Best way to cut sheet materials

[Keefaz]

Hi, all!!

Because my 'shop' is inside the house I'm trying to keep power tool usage to minimum. However, I often turn to the jigsaw or even circular saw when cutting large sheets of MDF or plywood. Is there a quieter, more elegant solution? I tried using my regular pull-saws on MDF sheets and my accuracy has been WAY out!

Do I just need to improve my technique or is there a special means of cutting large sheets?

 

[George_N]

I think most would use either a table saw with sliding table or circular saw with a guide rail/cutting board or some other sort of straight edge. Do you really want to spend your days making 8 ft rip cuts in plywood that will never be as accurate as with power tools? Sorry, this isn't mutch help, is it.

 

[Frank D.]

Hi Keefaz,
I use my Ryoba or Kataha Katebiki on plywood with no problems. On MDF I don't use my Japanese saws. I usually cut these with power saws because there's a lot of junk and glue in MDF that dulls handsaw blades quite quickly. If I have to I use a western style cheapo saw with impulse-hardened teeth and it works OK (I always do finish cuts for MDF on my tablesaw though).

 

[Keefaz]

I think most would use either a table saw with sliding table or circular saw with a guide rail/cutting board or some other sort of straight edge. Do you really want to spend your days making 8 ft rip cuts in plywood that will never be as accurate as with power tools? Sorry, this isn't mutch help, is it.

Well, you're probably right. It just doesn't seem as much fun when I'm making MDF boxes for the missus and I haven't used a single hand tool the entire time. :?

 

[Mcluma]

That is now where all the people start shouting about mafell and Festool,

as these work with a guide rail and are extremely well equiped for sizing large sheets of material

 

[Anonymous]

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[Paul Chapman]

Is there a quieter, more elegant solution?

Not really because man-made boards blunt conventional hand tools so quickly. I usually cut roughly to size with a jigsaw then make the final cuts with a router, fitted with a large square-ish sub-base, and Trend guide-clamp. But that's rather noisy for inside the house

Paul

 

[DaveL]

I usually cut roughly to size with a jigsaw then make the final cuts with a router, fitted with a large square-ish sub-base, and Trend guide-clamp. But that's rather noisy for inside the house

And with out a good dust collection system will see you sent to the garden in double quick time. :x

 

[engineer one]

i tend to think cutting sheet goods is the one time to be thankful for
power tools. it is difficult to get square items by hand sawing without
the practice, and how do you practice when you want to make boxes.

personally i would either buy a mafell/festo system, or the
thing what colin c and others have from america, and a cheap skill saw.

do a bundle at once, then go back to hand tools.

the very process of manufacturing mdf is liable to provide problems
for normal hand tools, although i have not tried one of those
hard point saws which some of the site workers use, although most
that i know have moved to festo, or mafell.

paul :wink:

 

[Frank D.]

PS is a pull saw yet another new fly-by-night woodwork fashion which has passed me by?

Jacob, I think Keefaz is referring to Japanese (pull) saws. They've been around for at least a couple hundred years in their present form.
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/dept.asp?dept_id=13083
I agree about MDF and hand tools, but plywood edges can be planed (or shot) like regular wood with good results. Rebates are trickier though.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Do I just need to improve my technique or is there a special means of cutting large sheets?

Keefaz

For 4x8 sheets of ply, you can ...

1. Run a straight edge across the section to be cut.
2. Score this deeply with a knife.
3. Chisel out a fence ..
4. Then .... just kidding :lol:

I have on occasions cut ply with a handsaw. I reserve my handtools for solid wood. Ply and MDF are cut with a circular saw (full sheets) or tablesaw.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Anonymous]

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[Alf]

I've got good clean cuts in ply using a Japanese saw, but to be honest sheet goods are no fun with hand tools. It's like cutting stopped grooves - it can be done, but it's doing things the hard way IMO. I dig out the circular saw and homemade guides every time.

Cheers, Alf

 

[MikeW]

...Do I just need to improve my technique or is there a special means of cutting large sheets?

If I had a sheet to cut and had limited space/equipment, I would buy a couple beers and haul it to someone's place that had power equipment.

If I had a couple sheets, I would take more beer :lol:

Ok, not really. Well, maybe. But I have cut many a sheet of MDF with western-style handsaws. I just processed a 3/4" thick 4x8 sheet the other day using an 5 1/2 ppi saw. If I need the edge to look respectable, I use an 8 ppi saw. And if I really need the edge very nice, I do knife the lines on the bottom.

The pieces I shot on my shooting board. Call me a masochist, but it went rather quickly. And I saved my beer money...

Take care, Mike

 

[Anonymous]

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[MikeW]

Another simple way to cut a large sheet - lean it against some longish timbers against a wall at an angle so that there is enough clearance behind for the saw. Prop up the bottom on some scraps so the saw can clear the floor. Then saw down the line with of course a PANEL SAW, what else?
Trouble is people have too much kit nowadays and end up not seeing the wood for the trees as it were.
I'll just repeat the words PANEL SAW here as I get the impression that this may not be such a familiar object as it used to be. Any cheap unbacked handsaw with say 8 tpi or more will do. Or less tpi for a thick sheet e.g. 18mm shuttering ply.

cheers
Jacob

Oh and don't spend hours polishing the saw just rub on a bit of candle wax.

I should have mentioned that I generally cut the sheet goods raised off the floor but vertical. Makes for easy sawing.

What was that you said? Panel saw?

:lol:

Take care, Mike
who does believe a polished blade cuts better...

 

[engineer one]

my concern as usual is that unless you have lots of practice with a
panel saw. getting good straight lines is difficult.

it may well be a quick way to strip the sheet down, but it is not clean
and easy, it takes lots of practice.

paul :wink:

 

[engineer one]

i don't know mike any excuse to promote your wonderful saws :lol: :lol:

bet jacob doesn't think they are better than normal shed panel saws though.

as usual looks good and with one of those even i might practice cutting straight lines

do agree about the shine though

paul :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

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[MikeW]

Hi Jacob. Yes, that is a panel saw <g>...

The thing jutting up near the toe is called a nib. No special purpose other than they have been on saws for a long, long time. I think it is a vestigal of an earlier time when saw blades, including the top at the toe had a certain ornamental flair about them.

Ah, Paul, just having a little fun...

As a related side note, Carl Bilderback has an article I think in the next issue of Woodworking Magazine about keeping ones saw plate shiney. My grandfather use to take a sanding block with fine garnet paper and using kerosene as a lubricant, polish the blades of his handsaws once in a while.

In part, it removed any pitch, general dirt and grime--and wax--build-up. But he would use the saw's reflection as a square to mark his cuts. The reflection, when the saw is square to the timber, looks continuous up the saw plate. So he would measure, mark and cut very quickly.

Take care, Mike