working with a panel saw? advice please

[ivan]

Should have some more space within next 18 months, so starting to wonder seriously about a (scoring) panel saw. As you'll see, something I know little about! At present I'm taping cuts on veneered board or double cutting with Mafell/guide rail.

I can see how X cuts can be accurate with a long fence and and sliding table on nice linear bearings. But how do you mangage when your cutting plan requires some 8' panel rips? With an ever reducing dimension to place against the fence following each rip, how do you ensure that last cut is still giving you parallel long sides? What's the practical limit here?

Anything in print deal with sawing technique for the self taught?

Thanks in anticipation, etc....

[jasonb]

You use the rip fence not the right angled fence/sliding table as you would on any table saw. Though the sliding table can be used to help support the weight of the board

Only time I would do a long rip on the sliding beam is to straighten waney edge boards.

Jason

[jonnyd]

Hi I would use the rip fence for small pieces say up to 200mm after doing a trimming cut on the sliding table. Anything over that I tend to use a paralell cutting fence at the other end of the sliding table. The panel is butted up against the two stops to ensure the piece is exactly parallel along the length.

Jon

[ivan]

jonnyd, could you explain your parallel fence a bit more? If you use the rip fence as jasonb says, then a 4' crosscut would do - so wouldn't an 8' beam be a rather expensive outfeed table...

[jonnyd]

Hi i do most of my cutting on the sliding table. The parallel fence simply attaches to the sliding table at the length of the panel being cut and the stop is set the same as the crosscut fence so the panel remains perfectly parallel as the cut is made on the sliding table. Have a look at this picture to see what I am on about.

mk.felder-gruppe.at/?page=shop_node&node=2537

Jon

[ivan]

Ahhh! light begins to dawn.... is this sort of thing available generally on panel saws, or just Felders?

[jonnyd]

Mine is just a lump of 2 X 2 with a sliding stop at the mo which bolts onto two t slots on the sliding table. I have some aluminium extrusion lying around to make a proper fence but never seem to have the time to get it sorted. Most saw manufacturers should be able to supply you with something similar to the felder.

Jon

[Scrit]

Apr 14, 2008 15:40:22 GMT ivan said:

But how do you mangage when your cutting plan requires some 8' panel rips? With an ever reducing dimension to place against the fence following each rip, how do you ensure that last cut is still giving you parallel long sides? What's the practical limit here?

For starters I do a dust cut on the short edge, turn the sheet through 90 degrees then do a long rip dust cut. I then pull back the rip fence and set it to the required width before doing long rips using the rip fence as my width stop. The last cut or cuts are typically done using the rip fence alone. At least that's how I d narrower rips. For wider ones I'd probably start with a long side dust cut, turn 90 degrtees anti-clockwise then do a short side one, turn again and rip entirely on the carraige using the flip stop. It all depends on the width of the strip, really. Personally I prefer to have at least 500mm of material up against that fence.

I've used the parallel stop "thingy", which was incidentally first produced by Altendorf before Felder were in the panlke saw market at all (although there is a rumour that they nicked the idea from Martin). I'd saw their main use is for trimming already roughed to size parts, e.g. where materials have come to the panel saw from a beam saw or wall saw or from some other process. IMHO they are on the whole too insubstantial to stand-up to the knocking and bumping that loading/unloading fulll sheets produces and they are often limited to less than 500mm material width. I had one but it was rarely used and thus a waste of £180 or whatever it was Altendorf charged me for the pleasure.

As for advice, the one thing that almost all panel saws are missing is decent infeed support to the right of the blade, although the latest Felder industrial machines do offer an infeed support roller option (at about 5 times the price of a cheap roller :. The main thing is to use the accuracy and carrying capacity of the carraige to make as many of the cuts as you can - the rip fence is often reduced to being a width stop and nothing more except for the last cut or two on narrow strips. About the only other thing is to check the accuracy of the carraige/sliding table regularly using the 5-cuts method and adjust as required.

Scrit

[ivan]

Thanks for such a detailed summary Scrit! On the infeed side I was hoping my home made jackable trolley (a Panelmate copy) would help.