Thread: Cutting full panels the easy way?

Tony

Search for "Vertical Panel Saw" on the net and you will come up with many ideas and designs, but unless you have a lot of scrap materials in both steel and wood lying about, it will certainly cost a bit.

A cheap way out may be to make a frame to leane against the wall. It should be big enough to easily hold a 2400 x 1200 sheet. You could then clamp a straight edge (has to be straight) horizontally and make cuts by resting your circular saw on the straight edge. It would need to be measured at both ends each time.

Otherwise you are looking at machined rods with lineal roller bearings. The rods are going to be at least 25mm diameter to avoid sag and even that may not be enough in a horizontal plane. vertically it would be fine.

some projects use saddle clamps instead of bearings, but I can't see that having sufficient accuracy.

The other problem is you need a wall without too much clutter!

Regards
Paul

Am I missing something here, why not saw horse's at a suitable height.

This bloke has a good looking way.

Cutting & Handling Plywood in a One-Person Shop - YouTube

Originally Posted by China

Am I missing something here, why not saw horse's at a suitable height.

I've been using these for years as I don't like bending over more than I have to and, apart from standard height saw horses when I need to get my knee onto whatever I'm doing, they're much more comfortable. Just a moment...

Turns out I've been doing a primitive and much simpler and transportable version of auscab's video method with the Bunnings Rhino stands and a couple or more of 90x45x2700 /3600 structural pine sticks which with a few clamps holds and cuts just about everything I need on big panels.

Originally Posted by auscab

This bloke has a good looking way.

Maybe.

The dog got my attention.

thanks for the saw horses, didnt think of them.
auscab, Ive seen that dude befor, bit of an odd bod but thats his gimmick to attrack 'likes'

This is my sheet cutting stand; made entirely out of 4x2's

106_0039.jpg 106_0038.jpg 106_0037.jpg 106_0041.jpg

It's nearly twenty years old now and I still haven't needed to dress or flip the support bars after hundreds of crosscuts.

It is 2' tall, which is a little low down for me (I'm 6' tall and that's mostly leg), another couple of inches higher wouldn't hurt. Plus I also use it as an assembly table and occasionally as a scaffold; just throw on a piece of ply thick enough for the purpose. Because the bars are located in notches in the supports they are almost impossible to trip.

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

This is my sheet cutting stand; made entirely out of 4x2's

106_0039.jpg 106_0038.jpg 106_0037.jpg 106_0041.jpg

It's nearly twenty years old now and I still haven't needed to dress or flip the support bars after hundreds of crosscuts.

It is 2' tall, which is a little low down for me (I'm 6' tall and that's mostly leg), another couple of inches higher wouldn't hurt. Plus I also use it as an assembly table and occasionally as a scaffold; just throw on a piece of ply thick enough for the purpose. Because the bars are located in notches in the supports they are almost impossible to trip.

Chief

That is a very practical and versatile setup, which I might borrow the idea one day. To increase the height a little, you could screw some extra timber under the feet: 100 x 75 for example or larger. However, I can see where about 750mm high might be a good working height.

Regards
Paul

The way i see it, its the loading part that is difficult, cutting is easy.

So, when i need to break sheet goods down, I'd set up some saw horses to lay the sheets on, back the ute up slide sheets directly onto saw horses. The saw horses are connected with a couple of lengths of timber to connect the horses to stop them sliding about.

I then have a second station slightly lower than the saw horses which i drag the ply onto, the most amount of force required is to break the stiction between the two sheets. In terms of the second station, i use the kids mud kitchen with a few pieces of scrap ply to prevent damaging the kids kitchen. I've also previously made a cutting station out of construction timber and MDF for storing and cutting all up costed around $200 worth of materials for a big project which required me to break down 17 sheets of ply. Similar concept to above where I'd store the sheets below, slide sheets out onto a roller stand, lift sheet onto cutting surface, use roller to carry most of the weight and slide onto workbench.

If you wanted easier method, get the vendor to cut it up for you.

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

The way i see it, its the loading part that is difficult

These make lifting and carrying large sheets a lot easier. They effectively extend the length of your arm and are perfect for 1.2 m wide sheets. Also handy for lifting large sheets onto the high trestles I use as saw horses for most work and onto the top of the tool boxes at chest height on my ute.
GUARDALL Manual Carrier Sheet Lifter WPL000 | Total Tools

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

If you wanted easier method, get the vendor to cut it up for you.

Yep. At least into a couple of managable pieces.

Originally Posted by jack620

Yep. At least into a couple of managable pieces.

yep.. the dollar or two the charge for having to do a few cuts is worth its weight/time in most cases.


and when the 16 year old cuts it wrong you get first dibs at a very cheap piece of ply

The perfect height... for the cat !!!

Tony, I have used a variant of Rob's video.

For twenty years I used a "temporary" work bench consisting of a flush panel door sitting on a pair of saw horses. Damaged doors only cost $10-15. I do not like using sheet material, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

• Do cross cuts first. A 1.2 or 1.5 m sheet is easier to handle than a 2.4 m one.
• put sheet on door bench, measure thrice, clamp straight edge, set saw to thickness of sheet plus 3 mm and cut,
• don't worry about cutting door; it will take an incredible amount of abuse before you have to turn it over and use the other side (or replace),
• that sheet material pickerupperer is incredibly useful.