Easy Question on the Blade Guard: How to Make Cuts?

[JonW]

This is my first time using a table saw, so this is a real newbie question. I’m wondering what the best way is to make a simple cross cut of a specific length. The blade guard seems to get in the way and make things a little trickier. You can’t tell exactly where the blade is and where your cut will be. Not sure I’m doing this correctly. Let’s say I want to cut an 8” piece of a 2x4. Here’s the procedure I use:

-Draw a pencil line on the wood where I want to cut it
-Put the wood up against the miter fence (locked at 90 degrees)
-Lift the blade guard up so I can see exactly where the blade is
-Move the miter fence and wood right up to the blade, to make sure the blade will hit the pencil line where I want to cut
-Move the miter fence and wood back
-Lower the blade guard
-Turn on the saw
-Push the miter fence and wood into the blade to make the cut

So is this correct or is there a better way to do things? I’d imagine this makes the blade guard look to be a pain and people would end up removing it. But that’s not too safe. Just curious what you’re all doing. Thanks.

[Tom Miller]

Your procedure as outlined is fine. To be sure, we all do it differently, but you've got the basics. Case in point, I usually use a stop block on the miter fence, and measure from the block to the blade, rather than marking the stock.

But, what's not clear is why you consider the lifting and lowering of the blade guard during setup to be so off-putting. There are times when the blade guard is truly in the way for a cut, but not in the scenario you described. For these situations, and others, many people do either replace the stock guard with a cut-down riving knife and/or a removeable guard, or take the guard off completely. I consider the latter to be a, uhhh, an uninformed choice.

Regards,
Tom

[LarryG]

Here's a much better, much easier, three-step method for cutting an 8" length of 2x4:

1. Drive to Home Depot or Lowe's.
2. Purchase compound miter saw.
3. Drive home, set up saw, and make the cut.

Ahem.

With a table saw, the best way is to use some variation of a technique that uses a stop block. One approach would be to clamp a short piece of scrap to your rip fence (yes, I said rip fence) and then position the rip fence a distance from the blade that is equal to the length of cut desired plus the thickness of the stock block. I use a 1" thick block, to make the arithmetic easy, so in this case I'd set the fence 9" from the blade. Slide the workpiece over until its end touches the stop block, turn on the saw, make the cut.

This technique makes repetitive cuts dead easy ... you literally cannot miss.

Understand, however, that the stop block is a short piece that is attached at the front end of the rip fence (i.e., nearest the handle) and that stops well short of the blade. You NEVER want to be guiding the workpiece with the SMT with the workpiece's end also in contact with the rip fence. You use the stop block to position the end of the workpiece but as soon as you've moved it forward a few inches, that end is free of the stop block. There will be a gap between the end of the wood and the rip fence that is equal to the thickness of your stop block.

If you're shiny-new to table saws and don't have anyone who can show you good, basic, safe techniques, you should consider either taking a class or, at the very least, getting a good book on the subject. A table saw is a wonderful tool but they'll hurt you bad in a fat hurry if you don't know what you're doing (no offense intended).

[vaking]

What Larry suggested is correct.
I have my rails calibrated so I can use the scale on the saw with rip fence for crosscut size. And my stop block is also exactly 1" thick, the only difference - stop block is not a scrap piece but I cut it and shaped exactly I wanted for convinient clamping. You don't need any pencil marks on wood for that method.
Alternative method:
If you do want to use pencil marks on wood - measuring against the blade is not very precise. The teeth are wider than body of the blade, you will get discrepancy. A better way - attach a wooden extension to a miter fence. Trim this extension with the blade. The end of this sacrificial fence will be your indicator where the blade cuts. Without moving the miter fence align your pencil mark with the end of the sacrificial fence. No lifitng guards and more precision.

[kano32]

Vaking, I like your idea of using a sacrificial fence on the smt fence. Cool.

[scorrpio]

A couple of techniques:

1. For repeatable results, when cutting shorter pieces off longer stock, stop block is best. Clamp a piece of wood to rip fence to the front of blade, and set the distance between teeth and the piece of wood to desired length.

2. You have a bunch of assorted shorter pieces and you want to trim them all to the same length. Clamp a piece of wood to the miter fence, and set it the desired distance from the teeth. If desired length is longer than miter fence itself, clamp the block to furthest end from the blade, and move the SMT accordingly. If it is shorter, move the SMT so miter fence end is about 1/8" from the blade, and clamp the stop block in the needed place on the fence.

3. Producing varied results without having to sight them on the blade itself: If I will be cutting pieces off shorter stock, I set miter fence so there is exactly 1/4" from its end to the FAR side of teeth. Now, I mark the pieces 1/4" long, align the mark with end of miter fence, and cut. If I am trimming off small amounts, I set the fence end 1/8" away from near side of blade, mark the piece 1/8" short, align mark on fence end and cut.

4 But the real best way is to make a crosscut sled. Then, you just align the mark with proper side of sled kerf and do the cut.

P.S. ah, yes, forgot the sacrificial fence thing. Trimming it off works if the longer useful piece is on the left and small cutoff waste is on the right. If you are cutting small parts off longer stock, do not trim the sacrificial fence completely - run it into the blade until some kerf shows on its top face. Them just align your marks with the right side of that kerf.

[JonW]

Hey- You folks are great! Thanks so much. That’s just what I wanted to know. The way I’m doing it works. But I figured there must be a more consistent way to go about things. I’ll definitely try the stop block idea. That should allow for very consistent cut lengths. And the other ideas sound like fun to try as well.

How best to clamp the stop block against the rip fence without the clamp getting in the way of the sliding wood (to be cut)? (I’m at work now and can’t look at the saw if there’s an obvious way to do that.)

I may be buying wood just to practice different ways to make cuts.

Yes, I’m very new to woodworking. If there are any books or magazines that you’d recommend, I’m all ears.

[LarryG]

How best to clamp the stop block against the rip fence without the clamp getting in the way of the sliding wood (to be cut)? (I’m at work now and can’t look at the saw if there’s an obvious way to do that.)

My stop block (which, like Vaking's, is not actually a piece of scrap) attaches to the rip fence with a knob threaded into one of Jeff's nuts ... er, I mean, one of Jeff's T-nuts.

But you can also literally use a clamp. Some use a spring clamp, some use a Quick-Grip, some use a small F-body, some use a C-clamp. Whatever works. As long as there's room for a corner of the workpiece to contact a small portion of the stop block's face, that's all you need. (My stop block is maybe 4" long, of which roughly half is given over to the knob.)

[scorrpio]

You don't even need a stop block per se. You can just put a clamp on your rip fence and use the clamp itself as a stop block.

Other ways include: cutting a dado/rabbet or drilling a hole in the stop block to accomodate the clamp jaw. Making the block arch-shaped so it slips over the fence, and attaching some foam to one inner side to prevent slippage. Lots more, whatever tickles your fancy.

[RayintheUK]

My stop block looks like this:



It attaches to the rip fence with two machine screws into two nuts that ride in the T-nut slot on the left-hand side of the fence. It's made of hardwood to an exact dimension, which I add to position the fence, as vaking does. HTH

Ray.

[sacherjj]

I used a straight edge along the blade and made a small mark on the saw table where the saw kerf will hit. I then line up my piece with that. This saves and in and out move for alignment. I like the sacrificial fence idea, although I have a feeling that I will be using the SMT a little less with my new 12" Delta CMS.

[JonW]

Being as I just got the saw, I didn't yet notice that there is a groove for some T-nuts in the rip fence. I'll have to take a closer look tonight.

For those with a stop block of hardwood and/or "specific dimnesions," is this something I can just cut with the saw? Make myself a block of, say, 1" width with clean cuts on both sides (or all 6 sides) and then use that. Sounds easy enough to me.

For the sacrificial fence, sounds good. That might work best when working with smaller pieces. Although I'd think you'll either need to clamp that fence to the miter fence or just hold it there. Correct? So the trick will be finding a way to clamp the sacrificial wood to the miter fence while still having a smooth, flat surface (i.e., no clamp) upon which to press the piece to be cut.

[LarryG]

So the trick will be finding a way to clamp the sacrificial wood to the miter fence while still having a smooth, flat surface (i.e., no clamp) upon which to press the piece to be cut.

Them bright boys at Ryobi got ya covered there, too. They put T-nuts slots in the miter fence face, same as the rip fence.

[JonW]

Them bright boys at Ryobi got ya covered there, too. They put T-nuts slots in the miter fence face, same as the rip fence.

OK, right. So for T-nuts, I gather that is not something I can buy locally, but from this Jeff character?

It does seem like they thought of everything. I don't really have any experience with the saw yet, but I'm already quite impressed with the design. And all for a mere $250. I figure this great saw being so cheap must be the product of some poor third world laborers, though. Otherwise it's an amazing standout product in terms of value. My first few cuts really did go through "like butter." Heck, the manual was so well written (for me, in English). I don't recall the last time I bought something like this and the manual was so easy to follow.

[Tom Miller]

OK, right. So for T-nuts, I gather that is not something I can buy locally, but from this Jeff character?

There are different sized slots; some are easier than others to find easy solutions for. The smaller ones will accept the (slightly filed down) head of a 1/4-20 bolt. I've also used t-track bolts, again with a slightly filed down head. I've also used my grinder on some bar stock to shape to fit, then drilled and tapped for the appropriate bolt.

Needless to say, Jeff wasn't around when I came up with these solutions.

Regards,
Tom