Crosscutting Thick Planks -- Suggestions

[Danny Thompson]

Anyone know of a safe reliable method for crosscutting long 12/4 boards to final length on a 10" table saw?

I am working on a rugged table top made of 12/4 x 9" x 6' boards. They are quite heavy--about 50 lbs.--and awkward. I find I can carefully rip the stock to width, but haven't found an effective method for crosscutting them to length.

My guess is the best solutions are either a Raidal Arm Saw or a Sliding Compound Miter Saw. Assuming I am not ready to drop that kind of money right now, what other options do I have?

- Crosscut sled won't work because, with its 1/2" thick base, the blade comes up about 1/2" shy of clearing the board. There is always flipping the board, but I find it very difficult achieve a clean end using this method.

- The miter guage didn't work either, because, given the board's weight and length, the resulting leverage kept the cut from being square.

- Circular saw and jigsaw don't have the necessary cutting depth.

I considered building a crosscut sled with a very thin base (e.g., formica), but then thought about flipping the sled as follows. Front and back fences with the span connected on the top, rather than the bottom. The miter slot guide rails would be tied to the front and back fences and the stock would ride directly on the table against the back fence.

Have you seen this done? Thoughts? Any other suggestions.

[Rod Sheridan]

- score a line with a knife

- cut with a skilsaw and handsaw just outside the line

- clean up with a block plane

(I'm assuming that you're cutting the top in one piece).

Regards, Rod.

[Chris Padilla]

12/4 is 3" by my calculations. A bandsaw can handle that easily but then moving the wood is difficult so what you want is to move the tool and not the wood.

I'm fairly certain that Bosch and Festool (Festool for sure--I have some) make jigsaw blades that can handle 3" so be sure to check them out. They cut VERY WELL.

You can also clean up the end with a router and flush trim bit.

[Frank Drew]

As Rod suggests, one or more hand methods would probably be easiest and quickest. But if you know anyone near you with a radial arm saw or bigger table saw you might consider subbing the crosscutting out; even if you had to pay someone it shouldn't cost very much for a few quick cuts.

Getting good results by crosscutting on your own saw by flipping the boards shouldn't really be that difficult, though.

[David Keller NC]

My personal preference would be a good crosscut handsaw and a knife mark (I'm a neanderthal). However, there's a power tool equivalent that, while a bit more complicated than a handsaw, will work and give you a smooth edge - use a router. You may have to buy a specialized bit to get the 3" depth you need, but Glen Huey published an article called "dirt simple router jigs" in the latest edition of Popular Woodworking where he advocates a simple, 2-board router jig, and top-mounted bearing pattern cutting bit and a router.

The idea is that when the board's too heavy and awkward to move to the blade, you move the blade to the board. While I'm thinking a 12" sliding compound miter saw would do the trick, most of them I've seen have a limited width of cut - probably around 10" for a 3" thick board. The router method isn't limited by the width of the board - you could crosscut a width suitable for Noah's ark with it (oh - wait, no available 120 V AC - I'm guessing a handsaw in that particular case. )

[Chris Schumann]

Am I missing something, or couldn't you just use a bigger miter?
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=4225

Or that and a support table might work too.

[Scott Loven]

Use a bow saw.
Scott

[John Schreiber]

- score a line with a knife

- cut with a skilsaw and handsaw just outside the line

- clean up with a block plane

(I'm assuming that you're cutting the top in one piece).

Regards, Rod.

Or do the first two steps above, taking multiple runs with the skill saw so that you aren't cutting full depth from the start, then clean up with a pattern router bit guided by the cut.

Without a sliding table, I wouldn't try to move that big a piece of wood to a blade.

[Dave Bender]

Well I would just plop it up on my sliding table saw (12" blade). Otherwise I would;
1) make a 1 1/2" - 2" deep cut with a skill saw
2) rough cut the remainder with a hand saw (staying proud of the skill saw cut)
3) flip board over and use a router bit (need a 2" pattern bit) to finish the cut using the skill saw kerf as the patern.

Or, make a little cutting guide with a couple of boards and then use a decent handsaw to do the cut.

[Scott Velie]

Danny,
There are large circular saws used by timber framers but you don,t need to buy one. I would glue the boards rough cut and cut the finished top.
Use a guide and skill saw on both sides. You wont have a whole lot to cut on the second pass and it could be done with a handsaw as someone suggested. If you are going to edge the top with a router then you don't have to worry about chip out. If your not, use a finish blade in the saw and tape the cut-line with 2" masking tape.

[Mike Goetzke]

First - really, don't try to cut it on your TS. It's an accident waiting to happen. Like others suggest, use a jigsaw, sawsall, or circ. saw to cut through most and hand saw for the rest but you still need to make sure the work is supported well because it can pinch the blade or jump at you as you get to the end of the cut.

[Matt P]

What about EZSmart? I have the 4' one..

[Danny Thompson]

Great advice one and all.

Given that I'm not prepared for a >$500 investment, and I can't seem to cut a straight-square line by hand (maybe someday) I'm leaning toward a 2-pass cut with my large crosscut sled (cut, flip, cut) with router pattern-bit cleanup as needed.

One other crazy option I found was a used worm-drive Skilsaw with a Prazi beam cutter. Anyone tried a Prazi, and how accurate and smooth of a cut would result?

[Doug Shepard]

Here's a screwball idea. 9" benchtop bandsaw which you could probably find cheap on craigslist. They dont weigh much and there ought to be something you could rig up to move the saw in a straight line perpendicular to the wood.

[lowell holmes]

I would either cut it with a hand saw or a combination use of a skil saw and hand saw. Cut the full depth of cut with a 7 1/4" skil saw and then using the kerf left by the skil saw, the hand cut is easy and of good quality.