Thread: Panel breakdown on short stroke slider

It's more about planning the cutting layout.

I use a piece of software to layout the panels on the sheets. You can optimise for rip or crosscut first. With a short slider, it's obviously easier to crosscut first.

If you have long thin panels to cut, they will obviously be better cut rip first; then cutting any remainders as crosscut.

That's pretty much all there is to it.

Plan your rip cuts first, remove the crosscut fence and lock the table, then rip down the sheets into strips about 5 mm wider than the finished size, to allow for trimming up and squaring. Then put the crosscut fence back on, check it for square, and cut them to length, and size.

Cheers, yep I have 1 cut at 2400 and 4 at 2100. So no matter how you slice it and dice it those are longer than the stroke.

I was wondering if there was some clever way of stopping mid cut and repositioning the slide to control the whole cut but I could think of nothing that would allow this to be done accurately.

So as per advice, I'll remove cross cut fence, lock out the slider and use as a traditional cabinet saw for cuts exceeding the stroke length

Cheers

Have a look at this video. Felder supply a track guide that can be screwed to a long board so the video technique can be used. It is a solid plastic device that comes in one metre lengths from memory, I have some and have never had to use it.

I presume that you want to do the long cut on 2400x1200 sheet material. Your 1600mm stroke should easily handle the cross cuts.

I have had accesss to a 2500 and a 3000mm sliders, but occasionally had to cut 3600x1200 sheets. The technique that I was taught and used is:

1. Leave cross cut fence in position,
2. Position fence just forward of saw blade and the desired width. The fence is used purely as a width stop.
3. Put sheet material on table and check it is snug against both fences. This also double checks alignment of fences.
4. Switch saw on and cut the length of the stroke,
5. Return slider to start position and flip the sheet material 180 degrees,
6. The end of the cut panel will "flap in the breeze",
7. Put 3mm spacer in kerf near end and then clamp across kerf to stabilise panel. I just use a small QuickGrip,
8. Align sheet against both fences,
9. Cut the remaining lenth needed. The saw will not go anywhere near the spacer and clamp.

One of the prime advantages of a slider is that it cuts so accurately that you can cut to actual dimensions and joint on the saw.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

I presume that you want to do the long cut on 2400x1200 sheet material. Your 1600mm stroke should easily handle the cross cuts.

I have had accesss to a 2500 and a 3000mm sliders, but occasionally had to cut 3600x1200 sheets. The technique that I was taught and used is:

1. Leave cross cut fence in position,
2. Position fence just forward of saw blade and the desired width. The fence is used purely as a width stop.
3. Put sheet material on table and check it is snug against both fences. This also double checks alignment of fences.
4. Switch saw on and cut the length of the stroke,
5. Return slider to start position and flip the sheet material 180 degrees,
6. The end of the cut panel will "flap in the breeze",
7. Put 3mm spacer in kerf near end and then clamp across kerf to stabilise panel. I just use a small QuickGrip,
8. Align sheet against both fences,
9. Cut the remaining lenth needed. The saw will not go anywhere near the spacer and clamp.

One of the prime advantages of a slider is that it cuts so accurately that you can cut to actual dimensions and joint on the saw.

Well I was trying today and struggling to keep the panel against the fence, this sounds like a brilliant method. I'll give this a try tomorrow

Thanks Graeme, this is certainly the best method so far. My shop is not really big enough or organised enough yet to be swinging panels around easily but for the few times I do it, this certainly works best for accuracy

Originally Posted by vovo

Thanks Graeme, this is certainly the best method so far. My shop is not really big enough or organised enough yet to be swinging panels around easily but for the few times I do it, this certainly works best for accuracy

Great, vovo; I omitted to say that rotating the panels was really a two person job.