Consistent rips on panel saw

[grim_d]

I rip the makers edge off of the 22mm sheet and then push the new good edge up to the rip fence and use the sliding bed to push the sheet through. I set my rails and styles 3mm over sized and then put them through my thicknesser to the desired size making sure that it all stays consistent.

I'm ok with this method as it will product the level of quality I'm aiming for and probably still faster than setting up the track saw for every cut.

Doing perfect rips on a panel saw is not as easy as it sounds.

Typically you have the fence at the front of the sliding carriage and leave it like that for all cuts.

1) Put your 2440 x 1220 board on the saw, cut in half length ways

2) adjust rip fence to suit your experience, either set it so it extends beyond the back of the saw, or bring it forward so it finishes to the back of saw blade gullet - experience will tell you what works best for you.

3) slide your half sheet across so it hit the rip fence and push it forward so it hits cross cut fence

4) make your cut but bear in mind these points

a. Rip fence must be dead parallel to sliding carriage
b. rip fence must be dead straight - no bows in it’s length
c. riving knife must be dead central

If any of those aren’t perfect, you will struggle to keep your rip perfect, the board will creep away from the fence and when you push it back you will get a saw ‘divot’


In my experience panel saws don’t produce perfect rips, so get the best setup you can then sand the inner edge of your your shaker stiles and rails before assembly.

Twice in this thread it's been mentioned about having the crosscut fence at the front of the slider (infeed side?).

I never seem to see anyone using a slider this way, even any manufacturers images of their saws show it on the outfeed side so it's an interesting perspective to explore.

Also good to hear that they are not necessarily the best tool to do rips like this and it's not just me.

Really interesting thread. I dont do a lot of work cutting sheet goods but I've never really mastered ripping in this situation. My workaround is simply rough rip to slightly oversize and then do a final trim off the rip fence. Clearly not efficient but it works. Having read this I might have a tinker and set up the rip fence and carriage to run perfectly parallel with the blade. Got a kitchen to build in due course so would be nice to get this technique spot on

Cutting a load of rips then planing and thicknessing wouldn't be terribly inefficient, especially if you batched them. Not any different from using real timber.

 

[Beau]

Twice in this thread it's been mentioned about having the crosscut fence at the front of the slider (infeed side?).

I never seem to see anyone using a slider this way, even any manufacturers images of their saws show it on the outfeed side so it's an interesting perspective to explore.

I always use my saw that way around when possible as you have the support block on the fence helping avoid breakout. Due to the way my Felder is set up can only get around 3' of travel like that so have to swop fence onto outfeed when needing greater capacity.

 

[RobinBHM]

Twice in this thread it's been mentioned about having the crosscut fence at the front of the slider (infeed side?).

I never seem to see anyone using a slider this way, even any manufacturers images of their saws show it on the outfeed side so it's an interesting perspective to explore

I’m not sure if I’ve explained the setup correctly, my apologies.

The crosscut fence on a panel saw normally sits at “outfeed side”

It’s done like this so when sliding on sheet material you push the sheet up to the cross cut fence - you often need to lock the carriage so you can push it tight to the fence without it sliding away from you.