Squaring up boards.

[phil p]

Hi,

Wonder if anyone could give some advice on the above.

I'm going to be having a go at building some sort of wardrobe/tallboy.

It's going to be quite small as it's for a loft and unfortunately there's not a lot of flat wall for it to stand against so the size will be about 1 metre wide and just over a metre high, sizes arn't set in stone as yet, however I digress slightly!

I intend to use 18mm MDF, however my main problem, I think, I will hit is squaring the boards for the sides and top, and shelves, if I put any in.

I do have a tablesaw as such, the Ryobi ET 1825 however it's not that accurate, but I also have a decent router, Dewalt 625, which I have in a router table so..................what I was thinking is, cutting the boards roughly to size, allowing an extra 5mm or so and finishing off on the router table, which hopefully give a better edge to the boards also?.

I'm hoping I have the right tools, however the one thing I'm lacking is the know how, and I'm hoping this is where you guys come in.

Any ideas on how to achieve this would be greatly appreciated, am I thinking along the right lines?, or is there an even better way to do this as I would only class myself as about the average DIYer so any help at all would be great

Thanks.

 

[mtr1]

Do you have a hand held circular saw? I use a track saw, but you can make your own that will work fine. If using a router I would use a clamp guide and a hand held router.

 

[squib]

To keep it really simple mark out accurately ,cut and plane, quicker than setting up a router.

 

[miles_hot]

I made up a sort of track router - using a straight edge screwed to a scrap of ply / MDF; chose your router (in my case a down cutting one for a good finish on veneered ply) and cut the scrap using the router. You now have a track on which you run the router which has a straight edge which you just line up with your cut line. It's a bit of a pain compared to a track saw as you need to take three cuts however I found that it gave a better finish (I was cutting onto a gash 4x8 board so with the down cutter the top surface was great and cutting into the board below prevented any splinters on the bottom surface).

HTH

Miles

 

[Steve Maskery]

This is a great opportunity for you to practise your hand skills. Mark the line, saw to it leaving as little to clean up as possible and finish with a hand plane. You don't need to be quick, just careful, and it will be much more enjoyable!
CHeers
Steve

 

[Titus A Duxass]

This is a great opportunity for you to practise your hand skills. Mark the line, saw to it leaving as little to clean up as possible and finish with a hand plane. You don't need to be quick, just careful, and it will be much more enjoyable!
CHeers
Steve

Aah, that's refreshing to see someone recommending "Old School" hand techniques.
Without the basic hand techniques we are lost.

 

[phil p]

Thanks for your replies lads.

I do happen to have a few of these clamping guides and a circular saw.

Hmmm, would it be best then just to leave the tablesaw alone and just draw the sizes out on the sheet of MDF then use the circular saw to cut, maybe a few milimetres over and use the clamp guide again with the router to produce a nice finished edge?

or

Just use the guide and circular saw and clean the edges up with sandpaper?

Steve, nice thought about the hand planing however I remember from my school days (quite a while back) I could never seem to get a 90 degree edge even then when my eyes were a lot better than what they are now!, nice thought though, appreciated.

 

[miles_hot]

I used my router thing straight onto the 8x4 sheet as my TS was not up to the job. I would have done the same with track saw - after all why make two cuts (TS and Saw) when one will do the job?

 

[Chems]

I intend to use 18mm MDF,

All ideas are valid but I'd want to minimize the amount of cuts I'd be making in MDF an definitely avoid routing if I could. This is how I used to handle sheets before a big table saw, these are 8x2 pine boards but worked with MDF too:



Use a program like CutList then mark up the board allowing for the saw kerf and cut away:



guide-rail-for-circular-saw-and-router-t28797.html?hilit=Guide%20Rail

 

[OPJ]

MDF can be difficult to plane by hand. Even if you can work a decent edge on to your iron, the edge of a board can blunt it again in minutes! I'd favour the router method using a home-made T-square and reference it off the same edge for both end cuts on each board. One downside it the dust but, some cheaper circular saws can leave an imperfect finish, even if you take the time to set everything up carefully. You could still use the saw to cut the boards over length though or, just rough them out with a hand saw.

I imagine your Ryobi table saw is quite small and, with minimal support to the left of the blade for cross-cutting, it doesn't sound like the easiest solution for cutting boards 1m in length. It does sound like one of those jobs where it's easier to keep the material still and move the tool.

 

[matt]

+1 for using a circular saw and guide rail. It's what I use to this day for large sheets.

Saw on short rail:

Short rail:

Long rail (for 8x4 sheets - using about < £5 worth of shelf from B&Q as the guide):

 

[brianhabby]

Could you find a local wood supplier to make the initial cuts for you, it will save you having to cope with a lot of dust however you decide to finish the edges.

regards

Brian

 

[Guggs]

Why dont you spend time cutting one side ,one top ,and shelves etc ,then rough cutting them out with a saw .Thne using a router with a bearing guide clean them all up ,use a small nail / screw to fix the pattern down . Job done !

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

B&Poo will cut the boards on there vertical for you if you didn't want to mess about.

I too, would use a c/saw. I wouldn't build a guide though. All i do when cutting MDF sheets with a c/saw is:

1, Measure from the blade to the edge of the saw bed. (My maki is 53mm)
2, Mark out the cut lines on the material.
3, From your first cut line, measure off to the side the same measurement from step one. Do this at each end. Which way you mark will depend on where you feel comfortable running the saw and/or if there is enough material to clamp a straight edge to.
4, Use a straight edge (normally i use a ali feather board i have or a straight length of wood). Clamp it to the marks you made in step 3. This is now your guide
5, Push your saw up to the guide and make the cut.
6, Run some 120g paper down the cut.

Just make sure if your clamping the straight edge to what will be the waste piece of the cut, add the kerf (width of blade) to the measurement in step 1.

 

[phil p]

Thanks for all the replies lads.

Very much appreciated as usual.


Phil