enclose it soon too.

I am probably going to order a Grizzly G1023... in the next few days. I may check out a local woodworking show first. I plan to build my shop around that saw so I think it is better to just go ahead and do it now. I also have a bunch of cabinets and other projects to build that I am confident will be easier with the saw. I am sweating over whether or not to spring for the G1023SLX with the 7' rails and supported table or just go with the standard G1023SL. It looks like the SLX will fit the place I am planing and I am afraid I will kick my own butt later if I don't but there are so many other things to consider purchasing at the moment.

Anyone have any pointers on making a G1023 a safer saw to use, I am all ears?

Thanks for all the help, it has been very, well helpful ))))

[Steve Jenkins]

These show making a thin rip using the EZSmart guide and my really old PC circ. saw. The blade is a 10buck home depot.

The first pic shows a rip off 3/4" ply turned on edge and clamped to the guide. The ripped piece is about 3/4 square. It's on the left edge.

The second is setting the cut so I can just rip off the veneer plus a hair. Measured about 3/32 to the iside of the veneer. That will include the saw kerf.

The third is part way through the cut.

It's pretty cool since the clamps act as a support for the piece holding it off the table and giveing a good solid platform.

[Mike Holbrook]

Very nice Steve, that guide system does appear to be excellent.

I think the SGS-1 goes for $189.98. If I do not win that bid maybe I can swing the SGS-1 and build Frank's saw horses. I have an old fart friend that I am looking for a project to coop on and the saw horses he and I built, well a few years ago, are getting pretty ragged. I just bought a Rigid Circular Saw, thinking I would give the Home Depot brand a try. I like the guide base and visual alignment on it, but as the recent wood magazine review confirms, it is bad to throw chips in ones face. I wonder if the Smart Base anti chip inserts will help with that problem?

[Ken Salisbury]

I think I am convinced on the sawing table and CS guide. I am not sure I can spring for the Festool system right now. I just bought a brand new CS that I hate to see waste away. I will see how the Ez Smart bid goes, but I believe it is worth around $400 and I doubt I will go that high. I am also thinking about building the saw horses Frank mentions; they appear to be very versatile. I was thinking about using one of those soft fiberboard sheets on top of it. I guess I could also buy the Ez Table and one of Rocklers CS guides, they say it will rip a 1/8 strip, an outstanding deal at $79.99.

Thanks for all the help, it has been very, well helpful ))))

Mike -- see this thread on the FPP Forum. A complete EZ Smart System is being auctioned off with the proceeds to the FPP Fund:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=16173

[Mike Holbrook]

I am all over that auction Ken. I just found out that Ez Smart is at a big woodworking show here in Atlanta. I am going to the show so I may end up with one from there. I will see what the "special show pricing is". If I do I will have to find some other way to support the Pen shipping on the FPP Forum. I am going to the show with a friend who I think is interested, so I will inform him of the auction too. Thanks for keeping me informed though.

[Mike Holbrook]

Well I spent most of Friday at the Atlanta Woodworking show and I think I learned a good deal.

I bought the show deal Ez Smart System. I wanted to make the nock down saw horses that Frank brought up. I think it will be a good project for a buddy and I to work on together. I had set a budget for myself that was hard to stay within. I wanted a good table saw but I also wanted other things to make using the saw safer: Grip-Tite, GRR-Ripper etc.. Since my buddy lost the end of a finger not long ago those considerations were pretty high on my list prior to launching into some fairly major work as a relative newbie.

I ended up buying a General 50-185LM1. I know I chickened out on the cabinet saw. I feel confident that this saw will serve me well for many years to come though. I was very impressed with all the General equipment. I know that my saw is the International brand, but unlike so many other saws in this category some important parts come from Japan, it has an exceptionally smooth, flat table despite its origin and it does come with the Canadian fence. I have a very difficult place to try and get this saw into in terms of access. The lighter saw I believe I can manage myself. I want to get 220 in my shop but the electrician is not being very responsive and I have no idea when I will actually get it in. So logistics of getting a saw in my shop and functional were also factors in my decision.

I took the money I saved on the Table saw and bought the show special Kreg Pocket Hole kit, the Ez Smart system, GRR-Ripper, the larger rails for my TS, a new saw blade, Zero clearance insert for TS, Micro spliter, Grip-Tite etc.. I believe I am ready to build some cabinets now. At least I can finish up a few things I had on hold in my shop and go find some materials now.

Thanks for all the good advice. I will crank up an all new post when I get this gear operational and start construction.