Maple Bench Top is Too Big, How to Cut It?

[Marty Tippin]

Several months ago, I had a friend who runs a cabinet shop make a very nice solid hard maple bench top for a workbench I'm building (Philip Lowe's "Workbench with Built-In Storage" from FWW) - but unfortunately, the dimensions I asked for were either lost or misunderstood and the finished top is about 8" too wide and a foot too long. As a result, I can't use with the rest of the workbench as it simply dwarfs the cabinet.

I'm currently not in a position to ask him to cut it down to size for me (it's a long story... don't ask), so I'm trying to figure out a reasonable way to do it myself. I have all the tools I should need - 17" band saw, 10" table saw, circular saw, hand saw(!) and 8" jointer - I just need to figure out a smart way to accurately (and safely) cut this thing down to size. The primary challenges are that it's 3" thick and weighs upwards of 150 lbs., so trying to wrangle it on the table saw while ripping 72" of 3" thick stock just seems like a recipe for disaster.

Anyone have a suggestion on how I might tackle this problem?

[Robert Parent]

Not sure if this helps..... I recently crosscut one of similar size using a guide and a handheld router. First I secured the guide and then cut a dado as deep as I could safely go. Then I took a jig saw and cut the scrap piece free from the top. I now took a flush trim bit and finished cutting to length.

Depending on your table saw I would just rip to width if possible. The router trick would work as well.

Robert

[Art Mann]

You will certainly need a good out-feed table if you use the table saw to do the ripping. I don't know what Kind of saw you have but if it is a 1.5 or 2 hp contractor saw or hybrid, I would buy a new thin kerf 24 tooth rip blade to cut it with. A 40 tooth combination blade will burn the wood and damage the blade. I have a Makita track saw that I would use to do the cross cutting. If you don't have one, you can make a saw guide and use a circular saw to cut it to length. I am assuming that it would be too difficult to cut the length on your table saw.

[lowell holmes]

My contractor saw with the 7 1/4" blade will not cut 3". I would be tempted to cross cut with an edge guide as deep as I could and then finish the cut with a handsaw. I cut some 2" thick cherry like that today. I suppose you could do that with the rip cut as well.

I used to have an 8" contractors saw. I wonder if a tool rental place might have one.

[Kevin Jenness]

I would suggest starting with a skilsaw and guide, maybe in two steps to ease the load on the saw, finish the cuts with a jigsaw, then clean up with a router and straightedge and a long pattern bit to finish from both faces.

[Chris Padilla]

*IF* you can support it, the bandsaw is the way to go.

Otherwise, you need to push the tool through the "wood" due to the "wood's" massive size so any combination of a saw (power or not) and routers and such is the way I would go.

[Rich Enders]

Certainly in Kansas City there are cabinet shops or hardwood suppliers that have the scale of equipment needed to safely handle the task.

[Paul Grodziak]

Marty,

Whenever I have large materials that need to get cut down, I use a large metal ruler as a guide against the side of my 7-1/4 circular saw. For a thickness of 3", I would probably mark the top and bottom sides of the bench. I'd clamp the ruler with the appropriate offset so the blade is cutting at the correct location, then cut through half the thickness and turn the bench over, reposition the ruler guide, and complete the cut. I've been pleasantly surprised how accurate a cut I can get with my 7-1/4 circular saw using a fine tooth crosscut blade.

[Matt Day]

I'd do similar to what was described above with the circular saw. I'd cut it as much as possible with the CS and a straightedge, then flip it and finish with a jigsaw. Clean up the jigsaw cut with a flush trim router bit.

[Prashun Patel]

Router from both sides with a jig to align the straight edge on both sides.

[Reinis Kanders]

I cut mine with circular saw and guide from both sides and squared it up with a handplane by planing to the knife line, was pretty easy.

[johnny means]

Plus 1 on hauling it to a cabinet shop. I would charge around $15 for something like this. Small shop owners could always use a few "undocumented" dollars.

[Marty Tippin]

Lots of good ideas, thanks.

Short of taking it to a cabinet shop (which I may look into - I know there are dozens around here), it sounds like the next best bet would be a circular saw with a guide, and then a flush-trim router bit to clean up. I've got a shop-built guide for my circular saw that I use for breaking down plywood sheets but it's not long enough to use on the workbench top, so I'll need to come up with something else.

[Prashun Patel]

Also, can your circular saw cut 3" deep especially when it loses some height from some types of shopbuilt circ saw guides?

[Dave Zellers]

Is it really 3" thick?

Dang, that thing must be almost too heavy for one person to move around.

I remember trying to move a High School wood shop 60" x 50" x 2 1/4" maple bench top I bought. It was all I could do.

It did have 3 vices attached however...

This project has 3rd party major equipped wood shop written all over it. Pay the money for someone with a big panel saw to cut it and be done with it. If you try to push this through your band saw and something goes wrong, you'll regret it. The time it would take to set up so nothing goes wrong, is better spent on paying the guy with the proper equipment.

Of course, you haven't said if the cut edge will show. If it's to the back, cut it with a circular saw and get back to work.