And you can buy a strait edge with a built in clamp for convenience. Just press the lever at one end to clamp - no need for 2 C clamps.
That's not the one I use so I can't be specific about it, but what I have is the same idea and always works well for me.
When using it, use a framing square or measure at both ends to make sure it is square to the board.
Ed
If I'm not mistaken, Thompson rod is precision ground and hardened. McMaster sells Thompson rod or equivalent.
RogerN
Wow! I'm learning about tools I didn't know existed. Nice concept. I was going to clamp a piece of angle iron, but this is much nicer and less damaging to the work. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
[snip]
Naaaah! I bought the basic jawhorse. Once I got it home I discovered I should have bought the other accessories as well. This is one very sturdy tool. For now, I have to manipulate only 16" wide... I had the panel pre-sliced.
But I'm likely to buy another jawhorse AND the plywood jaw. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
Yep. Thompson rod is hardened ;-) ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
I always wondered how susceptible those were to false triggering. The kind that stop the blade by pushing a block into the rotating blade (and basically destroy the blade) could get pretty expensive.
This might be a good idea for the occasional (hobby) user. But look at Norm Abram with his "use your tool's safety features" and then look for those blade guards when he's actually doing work with his saw. On the other hand, there was that idiot on American Chopper that was wearing welding gloves while operating a drill press. And a glove got caught in the spinning chuck. So the term 'professional' doesn't guarantee anything.
-- Paul Hovnanian paul@hovnanian.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Have gnu, will travel.
I've been thinking about getting one of those too but always end up putting it off for one reason or another.
They come in 12 to 100 inch lengths but not all are 'the same'. As far as I know the cheapest is from Harbor freight but it doesn't seem to have any attachments. And yes, 'surprise', there are attachments for some of them; the ones with T slots, like those from Emerson. You can, for example, get router and circular saw bases that then hook into the slot so the tool is firmly guided along the track, rather than manually pressing against the rail to hold it in line. That may seem trivial but the bars will flex some, especially in the longer lengths, if you press hard enough against the rail (seems to be a bigger problem with routers).
Flexing brings up the width of the thing and, as one might suspect, the wider guides flex less than the, usually cheaper, narrow ones.
As a side note, Emerson has two main lines in the 'all-in-one' clamps with the "contractor" series being the 'new' line. The older line has more attachments currently available but if buying new I'd go for the contractor series because it should get the 'new' accessories and is lower profile.
Another 'tip' is to get the 'wide jaw' accessory. Besides a better grip one 'trick' is to attach some wood strips to the jaws and then rip them with the saw making an offset guide (same technique as used when making your own rip guide from wood stock).
Look about half way down on the right...
You then just align your now cut strips to the cut line on your work piece, clamp, and go since that *is* where 'the cut' will be.
There are, of course, others that make 'em but Emerson and Woodriver (when on sale like now) seemed to me the mot economical 'full featured' lines. I did run into some bad reviews for Woodriver but you never know if that's just the occasional, but atypical, problem of some sort. Like, there were multiple complaints the rule tape falls out. Woodriver also doesn't seem to make 'em long enough for 8 foot (plywood lengthwise) cuts. Since you were surprised to see those clamps but are embarking on a wood project it might be worthwhile to visit some woodworking tool sites to see what's available because there's a tool or jig made for just about anything you could image, plus a few million you can't ;)
Want to do those cute hidden angled pocket screw shelf attachments? Well, there are drill jigs for that, etc. Like this one
I don't know if you care it's just an example.
There are also almost as many clamps types and sizes and there are transistors.
Need to hold square corners?
Some butt (or other) edge joining?
Dowel it?
Going to be making cabinet doors, or anything else of similar size, you need to keep square?
You can also buy just the framing blocks to use with your own bar clamps.
(none of the above are necessarily 'best', just examples)
I just ordered the Emerson 50" model. It'll be here tomorrow. So the weekend will be devoted to shelving for SWMBO ;-)
I got just the base piece for now, but yep, I drooled over all the goodies available... particularly would take the trickiness out of some routing projects.
I'm just doing some straight-across cuts for now, but "wide jaw" was definitely noted.
Nice! I do have to do some repairs where I have cabinet damage when the autistic grandson into sever "stemming" :-(
You and Ed and Clifford are just full of good suggestions!
Some of these certainly entice me into woodworking projects I would previously hire done :-)
I've done a severe clean-up and disposed of much "collector" junk from the garage, so I have some space for tools AND adding some cabinetry. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
Hm. My Dad taught me not to cut off my own fingers on the table saw.
Cheers! Rich
Jim Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
you can also safely cut plywood sheets on top of that rigid pink insulation board that's 2 in. thick. Just set your circular saw just deep enough to cut thru the wood,and the sacrificial foam board keeps your blade from hitting anything else. Use angle iron or aluminum and clamps for guides.
-- Jim Yanik jyanik at localnet dot com
That's the one, contractor model, I've been looking at. Almost hit the 'buy' button yesterday but then it occurred to me my brother in law might have one.
Well, straight cuts is what the wood strip 'trick' is for. Just depends on how many you're doing and how good you are at math and measuring the blade offset.
Seems kinda pricey for a couple of plastic blocks but everyone else's were just as expensive.
In my case it's idiot 'professionals' who seem to have screwed up just about everything in this house from the dishwasher drain (which I redid) to reverse connecting the washing machine water lines hot to cold. I mean, for god's sake, how do you get *that* wrong?
You should have seen me gluing the amplifier cabinet with no tools. It's dern near a miracle it went together.
Tools make all the difference.
I need to throw the junk away too. Another 'project' in the list.
That's a good suggestion, though Lowe's will do a couple of cuts on their panel saw for free.
So I have 16" pieces to cut to shelf length, so I'm in good shape. ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
[snip]
My favorite situation was at the old house (when it was new), builder comes by as we're moving in and asks if he can show his banker around.
Sure.
He goes into dining room, throws the switch and the chandelier blew all to hell ;-)
Someone crisscrossed lamp cord grounds and hots without testing... makes for a helluva flashbulb ;-) ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
Table saws are dangerous enough, but what you showed is a disaster in waiting.
This thread is all busted up and I don't have the above articles, so I'm piggybacking on Rich's.
There are videos on the net of the inventor sticking his finger into the blade. I thought I linked one before.
They say not to cut very wet treated wood on it. False triggering doesn't seem to be an issue, though. The issue I have is that the inventor/owner is a real scumbucket. ...not to mention the SawStop was more than twice the price of my Unisaw ($3500 vs. $1600).
Anyone who thinks this is a fool, about to lose several fingers.
Oh man, don't get me started on electrical wiring. In my previous house the 2 prong plugs were randomly wired to hot and neutral. I guess it never dawned on them the wires were black and white for a bloomin' reason. (I went through the entire house rewiring it)
Back when still a high school student I part time worked for a fellah doing free lance stuff and designed a little 'mini' theater lighting system on contract for a (different) high school. Plugged it in to the newly 'professionally installed' 220 outlet, flipped the switch, and heard a clap of thunder echo down the hall as that whole wing went dark.
Needless to say, being 'young whipper snapper', I damn near wet my pants (WHAT have I DONE?) but it turned out the 'licensed professional electrician' had miss wired the 'professionally installed' 220 outlet and the clap of thunder was the main breaker slamming hells' bells open from a dead short.
We had to wait for the 'licensed professional electrician' to come out and rewire the 'professionally installed' outlet because school policy was that only a 'licensed professional' could do such things (I have come to view this as a double entendre)
First 'real job' I had the company decided to install a time clock at the main entry to the assembly area by, for a first test, simply cracking open the conduit and tapping into the AC feed for the hall lights. There were those who argued a 'test' before buttoning it all up was unnecessary, though, since "What could go wrong with two wires?"
I came in to find a half dozen engineers standing around scratching their heads wondering why not only did the time clock not run but now the lights were dead as well. I believe the chant they were repeating in unison was "It's JUST TWO WIRES!
Turned out the 'licensed professional electrician' who originally wired the place had thought it a grand idea to use the white-black pair for dual hots and the conduit itself for neutral return.
Went to install a new 'electronic' thermostat on the upstairs unit and... well, you'd think I'd know better by now, wouldn't you? But, damnit, they used the correct control cable with the correct color code. I just didn't realize they had wired the AC with the heater wires, and vice versa, till it started getting bloomin' hot up there with the 'AC' on.
So I am not the least bit surprised your chandelier blew up. Got the opposite phase for neutral, no doubt, putting 240 on it. Hey, so what they're both black? Or maybe they weren't. Who knows?
Hang the color code, and hang the rules. They're more like 'guidelines' anyway (with apologies to Pirates of the Caribbean).
I added a patio outlet by going straight thru the exterior wall from a breakfast nook outlet. Checking for proper GCFI operation I discovered reverse white/black.
Checked the rest of the house, found two more :-(
Sno-o-o-o-ort!
I've mentioned this before... at MIT, as a student and technician in Prof Woodson and Melcher's MHD lab (Building 20), I had put in a request for a 400VDC line for our MHD magnets.
Many weeks went by with no electrician showing up. So I went to "stores", requisitioned some 4/0 and wired it myself.
Several more weeks go by and the electrician shows. I tell him I went ahead and did it myself... couldn't wait for his dilly-dally.
I get a call from the Director of RLE (Research Lab for Electronics) to come to his office.
I show up, to be greeted by what's-his-face and a union steward.
They start hacking into me. I stop them up short...
"I'm a student and I don't give a f*ck what you think... you can't do shit to me, GFY!" And walked out.
Never heard another word ;-) ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
Remember: Once you go over the hill, you pick up speed
What? I'm a fool for not shoving my fingers into the blade?
Weird. What do you do? Have somebody else do it for you?
Thanks, Rich
So, whose do you cut off?
-- Paul Hovnanian paul@hovnanian.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Have gnu, will travel.
If you don't know any better, yes, you are a fool.
You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
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