Basement is in a state of mess and confusion

[harry strasil]

As my girls have come and removed a lot of their stored stuff and disbersed their mothers stuff between them, I now have more room and currently the basement is in a mess as I am rearranging and expanding my wood storage rack by a third.

Reason, a friend wants to bestow on me several pickup loads of air dried rough sawn Walnut.

New studding in place, among the mess, old grocery shelf like the one in the background moved out into what was an open area.




New movable, (casters) plywood rack in place beside latest expansion.



Panel saw on back side of plywood rack. 3/16 by 1.25 angle iron for travel guides.



Dedicated light weight portable circular saw with bunge cord and pulleys as helper to act like counterbalance.



3/4 slick strip on underside of saw mounting piece and along the supporting edge at the bottom for the sheets to slide on.

[harry strasil]

The north half of the west side of the basement at present awaiting relocation of STUFF. Just a narrow path thru from stairs.

[Dave Lessley]

Stuff always a challenge. My shop will not be in my basement that's where the HO railroad is supposed to be. But I got the stuff alright.

Does your panel saw work well? I have been looking at different commercial one which are prohibitive and the one Rockler I think sells but again expensive. Yours looks totally functional.

And that was pickup load(s) as in plural. I would be making room also.

[harry strasil]

It works very well Dave, only thing I would change is to use some 1/4 by 1.5 aluminum 60601-T6 angle for the guides. But I live in a small town and it was not available, I could have ordered it, but would have had to purchase 20 ft. so the iron angle works ok. The slick tape makes a world of difference.

I forgot to mention that the piece of plywood the saw is mounted on is 12 inche square with radiused edges to compensate for the radiused fillet in the angle and it can be removed and turned sideways for ripping sheets.

The hardest part was getting the guides square (90°) to the bottom support rail.

[Tim Vice]

Harry,

I love your panel saw, I never thought of making it out of wood. I have some make shift plans that I drew from a commerical model at work. Does the saw simple set in the angles, or it there something keeping it from comming out the front?

I too am in the process of redoing the basement, The walls are drying now. then I want to paint the floor with a gray epoxy, have not priced it yet so that may not happen. Any pointer of a basment shop.

[harry strasil]

fffffffffffffffffffffffffTim, I got the idea from John Hedges in his Small Shop Tour thread.

And yes, there are two offset clips on the back side in the center that are bolted to the piece the saw is mounted on. I also sprayed the angle iron guides with silcone lubricant and let it dry to help make it slide better.

I use a spring clamp at the top and a wooden wedge at the bottom to keep the panel from moving around when it is sawn.

At the top there is a hole drilled thru the saw mounting piece and I stick a large nail in it so it rests on the top piece to keep the saw up and to fascilitate loading a sheet to be cut.

The bunge cord is an 8 ft length piece cut from a bulk roll and goes over 2 mounted pulleys and is dead headed at the bottom of one side. The rack is only 15 inches wide and 6 foot long, and has 2 fixed steel wheeled casters on one end and swivel ones on the other end.

[harry strasil]

To get the angle iron guides lined up, I used my metal layout skills to lay out a perfect 90° corner on a short sheet of plywood by:

1. Using a combination square and pencil to draw a line 1 inch up from the bottom edge of the sheet.

2. Using a wooden yard stick and putting a small brad at or near the center of the yard stick at the 20 inch mark, placing on end of the yard stick near the end of the line at the bottom of the sheet, tapping in the brad, and then using a pencil to make 2 scribe lines on the bottom line as shown below and one up along the side above the line.

3. I used 2 more brads tapped into where the lines cross on the left and another in the brad hole I used for a pivot and laying a 4 ft yardstick against these two I drew a line that would intersect the top scribe mark.

4. Tap in 2 brads one at the intersection of the top marks and one at the right arc line on the bottom line an inch off the bottom. Place the yard stick against these 2 brads and scribe a line and you have a perfect 90° line close to the edge to use as a line up reference line.

5. I used spring clamps to clamp the 4 ft yard stick to the outside lip of the angle iron guide and fastened the top first, then lined up the guide with the mark on the sheet that had the line on it, and then fastened the bottom of the guide to the rack.